Money Peng ’26 is a humorous senior from Shenzhen, China. In the four years since he stepped onto the Concord Academy campus, he has grown from a deadline-racing freshman to an upperclassman who sums himself up this way: “Done well but needs just a little extra heat to be fried.”
In his freshman year, time management was his greatest challenge. He wasn’t good at planning, as he would always finish his homework and review for tests at the last minute. A line he hears daily comes from his advisor, Kim Kopelman, who says, “Find the balance in your life.” He improved by following a simple daily plan: thinking through a schedule in his head and deciding exactly what needs to be done each day. Summarizing what he learned these four years, Peng advised students with something equally practical, “Senior fall never gets easy. Start early — before the College Counseling Office (CCO) timeline. As a sophomore, research schools, make a table/list, and get organized.”
Additionally, Peng’s most memorable CA “scene” is comic and recurring: forgetting his water bottle — the thing that keeps him hydrated all day — so often that the repeated act itself became something both unique and horrendous. He joked, “It’s become this ridiculous, memorable habit.”
Peng found and developed various interests besides schoolwork throughout his years. His love for architecture started with magnets in fourth grade, when a classmate introduced him to “Magnet Soccer”: two magnets on top of a desk and two underneath, controlling them. They used a folded paper ball and their hands as goals. That playful moment led Peng to experiment with materials and eventually to magnet sculpture, art he strives to construct, built from small units of magnet cubes. CA’s engineering classes and Makerspace helped him push those ideas further and connect them to his growing interest in architecture.
“At CA, I put myself in the washer—spin, rinse, [and] learn. Senior year, I finally threw myself in the dryer—turn up the heat, tighten up, and finish strong.” Cross Country is a warm place where Peng stayed all four years. He enjoys the team, and more specifically, the friends he made, the teachers he met, and the miles of memories they shared.
Beyond athletics, what makes Peng stand out is his unique and entertaining personality. He defines himself as a proud member of CA who is a steady, rule-abiding community member who shows up for others. People around him are all affected by his positive attitude and unusual maturity. Graduating from CA, he is looking to pursue architecture — to become prominent in the field, spread creativity, and push material limits to achieve what hasn’t been done yet — a distant goal, but one that keeps him motivated.