The 2025 CYC International Outstanding Women Award Ceremony was successfully held

The 2025 International Women Champions Award ceremony, hosted by Canadian Youth Champions (CYC) and sponsored by STEM-E.net Private School, was successfully held on International Women's Day on March 8th at the Lake Wilcox Community Center in Richmond Hill.

CYC Co Chair Zhang Lijun, Member of Parliament Leah Taylor Roy, Provincial Councilor Michael Parsa, Secretary of the Board of Directors and CYC Mentor Jeffrey Mah, Chair of the 2025 International Outstanding Women Award Nancy Siew, and over 200 young people from various parts of York District participated in this special award ceremony.

Linda Zhang, co chair of the organizer CYC, stated that the award aims to recognize women who have made significant contributions to society by promoting equality, founding charitable organizations, and achieving outstanding accomplishments.

Zhang Lijun stated that the "Outstanding Youth of Canada" is composed of 100000 young people and families from the Greater Toronto Area, 70% of whom are women. The selection of this award is a tribute to women from different industries who are role models for young girls. This award primarily recognizes women who have made outstanding contributions in areas such as STEM, Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine/Themes, the arts, business, community, and public service.

After careful selection by the Election Committee, this year's International Outstanding Women's Award has selected six winners (ranked alphabetically by surname), namely:

1. Dr. Zhong-Ping Feng

2. Deputy Chief Cecile Hammond (YRP)

3. Aster Lai

4. Anna Loveman

5. Adrienne McLennan

6. MP Leah Taylor Roy

Here are the introductions of the 6 winners

Professor Zhong Ping Feng

Dr. Feng Zhongping is a tenured professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Toronto School of Medicine. As the chief researcher, Professor Feng's research team has made significant achievements in the fields of ion channels, neuroprotection, and drug development. They have published over 170 peer-reviewed papers and have received long-term funding from Canadian national research funding agencies.

She leads multiple neuroscience promotion projects aimed at high school students in STEM education and public science popularization, actively promoting neuroscience knowledge and brain health awareness to young students, and inspiring the younger generation to become future scientists and researchers.

With her leadership in research, education, and academic guidance, her outstanding achievements and significant contributions in cultivating future leaders in neuroscience have been widely recognized.

● Aster Lai

Aster, as an outstanding piano educator, enjoys a high reputation internationally. She studied at the Vienna Conservatory of Music in Austria and founded Aster's Music House in 1983, which trained numerous award-winning students, including those who won first prizes in domestic and international competitions. She also guided many teachers and influenced other internationally renowned pianists, benefiting them from her effective teaching methods. Many students from overseas came to Toronto specifically to learn from her.

Cecile Hammond, Deputy Chief of York Regional Police (YRP)

Cecile Hammond was appointed as Deputy Chief of York District Police in July 2020. During her 27 year career, she has served in multiple departments, received the Governor General's Medal of Excellence for Service, and was awarded the Police Merit Medal.

She actively participates in multiple policing associations and serves as co chair of the Ontario Women in Law Enforcement Advisory Committee. She is also a board member of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Peel York organization. In addition, she is also an executive sponsor of Canadian Blood Services.

● Anna Loveman：

After her son tragically passed away in an accident at CFB Petawawa, Anna Loveman became a Silver Cross Mother, dedicating her energy to improving the world's mental health, housing, and the Highway of Heroes.

She is currently a board member of several organizations, including the Canadian Heroes Foundation, VETS Canada, and Guitars for VETS. She constantly inspires other Silver Cross mothers, veterans, and military families to give back to society!

● Adrienne McLennan

Adrienne McLennan served as the Director of Public Affairs for Scarborough at the time. She was also the highest ranking female civilian officer in the Toronto Police Department, and as a member of the major incident management team, participated in crisis response in policing.

Adrian has always cared about the most vulnerable groups in society and served as the chairman of the board of directors for Haven Toronto, a day center that provides assistance to homeless and marginalized elderly men. She continues to support the organization's public welfare efforts to this day. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Royal Canadian Military Institute.

MP Leah Taylor Roy, Member of Parliament

Leah obtained a business degree from the University of Toronto and a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University. Previously worked at the World Bank and McKinsey&Company; He also served as Executive Vice President of a co generation company headquartered in the United States. Now, as a member of parliament, Leah fully utilizes her business expertise and volunteer service experience to provide support for families in the York district.

The Canadian Youth Champions (CYC) are committed to helping young people find their goals, passions, and place in the community through various activities, learning opportunities, and practical experiences, helping them grow in personal and professional development.

CYC has established multiple awards to recognize individuals who have made outstanding contributions to society and have had a lasting impact as role models for young people. This year's upcoming awards include the "Outstanding Asian Award" in May; June Outstanding Canadian Award; Welcome to the community to nominate outstanding candidates for the 2025 awards.

STEM-E.net, a private school under Hays Group that has been supporting CYC since its inception, is a STEM and Entrepreneur focused institution that offers credit courses for OSSD grades 9-12 in Ontario. The school adopts interdisciplinary case teaching method, which is divided into four channels: engineering, computer science, medicine, and business concepts and their application skills in the real world. Unlike traditional teaching methods, STEM-E revolves around case studies to learn relevant knowledge and assignments, deeply developing students' potential, allowing them to recognize their interests in advance, and laying a solid foundation for their future career development in university and STEM entrepreneurship fields.

Currently, 95% of STEM-E's cooperation with CYC involves local students. STEM-E plans to establish an international department to provide opportunities for exchange and interaction between local students and students from other countries, while also allowing international students to learn about Canadian culture, make local Canadian friends, and immerse themselves in Canadian education and life as early as possible.

Easycan Inc. Journalist Lin Fengyun/Photography Report