Ruolan Nancy Bai - Gold Award

School: Sunset High School
Category: Teens (11-15)
Hours: 271

Nancy quickly adapted to the new environment when she came to the States in 7th grade. Since then, she has been actively helping out the community. Every weekend at the LanSu Chinese Garden, she performs Guzheng, which she has been playing since a young age. When she came to the U.S., she not only brought her skills but also her passion about this traditional and culturally relevant instrument. Nancy is thankful for all the opportunities given to her, therefore she tries to use her skills to help others. Working with her friends, she taught preschool children origami, painted wall arts for the Oregon Elks Lodge children camp and worked with Friends of Trees to help take care of newly planted saplings.

Every experience teaches her something new. Last summer, she had a 5-week long internship at the Northwest Youth Corp. Nancy and her crew were given tasks like elimination of poisonous plants. They went to several different areas of Portland and worked throughout the weekdays. Under this intense schedule, Nancy learned how to balance her internship and her summer schoolwork. This was a unique experience for Nancy to get in touch with nature. She also got to meet new friends from different backgrounds. She especially enjoyed seeing different perspective being brought to the table when discussing a particular topic.

Oregon Chinese Coalition is proud to have the opportunity to recognize 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 Community Volunteer Service Award to Ruolan Bai.