Last March, Hollie Wright found out she was the only student in the state to win a full ride scholarship to study abroad in China. She will spend her junior year learning more about the language and culture in that country.

“I was completely shocked. I had doubted getting this scholarship to begin with, so getting it made me cry with tears of joy. Without it, I couldn’t have gone,” Wright said.

Wright has been in the Mandarin Chinese program at Etowah since her freshman year. When she was at E.T. Booth, she did not want to take a typical foreign language course. She wanted to learn about a language she was interested in instead of taking the same class as everyone else.

“Chinese stood out to me because it’s such a different way of writing and speaking that I just had to try it. And then after that, I just fell in love with it,” Wright said.

Wright leaves for Boston on Aug. 27 where she will meet up with the other scholarship winners, and they will fly together halfway across the world. She will be staying in Beijing with a host family. In December, her mother and sister, a senior at Etowah, will visit Hollie in China during winter break.

“I’ll miss her so much, but I know this is what she wants to do. I can’t believe she won’t be back until after I graduate,” Tabitha Wright, Hollie’s sister, said.

Wright and the other 37 American students will be travelling to different cities for up to two weeks throughout their year abroad. The overall goal of the program is for the students to learn more about China and its culture.

“My biggest hope is to become fluent by the end of the year. I hope to make connections that will last forever with the other students and my host family,” Wright said.

While Wright has visited China once before for a two-week school trip, this will be her longest experience away from home. No doubt she will return home in June with priceless memories.