Note the snow in the background...

Throughout my academic career, I’ve always tried to venture out and try new things or get involved with things I’m passionate about.  Here are just some as an example.

Time Auction:

A Time Auction is quite simply an auction of high quality goods except instead of bidding with money, you bid with volunteering hours.  In third year, as the head of the Queen’s Millennium Chapter, I founded and ran the first ever Kingston Time Auction and raised 705 volunteering hours.  In 2009, when we ran the Vancouver Time Auction, we were able to raise a phenomenal 6,350 volunteering hours.

Macchiato String Quartet:

This string quartet was formed at Queen’s University when my friend Frank Wang and I decided we should stop letting our violins and violas collect dust.  We found a cellist and another violinist and voila!  The name derived from our first gig, which was outside of a local Starbucks, helping them with a campaign to raise money towards AIDS education.  They gave us complimentary (you guessed it) Macchiato coffee.

Queen’s Finance Association:

Stock simulation trading floor.

I was on the inaugural QFA team in 2007, which organized the (obviously) inaugural QFA Conference at the Royal York in Toronto.  My role was the IT Coordinator and I maintained the website, e-mails, and also the entire simulated stock exchange at the conference itself.  It was no easy task to keep tabs on 20 laptops all connecting to a central system while answering questions from the 20 volunteers on what to do.  In the end, QFAC was highly successful and many delegates indicated they would definitely return.

Cancer Triad:

Cancer Triad is a small Queen’s club that helps people who are affected by cancer.  The term “affected” doesn’t just mean people who have cancer – often times, it refers to people who have family or friends that have cancer, such as was the case for me (my best friend Andrew Chen died from olfactory neuroblastoma).  My role as a volunteer and eventually a co-chair, was really just to make those people feel comfortable talking about their situation and to offer support or just an open and caring ear.  This role really got me to be a listener and to really connect with and have empathy for others on an emotional level.

Mathbridge:

Mathbridge is a fun club that teaches math in interesting ways to local students in grade 2 or, in my case, grade 5.  We would get about 2 hours every month or so to go in and engage the kids in games, activities, or puzzles to stimulate their interest in math.  I’ve learned that kids are very eager, and will put their hands up for anything.  I think fostering and sustaining that passion into their adolescent years would be something that is very good, though unfortunately rare, to see.

Walkhome:

Walkhome is a Queen’s AMS (Alma Mater Society) service that people can call if they want accompaniment when walking home late at night.  When called, Walkhome sends out two plain-clothed walkers (one guy and one girl) with a radio and we simply walk that patron home!  We are trained to converse with the patron and make them feel safe and comfortable on the walk to wherever they may be working.  Often, these shifts go until 3am (and even to 6am during exam periods) so I really learned to be attentive even though your mind may want to drift in an out of consciousness!

Chat:

The concept of Chat is simple – people get free pins identifying what language(s) they speak, and they proudly display them.  Then, if you see someone wearing a pin of a language you speak or want to learn to speak, you go and chat with him or her!  I was on the executive team for a couple of years and had a great time promoting a multi-linguist campus environment.