Inaugural Ontario Jiu Ding Scholarship Award Charity Gala Presents $6,000 Scholarships Each to Seven Chinese University Students

(2023 Nov 27)

November 25, 2023 marked the Inaugural Ontario Jiu Ding Scholarship Award & Charity Gala, presenting $6,000 scholarship awards each to seven outstanding university students with the potential to become the next generation of Chinese-Canadian Leaders. The event took place at the St. Regis Hotel in Toronto and convened 120 guests.

The scholarship winners are undergraduate students of Chinese heritage enrolled in Ontario universities who demonstrate academic excellence in their chosen fields of study, a commitment to giving back and enriching their communities and greater society, and a track record of pursuing and undertaking leadership roles. Applicants to the Jiu Ding program must identify as having at least ¼ Chinese heritage, and be enrolled in an undergraduate program at any Ontario university.

The purpose of the gala is to offer Jiu Ding Scholarship winners with a platform to be recognized by their community, and to give the local Ontario Chinese and business community members the opportunity to support the sustainability of this meaningful initiative. “Together, we aim to foster a united Chinese community that celebrates and uplifts the accomplishments of its youth, who are the architects of our future leadership” according to Mr. Danny Huang, the President of Jiuding Scholarship Foundation.

The 2023 Ontario Recipients of the Jiu Ding Scholarships are:

Nicole Cao, University of Waterloo, Architecture

Chloe Chau, University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce, Management Specialist

Annie Chen, Western University, Ivy School of Business

Marjorie He, University of Toronto, Finance and Economics

Allen Lu, University of Waterloo, Knowledge Integration

Barton Lu, University of Waterloo, Software Engineering

Linda Wu, McMaster University, Health Sciences

The Jiu Ding Foundation is grateful for the generous support of the following event sponsors: Title Sponsor Desjardins, and Gold Sponsors: CIBC, KVB Global, Meritus Education Inc., OTT Financial Inc., Scotia Wealth Management, Toronto Mandarin School, and T&T Supermarket. “We are appreciative to all the sponsors and friends who joined us on this meaningful platform for our community. We all are only as good as what we give!” Commented by Mr. Henry Liu, the Vice President of the Foundation.

Established as a registered Canadian charity in 2011, The Jiu Ding Scholarship Foundation (九鼎奖学金基金) was founded by Montreal-based entrepreneurs and professionals of Chinese origin with the mission of mobilizing the Chinese-Canadian community to empower young Chinese-Canadian leaders for the future. Since its inception, the Foundation has held annual Charity Gala in Montreal to present the scholarships to students enrolled in Quebec universities.

The scholarship program’s success in Quebec led the Foundation to expand the program to Ontario in 2021 and awarded three Ontario scholarships after a rigorous evaluation process by an Ontario Independent Nomination Committee.

The success of the pilot program led to the full implementation of Jiu Ding Scholarships in Ontario in 2023 and seven Ontario students were each awarded $6,000. This year’s Inaugural Ontario Charity Gala marks the Jiu Ding Scholarship Foundation’s formal entry into the province in Ontario. The Foundation looks forward to growing a supportive community of partners to advance the mission of the Jiu Ding Scholarships for the years to come!

Meet Our 2023 Ontario Scholarship Recipients!

Nicole Cao – University of Waterloo

Nicole Cao was born and raised in Belleville, Ontario. She first noticed the intertwined relationship between culture, language, and the built environment during a high school exchange year to Germany. The experience inspired her decision to pursue an architecture degree at the University of Waterloo. Since enrolling in design school, Nicole has worked at architecture offices in Toronto, Vancouver, New York, and Stuttgart and was also involved in environmental psychology and amphibious architecture research at the university. While her Chinese heritage and associated cultural tensions remain central themes in her work, she has expanded her practice to include digital illustration, comics, animation, prose and poetry. Her design, art, and writing projects have won various awards and her work has been exhibited at the Riverside Gallery in Cambridge. Her design for an affordable housing complex was recently published as the winner of the Azure Magazine student award. Having benefited greatly from her own design school experience, Nicole is involved in initiatives seeking to make design education more accessible for all. As a member of the Racial Equity and Environmental Justice committee at the Waterloo School of Architecture, she helps organize programming, exhibitions, and administrative changes that foreground marginalized perspectives within the design community. After completing her bachelor’s in 2024, Nicole wants to pursue a Master of Architecture to continue building her research experience while expanding the scale and thematic exploration of her art and writing work.

