Hui Wen is the Arts & Culture Junior Editor for Youth Are Awesome. She is a passionate advocate of the arts, and plays both the piano and clarinet. You can often find her at the Jack Singer Concert Hall for Calgary Philharmonic concerts, or in the band room of her school. Hui Wen loves the city of Calgary and enjoys using the blog as a platform to share her thoughts and inform other youth of the interesting things going on around the city. Hui Wen is a recipient of the LORAN Scholarship and a Grade 12 student at Western Canada High School.
As winter break approaches, the luckiest of us will be preparing and getting excited to go on their tropical beach excursions. While the soft sands and sunshine of destinations such as Mexico, Hawaii, and Australia are irresistible (especially in the type of weather we have been having as of late), I’ve always wondered if there…
Keeping up a structured fitness schedule is hard enough as it is, finding to pull yourself out of bed and haul your butt to the gym or the treadmill is a huge feat in itself, and on top of that, maintaining the motivation to push yourself to really make that workout effective is also challenging. I…
Now that I’m in Grade 12, I have been reflecting a lot on my experiences so far and how they have made me the person I am today. One of the biggest influences has definitely got to be volunteering. I began volunteering with Youth Central in the summer after Grade 9 through Youth Are Awesome…
In the past few weeks, I’ve written about the basics of building a capsule wardrobe: from the what and whys of it to what it comprises of, it only seemed fitting that the final post in this series would be me sharing a bit of my own capsule wardrobe. I’ve omitted some things from this post…
Last week, I wrote the first post in this short series on decluttering through the building of a capsule wardrobe by introducing the philosophy behind it. In the second installation of the series, I will be explaining exactly HOW to create your own. In order to reduce the clutter of your closet, it is important…
From the transition from Junior High to High School, I’ve changed so much and in so many aspects of my life. My attitudes and beliefs changed most of all, and that has in turn influenced the way I live my life, including my choices about fashion. Fashion has become so much more to me than just…
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” -A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh If you remember the posts from Danielle and I a few weeks ago, we, along with Richard, recently returned from being part of a 64 year tradition known as SUNIA. The 5-day camp brought together high school students…
After months and months of talks to do so, fellow editor Danielle and I finally braved (mild) embarrassment and fear of the unknown and, braced with a selfie stick and iPhone (64GB — bless up), conquered 4 street to bring you all a vlog of the cool places we saw. Despite having attended school a few blocks…
I’ve had several moments this summer where I came to the sudden realization that in three months, I will begin the life-changing and convoluted procedure of applying for post-secondaries and scholarships. While that is an exciting step of everyone’s life; the freedom of university, the new people you’ll meet, it is also a daunting one. This is…
It’s that time of year again: time to break my efforts at maintaining a healthy summer lifestyle for the Calgary Stampede’s crazy foods. This past Friday marked my first vegetarian Stampede and it was definitely quite a challenge to watch my friends eat award-winning BBQ ribs; even walking down the section of the park with all…
Congratulations on finishing yet another year of school! Another grade over, and another gaping void that is known as summer. My family is not the type to go out for a long family getaway, so often, finding something to do in the summer can be a pain. Over the past few weeks, I tried in…
There’s nothing better than the feeling of being able to relax and watch a good, long movie without the ghosts of all the work you are not doing lurking in the back of your brain. Since I recently completed my grade 11 year, arguably the most difficult year of high school, I’ve accumulated a pretty…
This past Sunday, I had the pleasure to attend Kensington Sinfonia’s 25th season closer concert at the intimate and acoustically-rewarding Hope Lutheran Church. For those not familiar, the Kensington Sinfonia (KS for short) was founded in 1988 by John Lowry of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the musical directorship has been passed on to other…
As you may have read, I enjoyed a terrific first concert at the Kensington Sinfonia past Sunday. One of the program pieces featured the 6th winner of the KS Annual Student Concerto Competition, oboist Cameron Wong playing Albinoni’s Concerto for Oboe in D minor, Op.9, No. 2. Having only played the oboe for 4 years,…
You’ve heard of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, but what about the Calgary Youth Orchestra? Chances are, if you have musically-orientated friends who play a string instrument, you’ve probably heard of it. For those who haven’t, don’t fret, because you’re about to learn so you can go out and enjoy the finest Calgarian musical talent this…