Our AALA Virtual End of Year Celebration will feature a Mentoring Program Reflection and Scholars Forum.
The theme of the event is: Celebrating AALA Thinkers, Scholars and Mentors.
Please bring your drink of choice and log on to Zoom as we celebrate Asian Australian mentoring and thought leadership!
Our terrific panellists are Giancarlo de Vera, Tienyi Long and Kelvin Ng.
Giancarlo de Vera (he/they) is a non-binary, queer and proud Filipino-Australian. Currently, Giancarlo is a Senior Policy Officer at People with Disability Australia and Secretary of the Australian GLBTI Multicultural Council, the two national peak bodies representing all people with disability and Australia's LGBTIQA+ multicultural and multifaith communities. Giancarlo is also a Director of the Australian Centre of Disability Law, Operations Director of Democracy in Colour and the National Director of Community Partnership and former Deputy CEO and National Mentoring Coordinator at Out for Australia, who run one of Australia's largest mentoring programs.
In these roles, Giancarlo is passionate about creating a world where people with disability, LGBTIQA+ and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are empowered to reach their full potential. Previously, Giancarlo worked in international law, international development and international affairs at the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations and the Governments of the Philippines, India and the Solomon Islands. He also has a background in brand strategy and communications, working at global advertising firm, Ogilvy & Mather.
Giancarlo holds a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts (Development and Globalisation Studies) from the University of New South Wales. They're also passionate about modern art and are a young patron at the Art Gallery of NSW. They're really into low-fi wines and being a champion of Filipino arts, food and culture in Australia.
Tienyi Long is the Legal and Compliance Manager at the Youth Support and Advocacy Service (YSAS). Prior to commencing at YSAS, Tienyi also held legal, compliance and risk roles at the University of Melbourne and Glen Eira City Council.
Tienyi is passionate about young people, particularly young people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. She has extensive youth facilitation and mentoring experience, and was previously a Young Ambassador for UNICEF Australia and Deputy Chair of the Monash City Council Young Persons Reference Group. Tienyi was very grateful and honoured to have received the William Ah Ket Scholarship in 2019, for her paper on improving diversity intelligence in the legal profession.
Tienyi holds a Bachelor of Arts (Spanish and Latin American Studies) and a Bachelor of Laws from Monash University. In her spare time, Tienyi can often be found laughing at bad jokes, reading and writing, drinking almond cappicinos or watering the new orange tree in her garden.
Kelvin Ng is an Associate in the Litigation team in the Melbourne office of Norton Rose Fulbright, specialising in regulatory investigations and disputes, having graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Commerce/Bachelor of Laws.
In terms of his involvement with the AALA, he is the President of the Victorian Branch of the AALA, having been an AALA member and Victorian Committee Member since 2018. In particular, he has been heavily involved in student engagement, including being the convenor of the national University Outreach Subcommittee and chair of the Victorian Student Liaison Subcommittee. In these capacities, he has been a panellist at events such as the Diversity in Law panel hosted by the Deakin Law Students’ Society and the written applications session of the AALA’s Career Workshop Series, and has supported student initiatives such as the inaugural AALA-GLSA International Students Mooting Competition held at the University of Melbourne. More broadly, Kelvin has written on the topic of ‘Dealing with discrimination’, as published in the Law Institute of Victoria Young Lawyers Journal (Autumn Edition, 2019), and has featured in Law in Colour, a student-run online project which seeks to put the spotlight on the stories of people in colour in the legal profession.
Kelvin also has a specific connection to the William Ah Ket Scholarship and the AALA Mentoring Program, having been directly involved in both. In 2018, Kelvin and his colleague, Ming Kalanon, (then law graduates) were named as joint winners of the William Ah Ket Scholarship for the paper they co-authored on the topic ‘What does parity in cultural diversity look like?’. In 2019, Kelvin was a mentee in the AALA Mentoring Program and was mentored by Cam Truong QC.
Kelvin is particularly passionate about food (both cooking and eating it), since food is a big part of culture and has a way of bringing people together.
