Oakii's photostream  

Born in Los Angeles, California, Andrew starts the first US born generation of his family. At age 4, he started his first role in Chinese television commercials. During elementary school, he was active in an “Accelerated Reader” program where students would read books and take tests on the computer; the accumulative points are based on book difficulty and test results. Andrew ranked between 1st and 3rd in the entire school from grades third to fifth in the number of points earned. He was also parted of the Gifted and Talented Education program (GATE) and school choir.

While attending John Muir Middle school, he qualified for the Honor Society and California Scholarship Foundation all three years (receiving certificate and medal upon graduation). In addition to excelling in academics, he played on the Muir Duffers golf team – ultimately winning the city wide Optimist Cup, represented JMMS at the tri-school track tournament (winning first), won multiple Tae-Kwon Do trophies, took tennis lessons from a instructor that is the current head coach at his high school’s cross-town rival, and was in the String Orchestra (winning the Directors award, Music Department award and PTA Reflections contest for music composition). His computer interest started from a self-teaching Liberty BASIC book, which contained an introduction to HTML and JavaScript at the back. He took 3D computer animation at Montecito Fine Arts School and was a member at the Builders Club (community service organization – part of the Kiwanis Foundation).

He participated in a wide array of clubs & organizations during high school, including: HOPE (I Help Other People Eat), Key Club (community service organization – part of the Kiwanis Foundation), Computer Club, Model United Nations, Symphony Orchestra, California Scholarship Foundation, Academic Decathlon, Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement (STAKE) Act, and Yearbook. Officer positions include: Burbank High School Key Club Technology chair (2 terms), Division 16 Key Club Board member (1 term), California-Nevada-Hawaii Key Club District Officer (1 term – managed a member base of 34,000 high school students in 3 states), Computer Club Historian, and the Editor of an award winning Yearbook. Through Key Club alone, he has donated over 500 hours in community service and an uncountable amount more planning events in the background. As the Yearbook Editor, he manages 24 of the most talented artists, designers, writers, and photographers in the school.

He expanded his education beyond high school by taking Art Introduction at Glendale Community College, Japanese Introduction at University of California Los Angeles, and Chinese 4 at Pasadena City College. In 2004 he joined the Yekaroo radio station and became the Forum Administrator shortly after. During his two year leadership, the membership and post counts grew from brand new to 5,000 and 100,000 respectively. In 2006, he joined an non-profit organization called the Crossing the Digital Divide – where an team of volunteers work to close the gap between the haves and the have-not’s by bringing technology to the most vulnerable and “in need” of our society, people in recovery.