Audrey Zhao - Gold Award

School: Westview High School
Category: Teens (11-15)
Hours: 316

Audrey is a Junior at Westview High School. Ever since a very young age, she developed a deep passion for conservation and protection of the environment and animals. Audrey has been a member of the Oregon Zoo Teen Program since 2018. She spent many hours of her time outside of school volunteering as both an Interpreter and a Naturalist, providing education to zoo visitors of all ages year round and kids at the summer camps. In 2019, Audrey became a leader of the Oregon Zoo Youth Conservation Corp. In this role, she works with other teens in the program developing and implementing conservation projects. Through her volunteer work at the zoo, not only did she provide valuable services to the visitors, she also gained important real world leadership and problem solving skills. Since spring of 2020, Audrey has been fostering cats for the Cat Adoption Team (CAT), a local non-profit that helps and finds homes for needy cats. With COVID, the shelter has had limited on-site volunteering capacity to support the cats at the shelter. Audrey volunteered to foster and care for several cats with medical or behavioral issues, and helped to find them caring forever homes. In addition, Audrey is a leader of her school’s PAWS (Protection of Animal Welfare and Safety) organization. Throughout the year, she organizes Westview students to make blankets and other enrichment items for various local animal shelters. She also served as a student leader for the Oregon Outdoor School providing leadership and education to local middle school students on environmental science. Outside of volunteering, Audrey enjoys art and design, music and a number of STEM activities including cybersecurity. It has been a rewarding experience for Audrey to serve our community and make a positive impact. She is committed to continuing her volunteering efforts and engaging others to do the same.

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 Audrey Zhao.