Ashley Liau & Jalyn Huang
I was recently introduced to two remarkable Irvine students, Ashley Liau and Jalyn Huang.
Ashley and Jalyn are only 17 years old and juniors at Irvine High School, but have already accomplished more than most of us dream of doing.
In December 2023, Ashley won first prize at the Golden Classical Music Awards International Competition for piano and was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall. In 2023 and 2024, she received the Gold Presidential Volunteer Service Award for tutoring underprivileged children in piano and viola, as well as for her other volunteer work.
Ashley also serves as Associate Director for the Scholars’ Trust, a nonprofit organization focused on increasing accessibility to education. Notable initiatives include coordinating a book drive in collaboration with The African Library Project, and successfully collecting 300+ books and fundraising to build a library in Malawi, resulting in the Scholars’ Trust being named a 2024 Global Literacy Champion.
Jalyn is equally impressive! She is a researcher who has published on long, non-coding RNAs in regulating immune response. She also launched a program where volunteers lead hands-on education STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) educational activities for children and families at the Orange County Discovery Cube. Volunteers design and lead STEAM activities that focus on making complex scientific concepts engaging and easy to understand.
The team has served over 550 volunteer hours and created more than 20 unique activities since the program’s start just over a year ago.
In 2023, when they were just 15 years old, Ashley and Jalyn co-founded The Steamology Project (TSP), a nonprofit with tax-exempt status that is now an international organization offering youth exposure to STEAM activities.
Jalyn currently leads the TSP Research Internship Program, mentoring four students across America in writing review papers that analyze current scientific findings and highlight overlooked nuances in research. She launched this initiative to provide aspiring researchers with the opportunity to engage in scientific writing and contribute to ongoing scientific discussions. In her words, “this initiative allows me to blend my passion for science with education to equip aspiring scientists with the tools to navigate academic literature and contribute to their career goals.”
What inspired her to co-create this program was her own struggle to find research opportunities. She cold-emailed over 120 professors, all of whom were unable to offer her a volunteer position in their lab. She even received a call from the Department Chair of a local institution asking her to stop contacting their faculty. This experience showed her firsthand how difficult it is for high school students to access meaningful research experiences.
Jalyn is also leading the TSP’s STEAM Kits for Foster Care initiative that provides foster youth with hands-on learning opportunities by delivering curated STEAM activity kits to foster care centers. Each kit includes lesson plans, worksheets, and activity materials. So far, they have partnered with six foster care centers and developed two kits focused on human anatomy, designed to introduce children to biological systems through fun, hands-on experiments.
The organization is actively working to increase their partnerships with foster care centers, expand the diversity of their kits to cover all STEAM subjects, and increase the frequency of their distributions to ensure a sustained impact on these children’s education.
Ashley coordinates TSP’s Lab Support Donation initiative, donating 3D printers, lab equipment, and other educational technology to underprivileged communities, as well as supporting science labs and STEAM learning in primary and secondary education. And as chief coordinator, she also arranges TSP’s organization-wide events, such as the ones hosted with UCLA and virtual webinars for the chapters abroad.
What makes TSP truly unique is its ability to support multiple ongoing initiatives while fostering new ideas, innovations, and collaborations. TSP was started in recognition of the lack of STEAM educational resources made available to students, especially in underserved communities.
If all of that volunteer work wasn’t impressive enough, Jalyn serves as Assistant Drum Major for Irvine High School’s marching band, where she helps lead a 200-member ensemble. Her roles include leading daily rehearsals, coordinating band fundraisers and tournaments, conducting the band, and maintaining the audience’s energy during football games.
In what little spare time she has, Jalyn works as an instructor and teacher’s assistant at Ardent Academy for Gifted Youth where she has mentored over 100 students in STEM subjects.
But wait! There’s still more about Ashley’s activities! She currently serves as Managing Editor of Irvine High School’s student newspaper. That position provided the opportunity for Ashley to combine her love for journalism with her interest in science by launching The Steamology Magazine, dedicated to bringing accurate, easy-to-digest, and accessible scientific journalism to students globally. As Editor-in-Chief, she leads and mentors 12 staff writers to produce their bimonthly issues.
We at the Irvine Community News & Views feel privileged to help spotlight these amazing young women and their impressive contributions to making the world a better place!
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