Jenny Chen

This week we caught up with first semester senior, Jenny Chen. As you may know, Jenny recently received a $10,000 Projects for Peace grant, so we wanted to know more about her and her project. Jenny was born in Germany before she moved to her home in Maryland around the DC area. As a young girl, Jenny tells us, her mother always encouraged her to think about social issues. This influence led her and her brother to start the magazine JJ Express. JJ Express, Jenny explains, was/is a way for her to engage her peers in conversations surrounding social issues in a fun way without being overbearing. The magazine contains comics about social issues featuring artists from all over the world. Why comics you may ask? Well, as a young girl Jenny always gravitated towards the comic section of newspapers and felt it was a fun way to get people talking about critical issues.
 
Now an English major with a Creative Writing concentration and a Global Studies major, it is no surprise that Jenny took to journalism in order to make a difference in the world. Jenny attributes JJ Express to her new perspective of the world, because she was doing something she loved while making the world a better place she saw how small the world really is. She feels that this project truly empowered her, which is why she is embarking on a new project this summer.
 
With the Projects for Peace grant, Jenny will be going on a road trip with her brother across the country to bring middle school aged children in rural areas the opportunity to create their own projects like her own JJ Express that she has since handed off to new, very capable, hands. During the summer road trip, she and her brother will be conducting workshops to help children find out what they are passionate about and how they can make a difference using their passions. The workshops begin by brainstorming social issues in their own communities. During this time they have children talk/write about social issues they have encountered to “get the creative juices flowing.” The second part of the workshop they have the children talk about their talents, skills, and passions. Then, with a spin of the wheel, they match passions with social issues, “you come up with things like art and drug abuse…so maybe they could start an after school street art program.” While talking to Jenny, it was inspiring to hear her easily come up with ways to put someone’s passions to good use.
 
The workshops will last a week and the children have the opportunity to receive a grant of up to $500 to start their own, homegrown, program. The point is not to just give the children money and leave; Jenny explains that a lot of times grants don’t consider the problems with a program and she wants to set children up to succeed. Not only will she be teaching them how to engage with social issues, but also how to successfully maintain a program by teaching them about the inevitable challenges and obstacles that will arise, “money is such a small portion of what you need to start a project,” she says. The following summer she plans to have all the participants come together at a summit so everyone can meet one another and be inspired by the many exciting programs that are happening.
 
As for advice for the rest of us, Jenny says to find what you love and think about how you can fit that into helping others. If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, she says, you wont be able to sustain it because you’ll get burned out. When you find a way to fit your passion into the greater community then your project will be sustainable and shareable.
 
Thanks Jenny! Congratulations and good luck!