Yanxi (Jessie) Chen

Yanxi (Jessie) Chen is a secondary school student based in Canada, and her passion is in the areas electrical and aerospace engineering as well as environmental sustainability. She was nominated as a speaker at Young Pioneers Forum, an official event of World Food Forum organized by United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO). 

Yanxi was born in China and moved to Canada when she was thirteen. Similar for most people, the pandemic put a hard pause on her journey to develop her interest in the aerospace area. After a period of struggling, she started a full research on events and opportunities she could participate in. Surprisingly, she found out that there were more available opportunities than she thought. She then participated in several events that she never thought she could be involved in. She learned that even under an extremely difficult time, she can still thrive to find opportunities for her interest with her greatest passion, and demonstrate resilience in the face of adversity.  

In high school, Yanxi's preferred subjects are mathematics and physics. She chose to be involved in the IB program, where she could gain more knowledge in Higher Level subjects of her choice. She also participated in several mathematics contests held by the University of Waterloo, such as CSMC and Euclid. When she was younger, she joined a program based on aerospace technology in her local library, and ever since, she cultivated her interests in this area. To increase and deepen her knowledge and understanding on aerospace technology, she then started an extended research paper about “the effectiveness of aerospace technology on climate independent agriculture”. She believed that more global problems can be solved by discovering more connections and use of aviation technology. Furthermore, she has launched Aero Heroes Alliance (“AHA”) to connect youth in Canada and overseas with global resources in this field and to facilitate collective thinking and action. 

During her spare time, she likes to play kickboxing as it has been her long-term hobby since she was eleven. She also likes to watch space-related movies with her family, such as Star Wars and Marvel series – even though she knows they are not all reality based. 

For the future, she planned to study electrical and aerospace engineering at a world class university program. She also has the vision to connect aviation innovation to the development of environmental sustainability by more effective aerospace designs. Moreover, she wishes to accelerate the development of climate independent agriculture by space experiments to help solve poverty and food insecurity problems.