Xuanhao
Guo

China (North)

Xuanhao (Gerhard) Guo is a 17 year old currently based in Shanghai, China, and is a youth advocate for health and well-being. 

Growing up, he struggled with his own identity. As a Chinese who grew up in Germany, a question always troubled him when he started to grow up: where was he from? It was weird for him as his friends, his teachers and everyone else he saw were westerners; however, his skin color was physically different from them due to his heritage. Later, he started caring about mental health after he read “the man who mistook his wife for a hat”.

At secondary school he has won bronze in intermediate biology Olympiad, British biology Olympiad, third prize in Brain Bee regional contest. Through his interest in mental health, he started a school club (Sleep Well Club) related to advocating good sleep. He is also interested in other topics such as disability rights, gender equality, disinformation, and freedom of the press.

At university, he intends to focus on abnormal, cognitive, and developmental psychology in an intellectually stimulating manner. He hopes to investigate whether psychoanalysis is a decent method for therapy. He also aims to increase mental health by promoting sports. In the long run, he hopes to work and lead research in the Chinese academia for mental health.