Schema | Team Schema Archives : more than ethnic

Team Schema

Alden E. Habacon

Founder and Publisher

+ Recently featured in Canadian Immigrant Magazine: Balancing Identity
+ Recently mentioned in the Vancouver Sun: Savvy businesses setting sights on the '1.5 Gen'

Alden is the founder of Schema Magazine (www.schemamag.ca) and for the past five years has served as Manager of Diversity Initiatives for CBC Television, helping Canada's public broadcaster develop and implement its national diversity strategy.

He launched his career through print media and community-based art projects and his current areas of focus are cultural innovation, interculturalism and multi-generational diversity within the new Canadian mainstream.

Alden's goal is to push diversity beyond the traditional mosaic model. As such he has developed the "Schema model" which defines cultural identity in terms that are more than ethnic.

As an expert on Multiculturalism 2.0, Alden regularly speaks to and consults with government agencies, nonprofits and companies around the world on various diversity issues. He has shared his perspective with organizations such as Canadian Heritage, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, The Asia-Pacific Institute of Broadcaster Development, and the Canadian High Commission in Malaysia.

Along with Order of Canada member Milton K. Wong, he has co-presented at the prestigious Couchiching Institute of Public Affairs (CIPA) Summer Conference. He has also delivered keynotes for the Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia and lectured on diversity in broadcasting at various universities in Canada and the UK (complete list of speaking engagements).

His recent speaking engagements include the 2008 ASEAN-Canada Dialogue on Interfaith Initiatives in Indonesia and a special presentation organised to the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association and the International Broadcasters Trust in London, England. His writing has been published in Canadian Diversity Magazine.

Alden is of Filipino ancestry and defines himself as a Cultural Navigator. He was born in Manila and spent much of his childhood living in Western Canada. He graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BFA in Visual Arts and currently lives in Vancouver with his wife.

Matthew Tsang

Video Production

Matthew, a Canadian-born Chinese student, is currently going into his fourth year at the University of British Columbia where he majors in English Literature. Born and raised in the suburbs of Vancouver, his traditional parents never let him forget his roots. While he was growing up, Matthew was always a victim of more than a few stereotypes that Chinese Canadians have to deal with. In elementary, many of his peers assumed that he was a math whiz (he was) and un-athletic (he was). In high school, many of his peers assumed that he had a curfew while there was still light out (he did) and that he was still a math whiz (he still was). Before graduating high school, many of his peers assumed he'd get into UBC (he did) and plan to study something with plenty of money involved in the future (he did, law school).

Gloria Wong

Film Festival Editor

Gloria Wong is one of Schema's most accomplished contributing editors. After completing a BFA in Film, at the School for Contemporary Art (SFU), Gloria directed five films, and has worked on numerous others. She is extremely well connected to Vancouver's film community as a former screener for the Vancouver International Film Festival, the current Programmer and Chair for the Out on Screen Film and Video Society, and Chair of the Programming Committee for the Vancouver Documentary Media Society. In addition to being active in numerous film organizations, Wong is also a graphic designer. She also provides a sophisticated perspective on identity politics with an extremely strong background in critical studies.

Michelle da Silva

Copy Editor

Since completing a B.A. in English and Women's Studies at UVic, Michelle works in Vancouver as a copy editor and freelance writer. She has written for Gloss: The Fashion Magazine, Killahbeez.com, Bodog Nation, and Beyond Robson. Of Portuguese and Chinese ancestry, Michelle is passionate about Swedish pop and French electronic music, high fashion and vintage finds, feminism, gender and sexual identity, modern and post-modern literature, food, wine and good coffee.

Tamiko Ogura

Researcher and Past Managing Editor for Schema Daily Dose of Ethnic Cool

Having recently returned to Vancouver after several years of living in Tokyo, Tami Ogura is most definitely not romantic about Japan. Amongst her many superpowers, Tami can smell a "rice chaser" far away. Tami previously worked as a business editor for a communications firm in Tokyo (clients included Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nissan and Warner Brothers) and she has also been around the world as a web reporter for Peace Boat, covering humanitarian, environmental and developmental issues, such as Sri Lanka's tsunami, Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, and the efforts of Amnesty International and Oxfam in Dublin. When she's not teaching, she is advocating for peace education with the World Peace Forum.

Ivy So

Founder, Former Associate Publisher, Advisor

Behind her background in business, Ivy is one with many hidden passions - graphic design, writing, among others. A designer at heart with a passion for expressing herself with words, Ivy also has a secret love affair with academia, with academic interests in cult branding, online communit ies, and organizational culture. Ivy is currently a co-host on "Youth in 57 Minutes" on 102.7FM and is the Managing Editor of The Catalyst, a monthly e-publication from the non-profit Agents of Change.

Jen Sookfong Lee

Senior Editor, Schema InDepth

Schema Magazine