AN INTERVIEW WITH JENNIFER JU: STAYING TRUE TO HERSELF

April 02, 2019


A week or so ago, I interviewed this vibrant, joyful, and energetic athlete name Jennifer Ju from Vancouver, Canada. Jennifer and I met few years ago during the final of the North American All Chinese Basketball Tournament (NACBAIT) in Florida. We knew of each other because of the tournament but we never got the chance to actually talk until I moved to her city and randomly ran into her and hit it off.

Jen has been playing basketball for a very long time and started her Day One Basketball Foundation, which we will talk about a bit later in this interview.


1. But first Jen, can you please share a little bit about yourself in terms of your background? Ethnicity? Where you grew up? If you have any siblings at all?

I grew up in East Vancouver pretty much all my life with my family. My parents immigrated to Vancouver, Canada roughly 35 years ago from Vietnam. And are actually of Chinese descent. 

2. What first draw you into sports? And more specifically Basketball?

Actually when I was in the fifth grade my best friend, at the time would always ask me to come out on Saturday to hang out and play.  Technically, I wasn't really allow to do any extra curricular activities but I begged my parents and pleaded my mom. Lucky enough, I got to play Basketball but predominantly my main sports were Track and Field and Volleyball.

3. Is there any specific reasons why your parents weren't too excited for you to play Basketball at first?

In most asian culture, I am not sure if people are aware of it but a lot of family do not support female playing sports. It goes again the ideal image of females. And more traditionally a more masculine thing to do. Also, my parents favour academics more than athletics. As a lot of asian parents do in our culture, they don't see much values in sports.

I agree, being asian myself and having a lot of asian friends that enjoy playing Basketball as much as I do but couldn't pursue a career because of either an injury or their parents being against it. It is very common in our culture. 

4. Now, tell me a little bit about your Basketball journey. I know you left Vancouver to play in the US on a full scholarship at Santa Barbara, then T.R.U and moved on to a Professional career in Germany. Can you share your personal experiences in terms of struggles, injuries, accomplishments? What did it bring into your life as a person and athlete?

What Basketball did for me basically is open up a lot of opportunities to travel, make friends and of course get a degree. On top of that, it led me wanting to give back to my community and discover my roots. What I mean by that is that Basketball helped me discover my cultural identity a lot more because of the resistance my parents pull up towards sports. Also, through basketball I am able to create a platform that allows young athletes to be inspired as well as allow outside people to understand that even if you think you can't make it academically or athletically that by surrounding yourself with people that support and believe in you, you can do it.

5. Since you've been back to Vancouver few years ago, what inspired you to start "Day One Basketball"?

I grew up in East Vancouver which is the poorest postal code in all Canada actually and while I was there, I mean a lot of people felt or had that East Vancouver mentality where they thought they wouldn't amount to anything. They felt like they couldn't get out or they were too poor and had no chance at doing much. So when I was growing up I concentrated all my energy into playing basketball. I was very lucky to have a very good support system around me in a sense that people kept encouraging me and believing in what I wanted to do. I did a lot of fundraising to afford the activities that I did; like basketball programs. 

I had an amazing mentor and coach who really advocated for me in my talent. I was lucky that way. After my Basketball journey, I fell like I needed to do that for other people that are in the same position and can't put it publicly.

6. Listening to you I can feel that the young generation of Athletes in Vancouver means a lot to you as well as its community. Can you please elaborate on that? I mean, do you think there's something missing here in Vancouver?

In a lot of ways, for me, why I want to give back to the community or young generation is the fact that they are our future. I see a lot of myself in them in terms of struggles and obstacles, as well as I see the potential that they have and could amount to. I want to make sure that they feel supported, that they get the same privileges to experience what I was able to experience. Basically, to help build their self-confidence like it did with me.

I agree with you, Sports is definitely a great asset when it comes to build self-confidence, friendship, life skills and more often than not a great way to discover your identity. You mention privileges. I am curious to know what is your opinion on student athlete scholarships and programs in Canada. 

7. What do you think Canada lack, in terms of helping their Canadian Athletes compared to our neighbour the United States?

Well... Funding for one.(pause)

I mean, the sport we have for Canadian athletics is not as much as the United States. Just population wise for example. The numbers aren't there. In Canadian Basketball you aren't able to give out  full ride scholarships like the US. Not like in Canada were you are only able to give the tuitions. 

However, there is some instances were you can work for the University or Post-Secondary school and reimburse them with you time. This could help you in some ways but other than that we have very little funds for athletes. We don't have a lot of support for athletes as in lack of therapists and people coming out to support. It's tough.

I'm currently watching the March madness and we can definitely see  a major difference in terms of support. March Madness is the NCAA Basketball Tournament and you see students, parents, alumni members coming out to support their athletes and school. That's something we don't see often and regularly here, in Canada. 

8. What kind of changes in terms of scholarships, supports, rehabilitation, training, program would you like to see happen for our future Canadian Athletes?

The funding and supports for our athletes it is what it is. It's not the Universities fault if they don't have enough funds to support their athletics departments.

The reason why "Day One Basketball" is so important is with the connection that we make with other communities. I believe that it genuinely takes the community to breed athletes, to support them. It is our job as a community to help support things that are important. Right? Like, athletics are in my opinion very important because not only the team aspect of it but for self-growth,  self-development and self-identity.

