It takes a large team of dedicated, talented volunteers to make the Learning Buddies Network a success. In this series of posts, we’ll introduce you to some of those people!

Today, we interviewed Mia Tsao, who has been a volunteer with Learning Buddies for about three years. From being a buddy herself to managing our social media team, Mia has been a wonderful addition to the team. Learn more about her through our interview below:

Interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How did you first get involved with Learning Buddies?

I think we had a volunteer fair at our school and one of the people running the booths was Jess, who is an operations manager with Learning Buddies. She approached me (bribed me with candy) and she told me all about the organization. I thought it was a really interesting opportunity, so I decided to become a mentor with one of their spring programs. 

After that, I fell in love with the program. I had a really great buddy who I formed a bond with and I got to meet Owen and all these other mentors and managers. I thought, “why not stay?” because I really liked it. 

What’s your main role on the team now?

 My main role is to help manage our social media team. That involves getting the group together once a week to discuss social media tasks, making sure that all our platforms are updated, and creating the Learning Buddies Network brand, as we want to present a very polished (but also welcoming!) image to people who aren’t as familiar with the program. 

What do you find most rewarding about working with Learning Buddies?

When I was younger, I really struggled with English (it was my second language) and had trouble paying attention in class or doing classwork all because the language was so new to me. I had a couple of teachers who gave me the push and confidence to continue writing and now it’s one of my favourite subjects. While I was mentoring, it was easier for me to sympathize with people who were struggling. When buddies came back to sessions and they felt more excited about learning and they felt more confident about what they were studying, it made the challenges of mentoring all worth it. Now that I’m doing social media and marketing, I’m so glad that I’m able to represent a really great organization with great goals and values. I love that I can do that in a position where I can really use my different skill sets to help us become a bigger and better organization.

Right now, I’m involved in a MUN conference called VMUN (the largest high school run MUN conference in North America) so that’s a very big part of my life. It’s a lot of organizational work and I think it’s pretty similar to what I do here, spending a lot of my time working with other people. I've taken away a lot from the activity. MUN has given me the opportunity to speak about global issues, meet so many kind and intelligent people, and build my confidence while public speaking.

What’s one fun fact about yourself?

That’s so hard! Oh, I really like Bob Ross. It's kind of weird, but for a while, I really enjoyed watching Bob Ross videos. He had a really special place in my heart. His videos were always so calming and it baffled me that he could make masterpieces in simple, easy steps.

Thank you Mia! We’re so glad to have you with us.