Johnson Chen is a current sophomore at Penn High School. Throughout Chen’s life, he has shined every school year with his strong academic skills, having the current 2nd highest GPA out of all sophomores at Penn High School. After mastering his academics, Chen wanted a new challenge, which joining a sports team at Penn was perfect for. Chen wanted to be more involved with the school other than just joining academic clubs and volunteering clubs such as Key Club and DECA. Chen wanted something physical.
At the start of the year, a Penn’s Boys Volleyball team was introduced as a club, but not an official sport. Chen saw this as an opportunity to try out a sport, but wanted to go into it slowly. The clubs introduction was perfect for Chen to try out. He originally joined due to his friend, Joshua Kim, joining.
Later in the year, the Penn Boys Volleyball team was introduced as an official sport at Penn. Chen saw this as an even bigger opportunity because after joining the club, he’d learned to enjoy and love the sport, even making new friends.
Chen shows dedication and persistence to continue to improve and shine even outside of academics with his new love for the new sport. He continues to balance academics and sports, getting him more engaged. Chen goes to every practice after school and even practices his skills outside of school by playing volleyball at his local church two times every week.
Chen says, “Mistakes are a part of life. But volleyball teaches to move forward, learn from those mistakes, and to go push for success in the end.”
Joshua Kim, Chen’s teammate, says “Although Johnson originally joined because I did, I see his dedication towards the sport and he has great things coming towards him.”
