Southern California Outstanding Youth Commendation Celebration
In order to celebrate the annual Youth Day, the Southern California Overseas Chinese held a zoom video activity commending outstanding youths on the 3/28. The event was not held in 2020 due to the pandemic, therefore delayed and held with the 2021’s this year. More than 30 outstanding youths were commended. US Congresswoman Judy Chu, California State District 49 Assembly member Ed Chau, as well as of the Overseas Community Affairs Council of the Republic of China Chairman Tong Zhenyuan, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles Director Huang Minjing, and Cultural Center of Taipei Economics and Cultural Office in Los Angeles Director Chang HaoChun, delivered speeches in succession and praised CCBA for many years commending outstanding young people to give back to the community, serve overseas Chinese and support the Republic of China.
CCBA President Mei Lau said that the outstanding youths who have been commended are exceptional in academic, career, and social services. She hoped that younger generation will use them as the role models and strive to contribute to the society and the country. It has been more than 40 years since the establishment of the National Youth Day commendation event in 1975. It was a pity that the 2020 Outstanding Youths commendation event was temporarily cancelled due to the impact of the Coronavirus and the stay-at-home order. At that time, it was planned that an award ceremony would be held immediately once the pandemic was over. In 2020, 17 outstanding youths were selected for awards. This in addition to 17 more selected in 2021, there were a total of 34 outstanding youths commended in this event.
After the nomination and selection process conducted by the judging committee, the 17 Outstanding Youths for 2020 are Aaron Lee, Wen Chun Tang, Charles Liu, Wendy Hu, Sally Smith, Chu-Yi Wang, Stella Yao, Amy Hu, Ian Wuh, Kayla Jang, Jackie Huang, Olivia Sun, Wenli Jen, Stephen Tam, Anthony Tam, Steven Yang and Jessica Lee. The 17 Outstanding Youths for 2021 are Jade Chen, Jessica Ann Huang, Shelton Chen, Sherry Chen, Miriam Tung, Colin Chu, Henry Shu, Elaine Chi, Sally Wong, Carolyn Kan, Rosina Tam, Jacquelynn Kwong, Sophia Wu, Rose Zhang, Joyee Tseng, Kimberly Doyle and Kyle Luong.
Mei Lau said that some of these commended outstanding youths have just entered or graduated from university, and some have held important positions in different industries within the society. They have distinguished performances in medical, finance, and social services, and deserve to be commended.
At the same time, there are also the top ten outstanding youths in the world as commended by the Federation of Overseas Chinese of the Republic of China. UCLA professor and physician Shu Yixian and physician Wei Yanyan won the 2021 Republic of China's Top Ten Overseas Outstanding Youth Certificate of Honor and Medal; UCLA lifelong professor Zeng Xianrong won the 2020’s, and all received the awards together.
In the zoom video awards ceremony, some elected Chinese officials and representatives of the overseas Chinese Associations also made speeches. Before the end of the event, an online raffle was held.