Danica Leung - Silver Award

School: Lincoln High School
Category: Teens (11-15)
Hours: 82

Danica is a sophomore at Lincoln High School. She volunteered at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital, where she helped discharge patients, work in administration, and gained experience in the medical field. Her work helped expand her worldview and curate a genuine desire to help others. She has since translated this passion into public speaking and activism, which is why she now primarily volunteers with the debate community. She spent five weeks at Gonzaga University this past summer learning and practicing policy debate, and became policy debate captain at her school this year. She teaches her peers how to debate and judges at local tournaments. Danica finds debate to be incredibly rewarding because it hones one’s research skills, ability to think on one’s feet, and persuasion. Her own experience with debate has helped her gain the confidence to deliver a TED Talk, speak on OPB, and become an activist for climate justice and sexual health education. It’s important to her to help raise a community of intelligent and capable individuals ready to take on the world. Those skills will be instrumental towards making effective change in the future.

Oregon Chinese Coalition is proud to join the President of the United States in recognizing the volunteers who consistently take the time to make a difference in the lives of others. Therefore, it is a great honor to present the President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) to Danica Leung.