Evan Chen

Founder,
The ARTISTRY Foundation

Evan Chen is an intellectually introspective and curious secondary school student whose interests span a wide spectrum, including but not limited to artistry, health and athletics. Through his many endeavors, he aims to, through integrating digital art, design and game theory, paint a world where the next generation of leaders can personalize what they seek in sustainability and bring it to life. 

Growing up, Evan has been fencing ever since he was around 10 years old, but like many people when they first start a new activity, he was not very good. By the time he was 12, he started to go to tournaments, but he was still not improving very much whilst seeing others around him were excelling. In fact, two new students had joined his fencing club around that time; even though they just started, they were already beating him. He did not have any natural talent when he first started fencing, and he was so frustrated by the fact that it seemed like everyone else around him could win so easily without even trying as hard. Soon those two students were already ahead of him in an advanced class, while he was still in the intermediate class. Although he was not inherently athletic or able to fence as well as others, his passion and commitment  has helped him work harder than everyone else. Currently, Evan stands proud as a B22 fencer, and at a higher letter rating than the other two students. Today, he continues to train and strive to showcase that nurture can indeed prove more important than nature. 

At school, whilst challenging himself with a rigorous academic curriculum, at the digital art club that he founded and is the president of, he genuinely cares about creating an environment where anyone interested in all kinds of digital art can participate. There have been discussions about different types of digital art such as graphic design, pixel art, and digital painting. He has also created an Instagram account to share the digital artwork of students, and a discord server where projects and opportunities for design work are announced and where people can share ideas and tips. In addition, he also furthered his experience through a program at YMCA, and he has been invited to join Community Arts Network as a global youth representative through his organization, The ARTISTRY Foundation.

In the future, Evan’s objectives of entering a world class university are to prepare him later on in life with skills like collaborating with others, creating presentations, and being self-sufficient. He wants to develop as a person and gain more knowledge so that he can apply his knowledge in order to help others. Evans aims to build a career where he has the ability to use his graphic design and creative thinking skills to create works of value. Ultimately, through his various endeavors, he wants to feel accomplished and believe that he has made an impact on others.