Introducing the Core Lab team: Vivian Kwan
Curious about the folks who are participating in the Shift Lab? Wonder no more! Over the next three weeks, we will feature each of the Core lab team members (12 in all) as they tell us their thoughts about social innovation, racism and poverty in Edmonton, and why they joined the Shift Lab. Yesterday, we met Francisco. Today, meet Vivian Kwan. You can also check out Vivian's bio here.
It seemed like it was just yesterday that I had the opportunity to meet some of my potential future core lab teammates and participate in brain stimulating activities at the Skills Society Action Lab. Fast forward a few weeks, I am now accepted as one of the core lab members with the Edmonton Shift Lab! I am extremely excited to start working with my new team and experiment ideas together. As a Bachelor of Science graduate, experimentation is definitely a hobby of mine.
Ever since I was a science student, I have always been in awe of the persistence of scientists that conduct years of research until they have accomplished their end goal. As a result, I also became quite a persistent individual not only in academics, but also in my extracurricular involvements. I first came to learn about social innovation in my second year of university and became attached to the idea instantly. As I have mentioned before, I am a very persistent person. Once I get myself involved with a certain project, I will not stop until I make progress. Some people see this as being stubborn, but I completely disagree as I view these two personalities as very different. I am persistent about accomplishing my goals, but I am flexible and open to adopt creative strategies. In addition, I also love trial and error, because I feel that I learn best from making mistakes. Stubborn on the other hand signifies rigidity and unwillingness to take risks, which does not reflect my working style at all. I love the idea of social innovation because it suggests that innovation does not only focus on generating new ideas, but it can also be used to improve existing ideas by generating new elements to support the enhancement.
After graduation, I have been taking my time and looking for the ideal career opportunity that aligns with my interests. Meanwhile, I still try to stay as connected to my community as possible through great opportunities like the Edmonton Shift Lab. Since I am still on the path of exploration, I envision that the next four months will be full of risk taking and personal reflection as I slowly discover what is right for me as a career path. I am also excited to have the opportunity to feel lost and uncertain, because that removes my inhibition and motivates me to take on every opportunity possible.
As a person of colour, I have noticed the impact of racism and poverty in my community growing up. I have always loved this country and take pride in our multicultural community and high standard of living, but certain social issues still persist. After being diagnosed with depression and anxiety, I took a further step into exploring the social factors that impact mental health. Mental health is an important topic to me, because I have experienced first hand how devastating negative mental health can be. Throughout my undergraduate career, I have participated in several conferences and committees that focused on exploring the impacts that certain social factors have on mental health, and the outcomes were always the same. Up to date, racism and poverty are still the most discussed, and considered the most devastating social factors that can significantly impact one’s mental well being. In order to ensure that we can have a stronger community, we have to ensure that our community members are well supported, and the first step is to address these issues and take action.