The Committee

Board of Advisors

Wesa Chau

Wesa Chau is the founder of the Australian Federation of International Students in 2002, and has 10 years of experience in advocating on a range of issues including multicultural affairs, international students, young people and people with disability. She is a young leader with passion and ideas for innovation, and has a strong interest in developing a new generation of leaders through programs, presentations and mentorship to other young people.

Wesa has build the organisation from a small social group to now a national body providing vital services to international students, and advocating for international students to policy makers in Australia.  Partnership and working with others is what she believes in and actively seeks partnership opportunities.  She was involved in the establishment phase of a myriad of programs for international students.  Wesa regularly provides commentary to the media on international student issues.  

In 2010 she was awarded Young Victorian of the Year (Victoria Day Council) and was a finalist for the 2010 Premier’s Community Volunteering Leadership Award for her work at AFIS.  She was also a recipient of the 2005 Melbourne Awards (Youth). Her vision for AFIS is to continue its great work with international students, and continue expansion to smaller states.

She holds a Bachelor of Engineering and Commerce from the University of Melbourne; Graduate Diploma of Law from Monash University and Graduate Certificate of Business (Quality Management) from Swinburne University.  She was awarded a scholarship on the Global Leadership Study Program in Boston 2011.

Douglas Tsoi

Douglas migrated from Hong Kong to Melbourne, Australia, in 1992, where he was educated at Scotch College and later at Melbourne Grammar School. Douglas pursued tertiary studies majoring in Management, Marketing and Chinese Studies at the University of Melbourne where he obtained his Bachelor of Commerce (Mgmt) and Bachelor of Arts degrees.

During his university years, Douglas was the first National Executive Officer of AFIS. Under Douglas’ leadership, AFIS expanded from its initial sphere of influence in Victoria into the states of New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia. AFIS’ expansion during these years was both timely and necessary, as the international student community faced a period of significant difficulty, including violence against Indian students and the sudden closure of multiple major education institutions.

Following graduation from university, Douglas worked at the Committee for Melbourne. In 2010, Douglas moved into business and currently holds an executive role at S-Trend Sportswear.

Douglas remains active in the community through his voluntary roles as Executive Member of the Chinese Community Council of Australia’s Victorian Chapter (CCCAV) and Honorary Advisor to AFIS.  In 2010, Douglas was presented with the Victorian Multicultural Award for Excellence for Service Delivery to Multicultural Victoria by the then Premier of Victoria, The Hon. John Brumby.

National Executive Board

Catherine Nguyen

Position: National Executive Officer

Catherine’s inspiration to work with AFIS came from her attendance to AFIS Information Day event on 17th April 2011. She was motivated by the mission and values of the organisation and has constantly looked for opportunities to become more involved since the event. She joined in the committee in July 2011. 

Taking up the position of Executive Officer in 2012, Catherine is hoping to achieve many goals. One of them is to get AFIS become more popular among international student communities and interact more with its members. She is also working hard to improve the committee's internal culture and network, including strengthening the connection among interstate branches. In addition to seeking grants, partnerships and sponsorships, she also targets to expand AFIS activities by proposing new ideas and new activities, as well as improving AFIS's current successful activities. 

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VIC Committee

Alice Xuan WANG

Position: General Committee Member
Committee: VIC Committee

The first time Alice involved in AFIS’s activities was in 2010, when she attended AFIS Information Day.    Inspired by the working attitude of AFIS’s staff and driven by her own passion to enrich her life through more experiences, Alice decided to become a volunteer for AFIS. While working with AFIS Committee members, she assisted the committee with preparation for the Information Day project and has learned much. AFIS also helps her to make many new friends, and provides her with opportunity to practice her networking skills.

Fortunately, she became a general committee member of the AFIS on 28 September 2011. Alice always tries to do her best to contribute to the committee, and hopes that a growing number of international students will get to know AFIS and connect with AFIS.

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Emily Enrica

Position: General Committee Member
Committee: VIC committee

Emily started to get involved in one of the AFIS termly event, Information Day, in the March 2011 and continued volunteering for the same event in September 2011. Information Day not only gave her the general knowledge about international student issues, but also gave her an opportunity to be involved in a solid team. The inspiration to become a part of AFIS team came from her gradual perspectives of seeing AFIS as a solid body, which was welcoming at first, then prospectively grew even more. Being in AFIS gave her teamwork skills, and experience of managing big event, facing wide range of people's personalities, finding and getting in touch with diversely cultural international students from all over the world.

To fulfill her aspiration to become a part of AFIS, she started joining AFIS General Committee in October 2011. She has been committed to contribute to organise a wide range of interstate and global events, as well as to advocate the issues and rights of international students in Victoria.