Quarto Staff Profile: Alena Zhang

 

Illustration by Sophie Levy

 

Year: Class of 2021 ... ready to be destroyed

Major/College: History & Sustainable Development

Where are you from?

Syracuse, NY 

What do you love about Quarto?

Snapping, mmHMMMmm, “but the way I read it…”, picnics, well-selected snack assortments, sex poems, “this piece is about climate change”, and the roses & thorns that are shared before each meeting. But mostly, the incredible, talented, and deeply empathetic people who inspire me every day (cliche! sorry! don’t sue if it’s true!).

What inspires you to do the work we do?

The way I feel entering Kent 511, drenched wet and stressed, before the Quarto meeting, and after. The privilege of being able to give so much care, time, and interpretation to the art of students at Barnumbia. The lack of fictive endeavors in my actual fields of study. Also, Dorla McIntosh <3

Do you have any pets?

Just my friend Sharon.

Where can we find you in your free time (a lazy Monday afternoon, a cozy Sunday morning)?

The lovely sunny bathroom outside of the music library.

What else are you involved in/what are your other interests?

Since quarantine started: Fish tycoon, throwing sticks into the gulley, journaling about what I’m going to do tomorrow because I didn’t do anything today, asking friends for their favorite class syllabi, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, daydreaming about communes, wondering when the rain will stop.

Favorite author/artist/work?

(What a rude question!) Some works that are up there: Jorge Luis Borges’ Labyrinths, Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles, that one Avatar: The Last Airbender fancomic where Mai yells at Zuko the defining line of my life: “YOU CHARD MONSTER!”, & recently, Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings. 

What else should we know about you?

I thought I was the biggest teacher’s pet I knew until I came to Columbia.