A passion for helping others

Nancy Yuan (2014) has packed a lot into her 23 years. After starting Dio as a boarder in Year 9, she went on to become a founding member of the Ethics Committee, Cultural Council prefect, and leader of the Human Rights Committee.

Nancy’s interest in human rights began at a young age. In Year 10 she entered the Soapbox Competition with her speech entitled ‘The Paradox of

Humanitarian Aid’. That same year, she won a Principal’s Award and used her

Whitcoulls’ voucher to purchase The Crisis Caravan by Linda Polman.

“It detailed the failures in the humanitarian sector. I’d wanted to go into politics, but I realised there were people dying out there, so I was more interested in applying what I’d learnt to make a difference,” says Nancy. “Two teachers at Dio really impacted me: Ms Blumenfeld and Mr Baker. In their social studies and history classes I learnt a lot about international relations and injustices.”

After school, Nancy did a gap year in Sydney working at an educational tech start-up. In mid-2015 she moved to the US to study at Swarthmore College, a liberal arts school near Philadelphia, where she’s about to complete a fouryear degree double majoring in political science and peace and conflict studies. Swarthmore was the first school in the US to have a peace and conflict programme, and Nancy was attracted by the small class sizes and support networks.

She was elected President of Swarthmore’s Student Government – the first ever sophomore or international student in this position.

With funding from Swarthmore, Nancy spent two months in Iran conducting community assessments with stateless Afghan refugees. She also spent a month in Jordan working on a European Union-sponsored project with Iraqi refugees.

“Visiting Jordan and Iran was eyeopening,” Nancy says. “I cried a lot. It’s one thing to read about it, but seeing it first-hand made me realise how lucky I was with my education and opportunities. In Iran we did community assessments at a special school for stateless people that was set up by an engineer and his wife. The kids would be on the streets selling tissue paper and flour, and they started the school to educate these children. Seeing it all was emotionally far more challenging than I’d expected. It was also a huge culture shock for me because these are predominantly Muslim countries. As a Chinese girl, I stuck out.”

Nancy has always focused on refugee issues. She’s worked as a climate migration intern at Oxfam New Zealand,

“Visiting Jordan and Iran was eye-opening, I cried a lot. Seeing it all was emotionally far more challenging than I’d expected.”

Nancy Yuan