Name: NINA ZHANG
Age: 17
School: Dr. Norman Bethune Collegiate Institute IN TORONTO, ONTARIO
Volunteer experience: Peer tutor; coaches flute ensemble at junior high school; performs for residents and patients of a local retirement home & hospital; Member of Bethune’s Environmental Action Team and Youth Helping Youth
When Nina Zhang moved to Canada from China at the age of 10, she barely spoke a word of English. As an only child new to the country, she was shy, withdrawn and understandably nervous to participate in school activities. Looking back, she says some of her new peers helped her take the first steps towards coming out of her shell. “My classmates were very patient with me even when they couldn’t understand me, and they tried to help me out whenever they could.” They were her biggest motivation to take part in making a change and helping others. “I was deeply moved by their kindness, and decided that I would like to be helpful to others just like my classmates were to me.” Since then, Nina has become a veritable busy bee - undertaking many extracurricular activities to help those in need and is always encouraging others to join her.
Currently, Nina holds down the post as the president of her high school’s Youth Helping Youth club, which is committed to creating change for those less fortunate. Most recently, the group held a clothing drive for the Yonge Street Mission—an organization that helps those living in abject poverty. “The event was a huge success! We collected over 25 large garbage bags of good quality clothing,” Nina proudly states. In addition, Nina is involved with the Bethune Environmental Action Team (BEAT) which runs an ambitious recycling program in her school that collects everything from printer cartridges to batteries and pop tabs to wine corks. The group also sells environmentally friendly products like corn plastic pens and hand-crank flashlights. And if that weren’t enough, BEAT has maintained their Gold Level EcoSchool status and helped influence the youth at local elementary schools to make greener choices.
When she’s not tutoring students in ESL (English as a Second Language), she can be found playing her flute in the school band. “It often helps me to relieve my stress and it’s really fun to play in a group. At my school, the band is like a family and it offers all its members a true sense of belonging.” Not stopping there, she takes her talent as a flautist and uses it to brighten the day of seniors living in hospital residences. “There are a million clubs I’d like to be involved in, juggling school work, extra curricular activities, band rehearsals, volunteering, and social life all at once is not easy. So I had to cut down some of my activities,” Nina told us. Nina devotes a good portion of her life to helping others, yet she knows that every positive action is so important in the grand scheme of things. “Someone once said ‘little drops of water, little grains of sand, make the mighty ocean and the beauteous land.’ I believe if everybody just contributes and helps out a little, we can make a big difference.”
Nina is donating her Vervegirl on the Verge proceeds to the Hospital for Sick Children. If you also want to contribute to Nina’s charity of choice, check out sickkids.ca.
