Giving

Middle School Excellence and a Pianist Extraordinaire

Prep’s middle school program is designed to encourage students to explore their interests, lay a solid foundation for high school and beyond, and form lasting friendships, and that’s exactly what eighth-grader William Leng ’28 is doing.

William started at Prep in sixth grade, following in the footsteps of his sister, Hannah ’26, now a sophomore. 

Among the things he enjoys at Prep are seeing his friends each day and connecting with teachers. “It’s easy to get help from teachers and advisors whenever you need,” he explains.

William hopes to be an engineer, and one of his classes has solidified that interest. “I am currently taking the DesignLab elective. I really enjoy doing the hands-on part during this class,” he says. “High school will offer more classes like this one.”

He’s also enjoying his history class with Pat Logan. “I like his teaching philosophy and class atmosphere,” William says.

William is a world-class pianist who has been playing since age 6. He performed at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2019 and has won several state, national, and international prizes over the years. In 2022, placed first at the State Honors Competition, sponsored by the Professional Music Teachers of New Mexico. 

He also snagged first place in the Keyboard Competition, Advanced Junior Category, at the New Year 2022-2023 Red Maple Music Competition in Canada.

Last summer, William participated in the Carmel Klavier International Piano Competition for young artists in Carmel, Indiana. He took third place in the contemporary composers Intermediate B1 category and second place in the intermediate category for a duet with his sister, Hannah.

He also does club swim on the Albuquerque Dolphins Swim Team and represented New Mexico at the 2023 Western Zone Age Group Championships.

This Unicorn has participated in SummerPrep for many years. “I liked the Marvelous Machines class,” he shares. “In that class, I made machines that could move; pretty cool.” He also made many new friends during SummerPrep.

In his downtime, William skis, fishes, and spends time with his sister and parents, both first-generation immigrants from China. “I enjoyed the Durango ski trip organized by our Outdoor Leadership Program (OLP),” he says.

William has four fish tanks at home, ranging from five to 80 gallons. They’re filled with a big pleco, a couple of cichlids, some tetras, gouramis, and angelfish. He also has a guinea pig named Snuggle, who’s almost eight years old.

William says he’s looking forward to transitioning to upper school next year and continuing to pin down his career choice. Five years from now, he hopes he’ll “be mature enough to decide what to study at college.”