Name: Sheena (YuXin) Zhang
Home Country: Yantai, China
Humber Program: International Business, Bachelor of Commerce Degree
Date of Graduation: April 2013

Sheena comes from Yantai, a city in northeastern Shandong province, China. She is the first year “Humber China Marketing Plan Competition” winner and she received a full year scholarship to come to Humber to upgrade her Chinese Accounting diploma to Humber's International Business degree. The “Humber China Marketing Plan Competition” is intended to foster entrepreneurship and an interest in marketing among Business College students in China, and to provide scholarship opportunities to encourage and enable outstanding business college students to study in Canada to upgrade their credentials to a bachelor’s degree.

Her life at Humber was filled with long hours of hard studies, on-campus part-time jobs, and campus and community events. She worked as an International Program Assistant at The Business School to help implement the use of Chinese social media platforms, such as Weibo, Renren and Youku, and QQ, to bring awareness of Humber College to prospective students. She also founded the Humber Chinese Students Association (HCSA) and worked as the President of HCSA.

HCSA encourages Chinese students to become more aware of campus events and to get involved with Canadian culture. The team joined the WWF Earth Hour and the CN Tower Climb to gain volunteer experience as the only international Chinese student club to participate. “Everyone from HCSA feels so proud! That is our goal!” Sheena said. “Make them feel proud of being a Humber College student and we made it!”

The HCSA built strong partnerships with other colleges and universities, aiming to provide more opportunities for international students. As the president of HCSA, Sheena has the confidence to share her ideas and guide her team to get involved in so many events. The team produced a video to celebrate the Chinese New Year which gained huge success, receiving recognition from the VP Academic at Humber. The video was played on Humber TV during the Chinese New Year. Tasked with providing leadership through start-up, growth, and turnaround situations, she repeatedly proved her ability to deliver strong and sustained results.

Beginning her career as an International Program Assistant to the Associate Dean during her studies at Humber has prepared her with the skills she needs for her current position, Assistant to the City Counselor for the City of Toronto. She gained professional working experience and theoretical knowledge, while at the same time learning about Canadian culture and language. Demonstrating initiative from the start, Sheena developed people skills, organizational skills, and customer relationship skills that can potentially create opportunities in the future. As Sheena said, “I didn’t hope for huge success, but I wanted to make sure I learn new things every day to better my life from my studies and social life at Humber.”

Outside of school and work, Sheena is an active member of “Mixed Soul”, a dance group of six girls who perform at various festivals and compete in dance competitions in Canada. She was proud to perform as the pregame performers on the same stage with PSY, a world famous Korean star, during the Canada-American National Football games in December, 2012 at the Rogers Centre. Additionally, her dance group also performed at the Harbourfront Centre for the Taiwanese Festival 2012 and the Taiwan Moon Fest 2012.

To Sheena, everything has been a surprise in Canada. She was surprised to get the chance the study at Humber; she was surprised that she was the only Chinese student in her class; she was surprised when she got hired at the Business School during her study; and she was even more surprised that she got full-time employment three months after her graduation from Humber. Sheena told us “Humber changed my life and it offered me more than I expected and imagined.” Today, Sheena encourages international students at Humber-especially those who want to be just as successful, to get involved in campus life and the community. Her life example teaches us to follow our dreams, no matter how great they may seem.

Here is Sheena’s story on video on YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=p8R-zpuHTvA