a homage to the ocean, where i grew up :)
As a PhD student, I seek to understand how individuals develop civic efficacy in community spaces and to explain why this matters!! Currently, I am thinking through how local and community civic engagement in third spaces might operate as a bridging mechanism across difference. Can community based activities or community oriented dialogue facilitate civic skills that can build respectful mutuality across difference? And to what extent do these type of social spaces and consequent networks change individual’s political efficacy and their political participation? More broadly, does community civic engagement shape their broader perceptions / values of democracy? For the past two years, I also worked on projects investigating interpersonal and online communications and their consequences for political discussion and participation.
Previously, I worked as a policy and data analyst with the Canadian government and as a communications aide with the UN International Computing Center. As an avid volunteer, I am driven by a curiosity and passion for how I, with others, can contribute sustainably and meaningfully to the world through collective action. From 2020-23, as board director at Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (B.C.), I had the humbling opportunity to advance conservation and protection initiatives. Over the course of the last five years, I also learned from and with incredible young leaders across the world to advance a variety of civic engagement initiatives in Vancouver, NYC, and Philadelphia as a WEF Global Shaper.
contact: cxpang@sas.upenn.edu
My pursuits grow from roots in my local community Surrey, which fostered the networks of support and mentorship that provided me the fortune of engaging in activism, advocacy, and entrepreneurship as a child and young adult (*a shoutout to my public high school Fraser Heights Secondary, Surrey Public Libraries, Guildford Recreation Centre, and Fraser Heights Recreation Centre). Having grown up immersed in the arts, I got to co-create spaces for youth civic engagement over the span of eight years—from founding ajourney2success.com (2012) and Art2Heart Foundation (2014) and co-chairing YWCA Metro Vancouver’s Youth Advisory Council. As an award-winning artist, writer, and pianist (active 2005-2013), I connected thousands of youths until 2020 locally and globally online by providing opportunities for community involvement via arts, writing, and volunteering.
Outside of school and work, I'm either swimming/running, curled up with a book and hot cocoa, painting some water colour, or yapping with friends! Feel free to reach out if I can be supportive in any way. I'm always open to learning from and with you. Take good care xx
Acknowledgements
My parents left all that they knew in 1999. Restarting their lives in Canada with humble beginnings and working hard to give my sister and I a lifetime of opportunity, they are all that I am and all that I hope to be. It is with their sacrifice, fears, pain, and unconditional love that I have the honour and immense privilege to do the things I do. Pursuing my passions and having the space to learn, to fail, and to grow continually impacts my work and is at the heart of my unrelenting commitment to empower others, inspire them with their own strength through their difficulties, and most importantly to pursue love (empathy) above all.