 Meanwhile, in terms of what we can change, maybe we can do a little bit more marketing, advertising  and let people know what is happening. There isn't very much of that around here. You might see occasionally a billboard or poster about a team coming into town, but generally speaking there isn't much advertisement toward sports. 

I think bring more awareness and educate the benefits of sports is something we could do. 

Talking about awareness, support and education. Let's go back on "Day One Basketball." You mentioned that you were helping the youth basketball community in Vancouver by offering high-quality skills development and training by being attentive to their social-emotional well-being. You have set up a 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament on April 6th, which all the proceeds and donations raised will be going towards the "Post-Secondary Day One Basketball Student-Athlete Scholarship Packs."

If you think about it, Basketball isn't a cheap sports. People forget that there is a lot of extra cost behind it. There are tournaments, gears, sneakers, physiotherapy sessions, trainings, camps, transportation and so on. Sometimes families don't have the financial capabilities to support their kids with what they love and it is quite a burden for them or issues in some cases.

9. Please tell me about the 3 on 3 and what the scholarship pack consist of?

So exciting! haha! Ok! (big smile)

So the "Day One Student Athlete's Packs" were created or designed to help alleviate the financial burdens that athletes do experience going to Post-Secondary. Not only do we want to promote more education but I feel that's a way for athletes to come out of their careers with skills, people's skills and basically have a degree to fall back on. 

A lot of athletes when they are done playing oversees, university, pro or whatever they realize that real life hits. It's like; "Oh crap!" What do I do now? How can I apply for a job? It's a tough process and transition. The Scholarship Pack is a way to help them into that transition and take away that stress.

The most important thing we are trying to achieve with this is to give athletes more agencies to figure out where to go and what they can and can't afford. Most of the time, if they are being recruited into a Canadian University Tuition or book are being offered as a partial scholarship so our $2 000 package can help ease some of those financial burden. It also includes additional help from Myodetox (Sport Therapists), Lululemon Apparels, Footwear, training sessions and gift cards.

I had to work when I was in University and juggling the life of a student-athlete is hard. You have practices, trainings, games (on and off the road), homework and classes. It's insane if you think about it. It's literally a full time job.

I think we do forget that yes we are doing what we love but it also takes a toll on our body and mental. You want to keep good grades but sometimes you miss classes because you have an on the road game. When you finally get back to school you have to pull an all nighter because of a big test the next day. Practice, training don't stop during that period. It is definitely intense.

10. I have two questions left for you. What's next for "Day One Basketball" in the next year or so? What would you like to see happen? 

What I want to do is advocate for them. They need more support to make them understand that what they want to do in terms of pursuing their basketball journey is valuable. It's something we need to as a community pay more attention to because if these athletes feel supported maybe there's going to be a decrease in post-secondary drop out, depression, and delinquency. There's potential for error and yet, we have so much power to do something about it. I'm not saying you have to support "Day One" but if a child told you: 

"I want to go to Post-secondary."
"Alright! Ok, Cool. Here's what we need to do to make it happen. You know."

Because as adults we have technically a lot more life experiences than somebody coming-out of high school and if we are building and creating connections in the community to help support more people continuing their education, support it. Right! Go out and make people aware that there are things like this available. You know, get them to do it. Push them a little bit, guide them a little bit to have more agency and do things independently, to advocate for themselves and go get something that they want. It's a big issue in today's generation. There is so much emphasis on decreasing anxiety for kids. That's why people like you and me need to guide them in the right direction.

Day One Basketball has a lot plan on how to support athletes so hopefully the more success we have in doing this the more we can continue doing it.    

I think it's good to have athletes like yourself looking to guide and help our young generation of athletes find their way. I'm sure they have multiple questions and sometimes aren't sure who to ask to find their answers and having your type of background and wanting to be that person for them is fantastic. 

11. What about yourself Jen? What are your plans?

I have a lot of plans. (Laugh)

Sometimes the way my brain works is I jump from one thing to another but right now I am really focus on continuing education myself. I graduated with a degree in English Literature and I minor in Sociology. However, I want to take it to the next level where I can help more people and continue to have access to the young generation so I am going to try to go back to school. Get my bachelor of Education so that way I can continue to help the young generation and not necessarily through sports but to continue to pursue education and create opportunity for themselves. Education is very important to build life skill habits and become critical thinkers. So that is the next step for me, and who knows. Maybe I'll specialize in special education because I currently work with kids with Autism. So I will continue that journey and see where it takes me. 

Well Jen, I think that is it wonderful to see a determine, heart warming and giving person like you. Someone that wants to make a difference in her community and the young generation. I think what you are doing is great and our society needs more people like you. Vancouver is lucky. Very lucky!

Thank you again for coming in and doing this. I really appreciate it and I wish you all the best in your next projects. 

As for the rest of you I hope you enjoyed this interview and if you would like to support and donate or have any questions for Jen or about Day One Basketball please feel free to directly visit their website at https://dayonebasketball.com

You can also email me at marieeliyu@gmail.com or visit my instagram page for questions and answers: https://www.instagram.com/marieliyu/




   

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