Learning, loss, legacy, and love: One family’s commitment to education for all
It’s been said that love can move mountains, and for the Lee family of Waterloo, a love of family, community and education has accomplished exactly that. They established Tutoring Beyond Borders in 2010 and have provided tutoring for over 2400 local high school students for free, ensuring that families in need would receive the benefits of quality tutoring for their children without being out of pocket for the service.
Richard Lee, Mina Chan and Jenny Chiou all immigrated to Canada from Taiwan in 1990, settling into the Waterloo region. They quickly solidified themselves into their surroundings, becoming active in their local church, participating in community food competitions (where Mina’s dumplings and Cantonese food were practically legendary), and supporting both the Food Bank and various community initiatives. Shortly after arriving, they welcomed the birth of their daughter, Brenda.
Richard and Jenny had run a successful hardware company in Taiwan, with Mina leaving her position as a teacher in Hong Kong to join the business as well. According to Brenda, Mina passed her passion for teaching and helping on to her; encouraging her to become an optimist and to always see the good in people. The unspoken rule of helping people in need was strongly cemented with the entire family, and as Brenda began her first year at the University of Waterloo, it was only natural that this drive to help others would blossom. “Both my moms taught me to the importance of giving back,” Brenda says, “If you ever find yourself in a position to help someone in any way, you just do it if you are able to.”
Despite a busy first year in science, her schedule crammed with labs and classes, Brenda looked for an opportunity related to teaching. Not finding an option that fit within the confines of her schedule, she turned to her parents and together, they decided to shift their attentions to helping underprivileged high school students receive quality tutoring for free. The establishment of a tutoring program would also benefit Brenda’s classmates, giving them a meaningful opportunity to make a difference in their community. Tutoring Beyond Borders (TBB) was founded in 2010 and was an instant success.
Brenda was President, in charge of the daily operations as well as finding and coordinating tutors. Mina, Vice President, was her immediate support system. Jenny, with her strong business background oversaw finance and fundraising, and Brenda’s father Richard was in charge of student relations, ensuring that any students in financial need would be first in line. As TBB grew, Brenda formed a longstanding Executive Team to help with daily operations - volunteers from the University of Waterloo who shared the same vision and have now moved on to successful careers.
The rise of TBB was inevitable with the strong family dynamic behind it and the endless hours of work they dedicated to the project. TBB obtained charitable status in 2012 and launched a high school Exam Cram program to help students study for final exams. In 2014, TBB won the Top Co-op Employer Award at the University of Waterloo. The program continued to grow, recruiting more undergraduate students as tutors from both the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. At any one time, Tutoring Beyond Borders had approximately 100-120 active tutors matched with 150-200 students. The charity would go on to produce more than 620 student volunteers, helping over 2400 local students. This equated to approximately 4 million dollars worth of free tutoring services donated based on an incredible 153 000 hours of volunteer service.
Tragically, the family suffered an unimaginable loss in 2022 with the passing of Mina after a three-year battle with brain cancer. In 2019, the family decided they would not continue the charity without Mina and instead funnelled all of their love and attention to take care of her in their home and wrap up TBB after her passing. Throughout the entire ordeal of her disease, Mina was forever optimistic and continued to encourage her family to keep making a difference in the lives of those they touched, no matter how difficult things became.
This week, the Faculty of Science proudly unveils the Lee, Chan, Chiou Family Seminar Room in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. This donation marks a legacy of the Lee family’s goodwill with the University of Waterloo – the birthplace of their family venture and where they made an impact on their Waterloo community.
Today, Brenda is a continuing Lecturer andacademic advisor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Richard and Jenny live nearby and are enjoying a quiet retirement, proudly watching their daughter fulfil her lifelong dream as an educator. “This is the place where I found my calling in teaching,” Brenda says, “and a place where my mom can stay with me every day.”