Beyond report cards, what else can we do to help Chinese-Canadian youth grow?

At a recent OCLS youth-focused event, Lingxi, a director of the OCLS board, shared her observations and reflections on growing up as a Chinese-Canadian teenager — covering university applications, community involvement, and the cultivation of well-rounded abilities. She also introduced the original intention and future plans of the OCLS Youth Community.

For many Chinese-Canadian families, academic performance has always been an important part of a child's growth. A 98% average is, of course, an excellent result. But when a student applies to top universities and competitive programs, they quickly discover that many other applicants have equally outstanding grades. In such a competitive environment, grades alone rarely distinguish one student from another.

What universities want to see is not just a "student with great grades," but a clear picture of what that student has done outside the classroom:

• Have they been involved in community service?
• Have they made a real, tangible contribution to the people around them?
• Have they joined or helped drive meaningful projects?
• Have they ever taken the initiative — Initiate a project, an activity, or a new idea of their own?
• And can they turn an initial Idea into something real through organization, communication, and action?

The qualities behind these experiences — leadership, initiative, communication, and a sense of social responsibility — are becoming an increasingly important part of how young people are evaluated as whole individuals.

A real example: the University of Waterloo

Lingxi pointed to the University of Waterloo as a concrete example. Her son is currently studying there. From her firsthand exposure and understanding, when most applicants already have very strong academic records, what students have done outside the classroom becomes even more important.

The projects they have built, the ideas they have proposed, the community activities they have joined, and whether those actions have actually had a real impact on the people and communities around them — all of these can become important ways for a student to show who they really are.

And this is precisely the direction that OCLS Youth Community hopes to pursue.

The direction of OCLS Youth Community

Through the strength of community, OCLS hopes to give young people more real opportunities to participate, practice, and grow. This is not just about hosting a lecture or running a one-off experience-sharing session — it is about gradually building an open growth platform for young people, connecting students, parents, and the many resources already present in our community.

Looking ahead, OCLS Youth Community hopes to gradually deliver:

• A new lecture, experience-sharing session, or youth activity every month, inviting professionals, university students, parents, and young people with hands-on experience from different fields to bring their knowledge and networks back into the community.
• A place where young people can turn an Idea into a Project. If a teenager has an idea — running an activity, starting a project, building a team, or doing something meaningful for the community — they can come to this platform to look for partners, resources, and support.
• A way to connect the resources already living in our community. Parent networks — including active University of Waterloo student families — regularly share insights on university applications, study planning, internship opportunities, project experience, and a wide range of social resources.

Not resume-polishing — real experience

OCLS Youth Community is not simply about helping kids "polish their résumés."

A truly valuable Résumé comes from things a young person has actually done. A community-service project, a self-initiated project, a team collaboration experience, or even a small project that started as just an idea and finally got finished after some real difficulties — any of these can become a deeply meaningful part of a young person's growth.

Through community activities, volunteering, project practice, and self-initiated projects, young people can gradually develop:

• Leadership — the ability to take initiative and move things forward
• Organization — the ability to turn an idea into an executable plan
• Communication — the ability to work with different kinds of people and get things done together
• Problem solving — the ability to face real difficulties without giving up
• A deeper understanding of the directions they are genuinely interested in

A child's growth should not be measured only by a report card

OCLS hopes to build, bit by bit, a growth platform that belongs to Chinese-Canadian youth — through the joint participation of parents, students, and the community. Our goal is for young people to grow up with strong academic results and with:

• Real project experience
• Community contribution
• Leadership
• Initiative

When more and more parents are willing to share their resources, and more and more young people are willing to put their ideas forward and genuinely get involved, the community itself can become a very important "school" in a child's growth.

This is the thing that OCLS Youth Community hopes to keep doing, for the long run.