Si-han ella
yang
Si-Han Yang, or Ella Yang, describes herself as a dandelion. No matter where the wind carries her, she adapts quickly to her environment, overcomes storms, and blooms. As a Taiwanese-Canadian international student living in Shanghai, her multicultural background enables her to understand history and politics from various perspectives with compassion. She is the founder of the Peculiars Preservation Project, which advocates for conservation efforts related to overlooked animals.
My Story
Initially, Ella was nervous about public speaking. Instead of letting her fear hold her back, she decided to make a difference through action. She established a non-profit organization that sells second-hand books to raise money for building libraries in disadvantaged areas around the world. She also uses her artworks as her voice. Being an internationally published artist, she also contributes to public art in addition to winning global competitions such as first place in the Shanghai Film Festival. However, her primary goal for these platforms is to amplify the social issues addressed in her works and bring change.
Driven by her increasing desire to speak out for the causes important to her, she seizes every opportunity to practice public speaking. Now, Ella speaks with confidence, whether presenting her artworks to global leaders or serving as her school’s Model United Nations (MUN) secretariat team leader. She also aims to give a voice to others by founding a student-led newspaper and interviewing scholars from around the world. For her efforts, Ella was elected as the pathfinder, the highest achievement in her school.
Ella’s love for hearing stories further drove her beyond to seek opportunities to connect with artists and academics by volunteering as a photographer for esteemed art institutions such as Qatar Museum and New York University. Her photographs not only give a voice to the silenced but also bring their stories to an international stage.
In her future endeavors, Ella is driven by her artistic ambitions and her desire to learn about environmental science and the humanities, as she believes that a broad knowledge base is necessary to generate creative solutions for global problems. Each stroke of color that Ella leaves on the world represents someone’s story, and these brushstrokes continue to inspire many more to dare to dream.