Chloe Chau – University of Toronto

Chloe is entering her third year at the University of Toronto in the Rotman Commerce program, pursuing a Management Specialist with Focuses in Marketing and Strategy & Innovation, as well as a Minor in Economics. Her professional interests emerged from her involvement in the Rotman Commerce Competition Team, where she represents U of T at the international level to solve complex business cases, and Rotman Commerce Consulting Association, where she started doing pro-bono consulting as an intern and now leads the club’s initiatives as Director of Events. She previously completed a year-long product management internship at Scotiabank supporting the credit cards portfolio and is pursuing an internship at KPMG in the management consulting practice this summer. Alongside these professional endeavours, Chloe strives to contribute to social impact as a Corporate Relations Manager in Rotman Commerce Women in Business and a volunteer of the Canadian Women’s Foundation, raising awareness about gender equality. In her free time, she also paddles with the Rotman Commerce Liquid Assets Dragon Boat Team, finds ways to stay active, and loves to spend time with friends and family!

Annie Chen – Western University 

Over the past two summers, I worked at RBC in Wealth Management and Capital Markets. At RBC, I helped create a centralized database for clients’ option obligations and identified deficiencies in trades that were not being pushed through. This summer, I’m working at Mastercard as an Associate Consulting Intern. In addition to intern experience, I also a Real Estate Agent at Century 21. I decided to get my real estate license after realizing the lack of information students have about the housing market that can lead to poor living conditions and youth homelessness. Since getting my license, I have been able to help 20+ students. At school, I am an active member of the community, serving as the President for the Western Pre Law Society and the Governance Committee Chair on the University Students’ Council. Outside of school and work, I am also a huge Toronto Raptors fan and enjoy playing golf!

Marjorie He- University of Toronto 

Marjorie He is a University of Toronto student specializing in Finance & Economics with a focus on Data Science. Being a Canadian-born Chinese, she has always tried to bridge both cultures and look at every situation from different perspectives. She believes in the importance of being an active member of society and creating a welcoming environment for everyone, which she has done as a Sr. Community Advisor within her residence and University Tour Guide. At 16, she started her own business, and throughout University, she used her critical thinking skills to consult non-profits. In the future, she hopes to leverage her voice to create more positive change and be a Chinese-Canadian representative.

Allen Lu – University of Waterloo 

Allen Lu (吕天佐) is a Knowledge Integration student at the University of Waterloo. With clear curiosities in the arts, interdisciplinarity, and design, Allen combines that with a set of varied experiences that allows him to effectively work with others on thought-provoking projects. As a high school student, Allen was involved in a variety of community-building and music advocacy initiatives, including a conference exploring music’s intersections with health, business, and technology, a campaign against defunding music education, and a virtual choir in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Other activities that further promoted his interests in advocacy and interdisciplinarity include participation in the STEAM-based Shad program and work in youth urban design organization 1UP Toronto. This led him to choosing the Knowledge Integration program at the University of Waterloo for its commitment to transdisciplinary learning, design thinking and collaboration, and excellence in a variety of fields.

At the University of Waterloo, Allen continued to explore his varied interests through the university’s A Cappella Club, a research internship on machine learning at RWTH Aachen University in Germany, a seat in Knowledge Integration’s anti-oppression group, and a part-time position at SDSN Canada, a network of universities and civil groups dedicated to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Some of his other achievements include coordinating a solidarity march in support of sexual assault survivors, bringing his A Cappella group to California for the Los Angeles A Cappella Festival, creating a museum exhibit for 700+ visitors on humour and its intersections with wellness, and getting published in a Yale University student club’s special edition on COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter. He does this in addition to adding a Joint in Honours Mathematics and two minors in Cognitive Science and Computing.

For Allen, it is not his achievements, but the continued lessons provided and new opportunities for all that are most valuable. Allen is incredibly grateful to receive the Jiu Ding Scholarship, which will enable him to continue this journey of learning and pushing the envelope through his varied interests.

Barton Lu – University of Waterloo 

Barton Lu (吕天佑) is a student at the University of Waterloo, where he is studying Software Engineering.

