Alumni Sharing

The Union is a place for self-exploration, and for realising how each person is connected to each other and the bigger picture. Everyone has a different experience through the UYL journey, but it almost always pushes you to your limits and call for you to change and to grow.

For me, challenges came at the most unexpected hours, and before I realised it, I was already digging my head into the matter, striving to overcome them. Sometimes it worked out, other times it did not. While the Union demanded brilliance in all situations, it also embraced my every failure. Soon enough I realised that it is in these times that you reinvent yourself, to stand stronger, and more ready for what comes ahead.

The Union likes to use the word “inspire” because it is what it does. Perhaps it is in the most trivial of things, and maybe it is noticed in a matter of days or maybe not until the journey is over, but I guarantee that every UYLer grows and transform through the Union. My journey in the Union has helped me find myself. She taught me to be thoughtful, courageous, vulnerable, ambitious and so much more. And occasionally I would wonder, what else has this place of wonders brought to others? I genuinely wish that every UYLer has their very own answer.

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SMCC Alumni

Katie Yuen

23 Camper, 24 Chair