At the Abbey
My favourite memory was being in Mrs. Madott-McCarville’s drama classes as well as her theatrical productions. Andrea Simonetta (my high school and current BFF) and I recently had the pleasure of having lunch with Mrs. Madott-McCarville and we both found her to be just as energetic and inspirational as ever. LOVE her!
Getting Professional
After attending the University of Toronto I had a successful career as an executive recruiter placing Information Technology professionals in Fortune 500 companies. After my husband and I started our family I decided to leave the corporate world to raise our children. During that time I did a lot of volunteer work and also produced several successful fundraising events. I also became a certified teacher of English as a Second Language. Although I enjoyed teaching adults English my preference was to work with young children so I wrote and illustrated a children’s book. Before COVID-19, I delivered interactive workshops to primary aged students based on books that I had written and illustrated. To bring the characters to life I created hand-held puppets, colouring sheets as well as several sculptures. The most popular sculpture is that of a six foot tall red flamingo with a tiara, “diamond” necklace and fancy red, high-heeled shoes.
While socially distancing I created a collection of eleven tile mosaics based on the characters from my children’s book titled, “We Are Colourful Friends.” I paired the mosaics with the text to create a larger than life sized book for audiences to enjoy. I am actively searching for an art gallery to present my work and am busy submitting grant applications.
Getting Personal
I have a very supportive family. My husband’s name is Russell Chang and together we have raised two AMAZING teenagers!!! I’m so proud of them. Rowan is in his second year at the University of Waterloo and Jacquelline is in grade 12 at St. Elizabeth’s CHS in Thornhill. Her goal is to become a professional jazz singer. Here’s a link to one of my favourite performances: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
I am passionate about promoting literacy and in August of 2019 founded a not-for-profit organization called, “Project 99A”.
Our organization is focused on elevating global literacy. One of the ways we do this is by collecting books and distributing them to those in need. We have distributed books locally and internationally. To raise funds we are currently hosting a virtual auction on our Instagram account. Our sponsors have been very generous and we have a lot of desirable prizes including original artwork and gift certificates from local businesses, Costco, Staples, Esso, etc. Over the next couple of days we will be posting more prizes including a Samsung tablet.