Cultivating Passionate Leaders – Maiyee Yuan
Written by: Carly Chan
Edited by: Stefan Peierls
I gladly introduce you to one of our newest Passion Impact Board Members, Vice President of Partners–Maiyee Yuan. Maiyee is the Program Integration Manager at APANO and was very involved in OSU Cultural Resource Center during her college years. She went to a Title I high school where the majority of the students were Mexican, Vietnamese, and Chinese. “We always had the reputation of ‘everybody’s in gangs’, ’everybody’s doing drugs’,” she said, “The environment we existed in was not supportive of students’ development.” With Passion Impact, Maiyee wants to create pathways for underserved students to explore and grow in what they want to do.
Maiyee’s initial touchpoint with Passion Impact was when she served as an AmeriCorps member in 2017 and we shared the office space at 82nd and Division. “There were some interactions through my work in the Jade Night Market…and looking into opportunities how volunteerism can connect with activities in APANO,” she recalled. Maiyee’s work and effort brings a lens of community organizing into the development of Passion Impact by cultivating a more equitable space for the community. “For communities that are marginalized, it is important that we intentionally work with them…to create access and support that [will] help channel their energy.”
One of Maiyee’s goals in Passion Impact is to connect service with community and identity. “At the end of the day, what people are most passionate about or people feel like is the most worthy of their time has to somehow impact…themselves or the community they see.” It is important that our paradigm of volunteerism shift from service that we do for others to service that impacts our community as it relates to our own values. “Students could ask…why I would dedicate my time to something that I don’t care about,” she added, “It is through volunteering and leadership development, we get very passionate people that can make changes locally, regionally, and even internationally.”
As Vice President of Partners, Maiyee is already applying her knowledge and experience she gained from community organizing to direct the vision of growing Passion Impact. Maiyee will build more reciprocal relationships with nonprofit partners that serve a diverse range of causes, and ultimately, will build a more inclusive space that will encourage students to grow and engage with their community.