A Non-Profit Mobile/Virtual Origami Teaching Station
Jackie Han, the founder and president of ORIGAMI CANADA. He is a first-year medical school student and has been active on the stage of contributing to the multicultural community.
Jackie is not content with just improving his origami skills. He hopes that his love and passion for origami could be transformed into his community service impetus. His goal is simple--to let more people love origami, enjoy origami, and enrich their life experience. This is why he founded an innovative and professional art organization-Origami Canada, a widely Free Mobile Origami Teaching Station dedicated to promoting origami to Kids, youth, parents and seniors in various community activities/events. He engages the community by promoting the traditional art of origami and sharing his passion with residents, enriching their lives while sparking everyone’s natural curiosity!
Jackie has organized and gathered many origami enthusiasts through various channels to become important members of the Origami Canada Squad, they are between G5 to G12 and have outstanding achievements. All the team members love to devote themselves to volunteering, sharing their knowledge, and expanding their creativity.
Jackie led the origami squad and has extensively participated in and organized more than 150 various workshops(in-person or online) over the past 5 years. Origami Canada has instructed origami and promoted the art to over 50,000 people in various activities and locations.
Notably, Origami workshops were shifted online at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jackie and his team hosted various free teaching classes online. The Origami Canada YouTube channel was created by Jackie as an auxiliary learning resource for the team to reach more Canadians and international enthusiasts during that difficult time.
Daniel Zhao (a senior instructor/long-term volunteer at Origami Canada) is now a Grade 10 student from Markham. He is a true origami enthusiast, insect enthusiast and STEM enthusiast. He is always full of interest and passion for new things.
Daniel loved volunteer work very much when he was a very young boy. He met Origami Canada at one STEM event in 2017. Since then, Daniel became a founding member of this unique organization. Throughout these years, Daniel is growing together with Origami Canada. He has participated in almost all the events held by Origami Canada and contributed over 800 hours of volunteer time in the past few years.
Daniel and his colleagues in Origami Canada visited Public Libraries, ROM and other Museums, Senior Homes and Schools to promote Origami arts. In these events, Daniel displayed great patience, advanced Origami skills and detail oriented attitude to help others. During the COVID-19 period, Daniel made many short video programs almost every week teaching seniors and young children about Origami Arts to make people happy when they were forced to stay inside because of the pandemic.
Daniel has broad interests and deep passion across many aspects, including astronomy, robotic engineering, plants, animals and environmental science.
Evelyn Guo, senior instructor at Origami Canada. She immigrated to Canada with her family in Grade 3, and is currently a Grade 9 student; passionate in visual arts, music, and origami. She had found her interests starting a very young age, and never stopped working towards her goals from that minute on.
Outside of school, Evelyn spends her free time creating sketches, drawings, and oil paintings. She finds these activities a great way to reduce stress, while building on her creativity skills. She also enjoys playing the ukulele and guitar.
Her attentiveness for origami started in Grade 2, so she began following tutorials to develop basic origami skills. Origami Canada was an opportunity for her to share her knowledge of origami with others, while enhancing her own skills simultaneously.
Meala Sang is a grade 9 student studying in Bayview Secondary School’s IB program. She enjoys spending time with children, and she is patient and encouraging when guiding young ones. Meala finds it very fulfilling to teach others new skills, especially when it involves creating beauty like origami. Having immigrated to Canada in grade three, she is very fluent in both English and Mandarin Chinese. In everyday life, Meala is an easy-going, independent, and open-minded individual. She enjoys origami and is particularly passionate about folding paper airplanes.
Apart from origami, visual arts and drawing are some of Meala’s favourite hobbies. She also loves reading books, especially the Harry Potter series. In her spare time, Meala often listens to music, and writes poetry or short stories.
Cynthia Lou is a Grade 10 student from Markham and a senior instructor at Origami Canada. She has a knack for music, visual arts, web design, and basic coding. Patient and enthusiastic, Cynthia is always eager to learn and enhance her skills. Coming to Canada from China at the age of 3, she is fluent in both Mandarin and English.
In her free time, Cynthia enjoys drawing, painting, and crafting clay figures. Recently, she has taken up designing 3D models and brochures. Cynthia also enjoys playing the viola since she is an active member of the Markville Secondary School Strings Orchestra.
Origami has been a part of Cynthia's life for as long as she can remember. With a collection of origami tutorial books, she often creates pieces for family and friends. Joining Origami Canada has provided her with the opportunity to showcase and refine her teaching and origami skills.
Welna is a senior instructor in the organization Origami Canada, currently a grade 11 student in the IB program of Bayview Secondary School.
Her family immigrated to Canada in 2016; thus, she is able to speak both English and Mandarin fluently. Outside of school, she enjoy reading novels and playing musical instruments. She started by playing the piano in kindergarten and switched to the flute in grade 3. She has reached RCM flute level 8, and she is preparing for the level 10 exam. She is also learning the Chinese flute.
Origami is also one of her hobbies. When she was a little kid, she wanted to become a teacher. Even now, she enjoys sharing her knowledge with others, no matter their age. Origami Canada gives her the opportunity to teach something simple but fun to the community and explore people's interest in a brand new field. In addition, she used to do simple origami as a child, but did not invest a lot of time in it until she joined the organization and found out that there is so much more in the origami field than the easy models in children's books.
Great job, Welna！
Michelle, Senior instructor Teaching coordinator. Michelle grew up in Markham. She is a Grade 9 student with a passion for visual arts and Origami. From a young age, she developed an interest in drawing, painting and design. She strives to continue improving her skills.
In her spare time, Michelle enjoys reading, hanging out with friends, playing softball, playing badminton, playing the flute and helping out cats in pets rescue center.
Michelle’s goal is to contribute to the community, share her ideas and skills to other person who loves Origami Art.
WELCOME TO OUR TEAM———Origami Canada Squad
These excellent volunteers come from Grades 6 to Grade10. They are very enchanted by the art of origami. They are also very patient and careful. In the future, they would be the best awesome origami promoters.
Big thanks to all our awesome sponsors! We are proud to have you as part of our team, and thank you for your support！👍👍👍👏👏👏
* MCFAAC
