Our Platform
Salix Apicis is a community platform built by Chinese students studying abroad. Since its founding in 2021, it has connected international students, student organizations, school resources, and broader social issues through WeChat communities, media platforms, offline events, and student-led projects.
Social Community
The foundation of Salix Apicis is its WeChat community network. We have established three main group chats with over 1,200 members in total, as well as more than 20 interest-based subgroups covering visual arts, music, history, and other fields. Each subgroup has an average of over 60 members.
Around March 10 each year, when many American high school admissions results are released, Salix Apicis organizes sharing sessions on admissions, school selection, and preparation for boarding school life. We also update the “310 American High School Guide” section on our website to help new students understand school life and campus culture. During this period, we open new 500-member WeChat groups to help students meet peers, learn about schools, and receive guidance from older members.
In daily community life, members share updates, exchange ideas, ask questions, and find like-minded peers. Salix Apicis maintains a healthy and respectful environment through WeChat group guidelines, while also organizing online celebrations during major Chinese and American holidays. During school breaks, we host offline meetups, dinners, escape rooms, and other events that turn online relationships into real-life connections.
Personal Growth
Salix Apicis helps members find genuine peer connections and long-term motivation for growth. Through main groups, subgroups, themed sharing sessions, and offline events, members meet peers with similar backgrounds, shared interests, or different perspectives.
We value peer-to-peer experience sharing. Members hear from upperclassmen and accomplished peers on school selection, academics, creative work, career exploration, and life abroad. Xiaohongshu creators with millions of followers and student musicians with widely recognized new releases have also brought new ideas and inspiration to the community.
Salix Apicis encourages members to share essays, artworks, research projects, campus observations, and personal stories through our WeChat Official Account, Xiaohongshu, and website. With support from Dr. Ying Xiaolu at MIT, we have also organized initiatives such as the Salix Apicis Anonymous Tree Hole to help members process academic, social, and personal pressure.
Project Incubation
Project incubation within Salix Apicis is carried by PICIS, the Project Incubator for Chinese International Students. PICIS is a platform for project showcases, talent matching, project archives, and co-creation, helping Chinese students abroad turn interests, ideas, and student-led initiatives into real, visible, and sustainable outcomes.
Built on Salix Apicis’s community network, cross-school student organization connections, and media channels, PICIS supports project listing, teammate recruitment, survey validation, progress archiving, and project succession. Salix Apicis provides the community foundation and early distribution, while PICIS serves as its incubator and project marketplace layer, helping members move from “having an idea” to “finding people, building it, being seen, and carrying it forward.”
Public Storytelling
As a large international student community, Salix Apicis presents a more authentic and diverse image of Chinese students studying abroad. Through articles, interviews, school guides, event documentation, and student stories, we record the lived experiences of Chinese students overseas and provide specific, reliable references for students and families considering studying in the United States or abroad.
External Collaboration
Salix Apicis maintains long-term collaboration with Chinese Societies, Asian Student Alliances, and other student organizations across high schools. We integrate cross-school resources and promote communication among Chinese students from different school communities. Moving forward, we hope to work with more student organizations, educational institutions, nonprofit projects, cultural groups, and youth platforms to support campus cultural exchange, student projects, and youth community building.