James Li

What song or songs will always remind you of your time at Wake Forest? Why?

Here’s to Wake Forest! Nothing replaces being in the student section and watching football on a warm summer day.

What was your favorite class outside your major or minor areas of study and why did it appeal to you?

The Global Village seminar, which was a class that focused on our role as global citizens and was taught by a new professor each semester. I took it twice as a sophomore, and each time was a unique and enjoyable experience.

In the fall I had Professor Brian Calhoun from the Education and Counseling departments. He worked with the WakerSpace to teach us about the global culture of helping, and we would often make crafts and creations related to this theme at WakerSpace. At the end of the semester, students had to make a project that helps someone on campus, and I created a Chinese-style tea tray for the World Tea Association.

In the spring, I had Professor Paul B. Jones from the Chemistry department, and his iteration of the course focused on international collaborations in the sciences. We learned about holes in the ozone layer and the international efforts that banned the CFCs that were causing them. There were other activities with an emphasis on the universality of the human experience, including observing the position of the sun across the world during spring break, and a project where I presented the Human Genome Project as another instance of a major international effort to advance the sciences.

Overall, these two iterations of the same course offered a low-stakes environment that let me ponder my own place in the world as a global citizen and scientist in a way a traditional lecture may not have been able to.

What surprised you most about your Wake Forest experience?

I learned much more about Winston-Salem going to school here than more than a decade of living in Forsyth County could have. Exploring this city with friends from far off opened my eyes to new restaurants and spots that I didn’t know about or think of before, and now I have a greater appreciation for the city I grew up around.

Imagine you return to campus for your 10-year reunion. What do you hope will remain the same? What do you hope will be different?

I hope that the campus still has the same beautiful appearance it has today. I am always surprised when speaking to people from across the nation, and not only have they heard of Wake Forest, but it is specifically because they were impressed with its appearance.

One thing I wish will change is improved connectivity between the Reynolda Campus and the rest of town, as well as more businesses and restaurants or bars in the area. I always lamented how we don’t have anything quite like Chapel Hill’s Franklin Street or Durham’s Ninth Street in the area around campus, so I am quite keen to see how things will go with the new development at The Grounds.

Compare your career plans as a first-year student with your career plans now. Why did your plans change or not change?

When entering school as a first-year, I had initially been undecided between studying computer science and going into software engineering or pursuing a career in medicine. Wake Forest’s emphasis on a diverse and broad education has shown me that my interests in programming and computer science can go hand in hand with my interests in medicine and biomedical research. I am now happy to be going to medical school as someone with a background in the computing world, which will uniquely prepare me for healthcare in the age of AI.