Next-Gen Leader
On day five of hotel quarantine back in Hong Kong, Katrina Yu, a computer science and psychology major at Dartmouth College, got a call from a childhood teacher. It was Jennifer Yu Cheng, and she wanted to pick Yu’s brain.
Concerned by the setbacks of Covid-19, Yu Cheng had an idea for a foundation to empower teen girls through digital skills, leadership opportunities, and career exposure. As always, she had done the research—she knew the stats about the gender gap in STEM—but that wasn’t enough. She was eager to hear directly from girls and young women.
“I was really taken away by her enthusiasm, her need for a call to action,” says Yu. .“I was struck by how positive and ready she was to make the most out of a situation.”
As a tween, Yu had spent Sundays learning creative, critical thinking at Arch Education, co-founded by Yu Cheng, and she felt honoured to be consulted on her new venture. Yu agreed to spend her 2020-2021 gap year as an intern at the Jennifer Yu Cheng Girls Impact Foundation (JYCGIF) and remains a member of its youth board. Yu Cheng makes it clear she values their regular input.
“Imagine her in a room with 10 kind of awkward, nervous, shy youth board members, some still in high school: the way she engages with each person and makes them feel they’re really heard and important in the room—that’s what I really respect,” says Yu. “I think that makes her a really strong role model.”
Yu Cheng is
