Xueer Zhang is an Echols Scholar pursuing majors in Studio Art and Art History. Born and brought up in Beijing, China, she began to experiment with Chinese ink painting at age 4. Mostly self-taught at first, she realized that she wanted to explore more in art as she traveled around the world and appreciated artworks. She won the first prize in the Chinese youth painting competition and several gold keys in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards during high school. She is also attracted to East Asian arts through her internship at the Palace Museum in Beijing. After entering UVA, she explored theoretical and empirical visual studies with different media, which inspired her to believe that creative arts could be transdisciplinary. She wishes to combine her cultural background and artistic techniques to interact with the world through constant observation, perception, and interactive design that could possibly change it. As an international student, she also developed a strong interest in different cultures and languages. Besides Chinese and English, she also learned Spanish and Korean. She is honored to be a Miller Arts Scholar and looks forward to diversifying her repertoire of skills for a more eclectic approach to art as well as to become deeply engaged with the art community.