In 2019, Barton founded Red Pocket Magazine, an international literary magazine for youth of the Asian diaspora. The magazine embraces five key pillars: 1) to embolden the voices of Asian diasporic youth so that they may reflect on, grapple with, and champion their stories and culture, 2) to restore authentic representation by placing the narrative of Asian diasporic youth into their own hands, 3) to encourage Asian youth to pursue artistry in a community where such fields are often overlooked, 4) to create a safe haven where all stories, no matter how controversial, are told, and 5) to challenge the ideas and preconceived notions that others paint us with; we are a mosaic of peoples, composed of thinkers, dreamers, writers, artists, and the champions of our own vibrant futures. Ultimately, Barton envisioned a space where Asian diasporic youth could juxtapose their lived experiences with each other, realizing how vastly different, yet endearingly similar, we all are.

Red Pocket Magazine seeks to publish work that speaks about a variety of experiences and issues pertaining to the Asian diaspora, including but not limited to: the model minority myth, the immigrant experience, LGBTQ+ identity, traditions and holidays, relationships towards language, feeling disconnected from one’s culture and not feeling “Asian enough”, racism, stereotypes and misconceptions, and what it really means to be Asian. To date, Red Pocket Magazine has published 7 issues featuring 81 prose and art pieces created by 60+ contributors from Ontario, British Columbia, California, Texas, Oregon, Massachusetts, the UK, France, and South Africa. The magazine continues to reach hundreds of readers across the world and has 2K+ followers across social media. Barton hopes to invest some of the money from the scholarship to continue expanding the literary magazine and print physical copies to be sold in local bookstores in select cities.

In addition to his work with Red Pocket Magazine, Barton is also involved in the University of Waterloo tech community through his work as previous Co-Director and current Student Advisor for Tech+, a student club at the University of Waterloo that strives to promote equity, diversity and inclusion in the tech space on campus and beyond. In his free time, Barton enjoys making music and language learning.

Linda Wu – McMaster University 

Linda Wu is a student of Health Sciences at McMaster University. As someone who loves working in and for the community, she is actively involved in various health equity initiatives serving marginalized and underprivileged communities. Linda holds a strong interest in understanding the interdisciplinary world of health. Specifically, she is interested in incorporating community perspectives into health research, and in turn, translating research findings into policies and social interventions.

During the pandemic years, Linda worked as a Vaccination Engagement Team Ambassador in Toronto to increase vaccine uptake. Through perspectives gained from public outreach, she worked with community partners to develop resources including a Q&A webinar for pediatric vaccines. Currently, Linda is working in the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, with a research focus on people experiencing homelessness. Through participating in the project, she hopes to disseminate information that informs future funding and policies.

Aside from health equity, Linda is also an advocate for education and mentorship. At McMaster University, she worked as a residence Community Advisor and mentor for first-year students. Through these experiences, she fostered an inclusive community that encouraged students’ self-development. With her background in digital arts and design, she also collaborated with Friend of Parkway Forest in creating a children’s game book that informs topics including mental well-being, biodiversity, and climate change.

Gala Highlights

About the Jiu Ding Scholarship Foundation Board:

Danny Huang   President

Mr. Huang is Partner and Vice Chairman of Groupe BODA, a real estate development company headquartered in Montreal and with projects in the province of Quebec. In its over 20 years of operations, Group BODA has become well known in the Quebec community for its commitment to social causes including the Jiu Ding Scholarships, the Young Chinese Professionals Association (YCPA), Canada Montreal Spring Festival Gala, Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM), and the Montreal Chinese Hospital Foundation (MCHF). Mr. Huang is one of the founders of Jiu Ding Scholarship and is also a proud advocate for the Red Thread Award initiated by the Jiu Ding Scholarship Foundation, which is awarded to outstanding university students of Chinese descent who have been adopted by Canadian families.

Henry Liu    Vice President

Mr. Liu was appointed Vice-President of Power Corporation in 2011. He oversees Power Corporation’s business development in Asia, where the Corporation currently has a number of investments. Prior to joining Power Corporation in 1995, Mr. Liu worked with China CITIC Group in Beijing. Mr. Liu sits on the boards of directors of Power Sustainable Investment Management Inc. and of Power Sustainable Pacific (Shanghai) Investment Management Co., Ltd. Mr. Liu obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Nanjing, China, earned an MBA from McGill University, and is a CFA charter holder. He serves as a member of the board of governors for the Jiu Ding Scholarship Foundation, a scholarship program dedicated to Chinese students studying in Canada; and is a member of the board of directors of the Montreal Chinese Hospital Foundation. He is also actively involved in supporting the development of cultural programs to promote local Chinese communities in Canada.

Please address media inquiries to: Ashleigh Au 欧薏联 ouandcompany@gmail.com 647-501-5069