My career journey in architecture was largely shaped by my childhood, identity, and personality.

I’m a Canadian-born Chinese woman who spent the first half of my childhood growing up with people of various ethnocultural backgrounds in North York. I loved going over to my childhood friends’ homes to hang out and share meals together with their families, many of whom were recent immigrants to Canada

When I was in grade 8, my parents brought me to a presentation centre in a new suburban community. That was my first encounter with architectural drawings and a community 3-D model. I was fascinated by the various house layouts and excited to assist my parents in picking out interior finishes for our future home.

From this time forward, I decided to pursue a career in architecture. My pursuit has brought me joy and fulfillment by creating playful and delightful experiences, working with youth, and uplifting the people around me.

At the same time, my journey has also revealed societal, professional, and personal challenges that keep me on edge. Rising inequality and increasing marginalization in our society, continued lack of diversity in the profession at the leadership level, and my personal growth and struggle as a leader make me uncomfortable, but also motivate me to do what I do.

As I entered the professional world, I realized that this child-like wonder and youthful energy were often missing in the adult-dominated design process of our built environment, even for spaces that were meant to serve children and youth. At the same time, reflecting on my own experiences as a camp counsellor in my teenage years, I saw a strong interest among youth to create change in their communities. So, I thought, why not use my passion for design-build projects to help youth tackle challenges in their communities?

That’s what led me to co-found Urban Minds. Urban Minds is a Canadian non-profit organization with a mission to create meaningful ways for youth to shape equitable and sustainable cities. My partner and I created the 1UP Youth City Builders Program to educate and engage high school students in city-building. Through this program, I’ve mentored youth to realize their own design-build projects to address their community challenges. I’ve also worked alongside them to create fun engagement experiences, including #WouldYouRatherTO, which was an interactive community voting poll that brought people together through friendly banter. This project truly brought me a great sense of fulfillment as it combined my love for creating playful experiences with my detail-oriented personality to work out how it could be constructed.

Fortunately, through my work with Urban Minds, I have had opportunities to engage youth in more marginalized communities in Toronto. These youth live in neighbourhoods that are often stigmatized and affected by years of disinvestment. Despite the rough conditions they had to experience growing up, I am always moved and encouraged by the youth’s pride in their communities and their desire to create positive change. Even though I may not understand all the issues their communities face, these youth still give me hope for the future and instill in me a sense of responsibility to use my privilege to tackle issues of inequity in the built environment.

Systemic and structural issues aside, even the act of sharing these personal thoughts on a public forum such as WLI is an uncomfortable thing for me to do. I have always been an introvert since childhood and was never comfortable being in the spotlight. I often find myself caught in the tension between my drive to become a better leader and the sense of hesitation I feel whenever I lead a group or facilitate a discussion. Yet, I understand that being uncomfortable is a sign of growth, and I am very grateful to have opportunities like writing this blog post to push myself beyond my comfort zone. It is with this mindset that I keep trying to put myself out there – to do more presentations, to chair more meetings, to take on more leadership roles, etc. Eventually, I know the uneasy feelings will subside as I practice more, become more comfortable in my skin, and decide for myself that these mental roadblocks will not get in the way of me finding delight in what I do.

Joy in uplifting people

Joy is when I have the opportunity to uplift others, whether that means mentoring colleagues at work, or witnessing youth participants at Urban Minds step up to various challenges and grow. I emphasize joy because the truth is, work is demanding, and it is only sustainable if you are able to find delight in the work. But, I have come to realize that sometimes this joy is hard to come by in the toughest moments of my professional life. When there is a scarcity of joy, there are a few things which I learned to keep me going. Even though I am admittedly not good at receiving words of compliment or affirmation, I learned to lean more on my support network of family, friends, and mentors for encouragement and to celebrate small wins along the way. I am also the type of person who likes to finish what they’ve started, so I needed to learn how to pause, rest, and manage my energy levels. These are all things that I am still working on to be a better leader, colleague, spouse, and friend.

There will always be big and uncomfortable problems in our society, profession, and even within ourselves to figure out, and indeed they are important issues to address. But today, I invite you to take a moment to rejoice and delight in the little things, the things that uplift others and power your own journey.