Ross Lai

Ross Lai is a 16 year old youth advocate advancing, on an interdisciplinary basis, awareness and action in the areas of health and well-being, climate change as well as social cohesion. He believes that pursuing a joint strategy to maintain and sustain human and planetary health is the key to unlocking a more prosperous future for all. 

Growing up, the most significant lesson he learned when he was young was to always chase his dreams and believe in himself. When he first learned how to swim, he was scared and always trying to hold on to the edge, not willing to dive down. However, his mom told him to believe in himself and showed him a picture of how shallow the water really was and mentioned how he wanted to swim without the floaties. Convinced, he took a deep breath, dove into the water and swam by himself for the first time. This small incident contributed a lot to who he is as a man today: his body, his ability to play sports, and most of all, his mentality when doing things that are hard for him that he wanted to accomplish.  

In high school, he is working on a series of projects and initiatives on American football, personal fitness and documentary production, all tied with his personal mission. On American Football, it is the sport he loves and it is his hope that the skills he achieves can contribute to his boosting up how American Football is in China in the future. On personal fitness, he chooses the gym because since he was a kid, as he always suffered from obesity. Apart from feeling the need to look good on the outside, the main reason is to build up more “strength” in himself and be healthy. On documentary production, he is producing “China Got Ball” - to show people outside of China that American football is also being played in China and not just the US. This will premiere in Summer 2023, followed by a player showcase. Furthermore, by promoting the sport within mainland China, he is also leveraging this opportunity to demonstrate his passion in filmmaking, as he aspires to one day become a director. He is also a founding team member of Systems Change Summit, a global youth-led impact conference series.

At university, he really wants to attain good training and mentorship for producing a world class movie. While becoming a movie director may not be his immediate goal post university graduation, he would wish to be respected as one of the influencers of not just American football but sports in general in China, through social media and hopefully movies in the future. In the end, he aims to play an integral part of the nationwide movement which addresses the lack of physical education in the country as well as misconceptions in sports - to build a stronger and healthier culture for generations to come.