Board Profile: AiLi Wang
AiLi Wang is a third year Health Science student at McMaster University. She was born in China and moved to Singapore at the age of nine. Then at the age of 13 she moved to Canada and currently lives in Caledon. She is now a Community Advisor (C.A) for Bates Hall, and enjoys being immersed in the on-campus student life because she finds that “it is nice to be around students all the time,” a great attitude for a motivated and involved individual.
AiLi joined OPIRG during the summer after her first year at McMaster. She said, “I walked by the office and thought it was a library.” This is where AiLi met Randy at OPIRG who spoke with her about volunteering. Her interest in arts and her passion to help people led them to decide that she would be great at poster design.
Throughout the years AiLi has made numerous posters for OPIRG, including the designs for this past Alternative Welcome Week. This is AiLi’s first year on the OPIRG Board, and she said that she enjoys being a part of the team. She has plans to join the working group Hamiltonians for Migrant & Refugee Health, if she can find time between school and her various extracurricular activities.
Some of the great contributions that AiLi has made so far include volunteering with the elderly at the Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton. In addition, she is a part of a group called Changing the World of Literacy, a group that helps inner city children in Hamilton by providing activities and games to aid in the development of their literacy and resiliency skills.
On top of these great organizations, she is also a part of the executive team for MacShadows. This is a group of students that are trying to organize professional shadowing opportunities for students in all faculties who want to “bridge the gap between education and a potential career,” according to their Facebook page. Students will be able to shadow a qualified member in their field of study to get a better sense of what it is like in the professional world.
AiLi plans on applying to Medical school and is hoping to go into surgery, although she would not mind being a general practitioner. She would rather be immersed in the environment with her patients, rather than just seeing a patient once and being done with them. One of her goals throughout the year is to be a larger advocate for students, and being a C.A. gives her a perfect opportunity to make this happen.
“I’m always going to be interested in health, and I want to advocate more for students now, and patients [in the future].”
By Jamie Mudrick, OPIRG McMaster Communications Intern (Fall 2013)