Alumna leans on lived experience to give back to Sheridan students

Contributing to the Sheridan community is a practice alumna Nadya Jing Wen traces back to her time as a student in the Advanced Special Effects Makeup, Prosthetics and Props program just over a decade ago.

Since she graduated in 2012, she’s made it a priority to support students who are coming from abroad to study at Sheridan and celebrate the diversity they bring to the community. For the last two years, that’s included supporting Visual Merchandising Design students with costs they incur while creating the display for Sheridan’s annual Lunar New Year display window.

Installed each year at Hazel McCallion Campus (HMC), the window celebrates the festival and provides an opportunity for passersby to learn more about Chinese New Year. Wen became involved in donating to the display in 2023, and the project quickly gained more support through her fundraising outreach to local business owners and her community contacts.

“It’s a great opportunity for the local Chinese and community to get to know Sheridan and celebrate Lunar New Year,” says Wen. “I had the idea to involve the local Chinese community in Canada...for the Lunar New Year display project. It only took a few days to gather the funds from the businesses we reached out to. Everyone found (the students’ work) incredible!”

Wen’s donation to this project is just the latest example of her ongoing commitment to bring cross-cultural experiences to campus that promote celebration, understanding, and support for Sheridan students. It is her way of helping our learners strengthen their sense of community on campus, something she was eager to find during her time at Sheridan, especially as the only international student in her program.

Thankfully, during her first semester, she was able to connect with the International Centre on campus. Staff at the Centre encouraged Wen to apply for a scholarship that she went on to win. She then began volunteering at the Centre to assist other international students with their scholarship and program applications, portfolio preparation, and offer them general guidance on their transition to life at Sheridan.

“Sheridan gave me a platform to help others and showed me that I have (the) ability to do that.”

– Nadya Jing Wen (Advanced Special Effects Makeup, Prosthetics and Props, ’12)

“The International Centre was my second home at that time,” Wen says. “By helping others, I got the chance to improve my communication, leadership, and organizational skills, which was a great help for my personal growth and career development too. I'm really grateful for that. Sheridan gave me a platform to help others and showed me that I have (the) ability to do that.”

After she graduated in 2012, the Centre helped connect her with mentors who encouraged her to pursue creating her own student-support business. As a result, Wen launched The Ontario Education and Culture Service Centre, an education forum that helps students from China apply to programs in Sheridan’s Faculty of Animation, Arts & Design. The online forum supports international students by providing them with the knowledge they seek about Sheridan, life in Canada and the process of moving across the world in pursuit of broader education opportunities.

Once students make the move to Canada and begin classes at Sheridan, Wen plans orientation activities with the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, organizes fraud protection lectures in collaboration with the Halton Regional Police Service and plans her own annual Thanksgiving and Christmas parties on campus. She has even helped plan gallery exhibitions and movie festivals to help students build deeper connections within Canadian creative industries.

“I was once an international student and experienced the challenges of studying and living in a foreign country,” Wen recalls. “By helping future international students, I am able to give back to the community and help them adjust more smoothly to their new environment. I'm very glad to hear that everyone calls me Senior Jing Wen (学姐文静). This represents the trust and support of thousands of students for me.”