Name: Josh Chan
Age: 21
Program: Honours Political Science Global Governance
Relationship Status: Single
Activities: Fencing (kendo); learning new languages like Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Nepali, Thai; photography with my trusty camera; painting; piano; going abroad for study/work/volunteer
Perfect date? Jumping off a plane together to skydive down onto a white-sand beach where we would share a nice brunch by the ocean in the Maldives (of course I would pay for everything) ~ What a gentleman!
Favourite animal? Okapis (that’s plural for okapi by the way) they’re like cute giraffe-deers with purple tongues
Dream Job: Working in the field with a humanitarian organization because it’s a mix of excitement with the danger of death and a chance to really feel like I can change the world and can have the most positive impact in helping people.
Most treasured item: My camera. I always take it with me whenever I travel to different countries and so far it hasn’t been broken or melted, which makes it a miracle-camera! We’ve gone through a lot of experiences together; thunderstorms on the high seas while getting pelted by ice/rain and ocean water, jungle treks and waddling through lagoons and surviving flash monsoons/floods that drenched the rest of my gear. I use it to capture amazing memories; like documenting the village women who go gold-hunting by the Mekong in Laos and their exposure/use of mercury from batteries to remove impurities in the gold, cave spelunking, tracking jaguar footprints, riding on-top of cars to get shots of the mountain ranges in Nepal and taking wild-life photo shots. Also trying to take selfies with buddies can be cool too. ~ You are quite the world traveller! We’re full of envy and wondering if we can come on your next adventure…
(One of Josh’s pics of the mountain range in Nepal – absolutely gorgeous!)
Favourite book? Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. There’s nothing sweeter than forbidden love between enemies during a time of war in the Mediterranean island of Cephalonia. (Calvin and Hobbes and Le Petite Prince are pretty close too).
If you could be any animated character who would it be? Baymax. He’s so huggable, I just want to give hugs to everyone.
If you had a million dollars to give to charity what types of charity would you choose? I would give it to Free The Children. After my experience teaching English and visiting local schools while trekking high in the mountains of Nepal, I really believe that children – not only in Nepal but in all Third-World countries – need to be empowered by having more opportunities to learn and become educated. The learning centre that I primarily stayed at motivated students that really wanted to learn but were prevented by lack of text-books and paper, as well as the need for these children (some as young as 6 years old) to start working to support their families. Even toys were scare and had to be shared by all the children in the village. These are all things we in the West take for granted. I really do believe that donating to Free the Children will help not only these young creative minds find their full potential, but also greatly benefit the world as well. ~ We couldn’t agree more Josh!
Proudest moment? My proudest moment was when I was with a family of monkeys in one of the islands of Thailand. They were a really cool bunch, grooming themselves or walking around pooping and eating. A lot of the baby monkeys were play-fighting. This mother monkey wasn’t really interested in me but her baby clenched onto her with its eyes fixed with curiosity on me and my camera. It eventually left its mom and tip-toed up in-front of my camera to investigate it, allowing me to take several shots of its face in front of my lens!
(This is one of his pictures!)
Your biggest achievement this semester? Being asked by the Japanese department to give a Japanese speech in front of the Consulate General of Japan? Haha just kidding! It’s actually waking up today for my 8:30am History class and not snoozing at my prof from the front row for once… ~ Ahaha we can relate to this one!