Beachwood High School Graduate Helps Elderly in Simple Way

When one  senior was asked to help one elderly man with her trash, she decided to do more — turning the request into a program that provided the service to 20 of Beachwood’s elderly.

It started as a simple request: an elderly member of the community asked Beachwood High School Principal Bob Hardis about getting students to help him with his trash. The cans were getting too heavy to carry from the garage to the curb by himself.

Hardis passed the request along to Carole Katz, the co-advisor of the National Honor Society at the school, asking for a volunteer to help the man with his trash. Yuxi Zheng, a senior and the president of the National Honor Society, responded.

The man said that he there had been a miscommunication: he didn’t need help immediately. He had wanted to know if there was a program so that his wife would have help after he’s gone.

There was not. But there is a program now.

Yuxi has an inclination to helping people, she said. She’s always been interested in science, and looked into research and engineering. But when she shadowed doctors during high school, she found her calling.

“The one thing that medicine had that the other fields didn’t have was personal connections. The patient’s smile was enough to make me feel like I helped them at least somewhat,” said Yuxi.

Yuxi worked on a chronic pain rehabilitation study and made a presentation that was taken to a national medical conference during an internship last summer.

Katz added that she had Yuxi in an upper-level calculus class last school year. “As a student she’s the same way she is with anything,” said Katz. “She’s a wonderful person in class. You want a person like that in the class because she’s so positive about everything. She can work with anyone in the class.”

After talking it over with Hardis, Yuxi decided to enlist fellow members of the National Honor Society. About 20 students “adopted” a home and committed to taking out the trash every week.

They were able to help every person who asked, said Yuxi. And she got the same feeling that medicine gives her. “It was very nice to see when I would walk up the driveway and sometime I would see the resident at the door waiting for me. It was nice to know I helped her that day.”

“I’ve got to tell you, the future citizens of Beachwood — they’re pretty cool,” said Katz. She added, “And it wasn’t just one or two of them — it was 20 of them. Of course, I don’t think it would have happened if Yuxi hadn’t taken it and run with it.”

Yuxi was one of 150 out of 6,000 applicants who received an National Honor Society Scholarship. It’s rare for advisors at Beachwood High School to even nominate students because it’s so exclusive, said Katz.

Yuxi will attend Case Western Reserve University this fall and double major in biochemistry and psychology.