Advancing girls to lead and fulfill their boundless potential

Who We Are
Our Mission and Team
Advancing teenage girls to lead and fulfill their boundless potential

We believe that all girls possess the talent, grit and courage to lead in their own way – they just need help unlocking them!

It’s our mission at JYC Girls Impact Foundation to open the door for all girls to unleash their boundless potential and make a positive, lasting impact everywhere they go.

We want to help teenage girls get ready for their future! By providing girls with future ready resources – education access, tech skills and mindset, and the inspiration and ability to lead with confidence, we are equipping girls with the agency to make their own decisions and become future generation leaders.

Founded by Jennifer Yu Cheng, an education thought leader, entrepreneur and philanthropist, JYC Girls Impact Foundation harnesses the power of education to empower girls to become future ready leaders.

FOUNDER

“Leadership is a behavior, not a title! Everyone is born with the ability to lead – it’s about tapping into those qualities and inspiring others to imagine a better future for their community and the world!”

Jennifer Yu Cheng

Founder

JYC Girls Impact Foundation (JYCGIF)

An educational thought leader, Jennifer Yu Cheng has been committed to promoting educational development for over a decade. As Group President and Deputy Vice Chairwoman of CTF Education Group, Jennifer is responsible for driving and implementing the group’s strategy to build a unique synergistic education ecosystem that advances the frontiers of K-12 education.

Jennifer’s passion for education took root at home. Her grandfather, who did not have a formal education, emphasized the value of education as the bedrock of knowledge, inspiration and the ability to change the world. At the age of 14, Jennifer had the opportunity to attend Choate Rosemary Hall, an American boarding school, and upon graduation, she moved to New York City to study at Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Sciences where she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering Operations Research and a minor in Economics. Jennifer obtained her Master of Education from Harvard University.

Jennifer began her professional life in the finance industry. After a successful career at Goldman Sachs as Executive Director in the Fixed Income Currency and Commodities division in Hong Kong, Jennifer applied her business acumen and passion for education to a project that would become her life’s mission: to create the best possible educational opportunities for children and teens. Jennifer co-founded ARCH Education, an expert education institute whose mission is to bridge the education gap through delivering transformational programs and providing expert education and admissions counselling. Through her work with ARCH, Jennifer and her team have helped thousands of students realize their dreams of becoming accepted to Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and dozens of the world’s finest universities and boarding schools.

In 2011, Jennifer co-founded ARCH Community Outreach (ACO), a non-profit organization dedicated to broadening Hong Kong students’ exposure and improving their access to international education opportunities, with a particular focus on supporting and sponsoring under-resourced high achievers in Hong Kong in their applications to global top universities.

In 2021, Jennifer founded the JYC Girls Impact Foundation (JYCGIF), a charitable initiative focused on educating, inspiring and ultimately empowering teenage girls to become “future ready leaders” – proactive, digitally savvy decision makers who leave a major local and global footprint. JYCGIF is on a unique mission to uplift the status of women in society and in the workplace and providing greater opportunities for social mobility by building the strongest pipeline of teenage girls who are both inspired and equipped with the future ready resources, skills and mindset to become tomorrow’s leaders.

Jennifer founded the FutureGen Girls Foundation and in 2024, launched The FutureGen Young Women Leaders Award, which not only recognizes teen girls’ accomplishments, but also creates a cross-industry ecosystem committed to opening doors for youth to support their development. Supporting the development and advancement of women in Hong Kong, Jennifer is also a Non-official Member of the Women’s Commission.

Jennifer is currently Supervisor of Victoria Educational Organisation (VEO), School Supervisor and School Manager of DSC International School, School Manager of Delia Memorial Schools and Board Member of Wycombe Abbey Hong Kong. As Supervisor and Member of The School Management Committee of VEO, Jennifer has been leading the school’s strategic plan and introducing world-class early childhood educational resources into VEO classrooms, as well as partnerships with global institutions, like Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Jennifer also serves on the board and as committee member of universities globally and in Hong Kong. She is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Group of Harvard Graduate School of Education; and Board of Visitors of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science of Columbia University, while serving as the Co-Chair of its Asia Advisory Group. Jennifer is a council member at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). She is also Chairman of HKUST Institutional Advancement and Outreach Committee, and a member of HKUST’s Standing Committee and Finance Committee, Joint Meeting of the Council Committee on HKUST (Guangzhou), HKUST Business School Advisory Council, Knowledge Transfer Committee and the Board of HKUST Foundation. She is also a member of the Court of The University of Hong Kong (HKU), the Election Complaint Committee of HKU and the Court of Lingnan University.

Jennifer is Director of The WEMP Foundation and “Share for Good”, New World Development’s crowd donation platform, and serves as Chairperson of the Youth and Ethnic Minority Committee. She is also a non-official member of the Commission on Children, Co-Chair of the Hong Kong Choate Club, Member of Victoria Shanghai Academy’s Academic Planning and Development Committee, Member of Asia Pacific Leadership Council of The Nature Conservancy, and Honorary Patron and Hong Kong School Affairs Advisor of Love Foundation.

In 2021, Jennifer was named one of Prestige magazine’s “40 Under 40”, has been recognized on Tatler’s “Asia’s Most Influential Lists” and received Tatler’s Front & Female Award in 2022 and numbered among JESSICA’s “Most Successful Women” in 2023 for her work empowering teen girls through education, which is contributing to a talent pipeline of women leaders of the future.

Jennifer Yu Cheng
Executive Director

There are many paths towards your goal, but it is not the paths but rather your determination that gets you there!

Cecilia Hon is Executive Director of JYC Girls Impact Foundation. Cecilia is responsible for developing and directing the Foundation’s organizational mission, strategy and policies, and overseeing the management of JYCGIF events, programs, and activities. Cecilia also spearheads community outreach and strategic engagement on behalf of the Foundation. Cecilia has over 20 years of experience in strategic business development, brand building, and event and operations management in the entertainment, NGO, and sports sectors. Cecilia comes to JYCGIF from the Hong Kong Academy of Ice Hockey (HKAIH), where she served as Chief Executive for 10 years – building the Academy from the ground up and creating an Ice Hockey presence for youths in Hong Kong. HKAIH is one of the major contributors to the rapid growth and localization of ice hockey in Hong Kong and the region. Cecilia believes everyone has signature talents, and she is committed accompanying young people to unleash their boundless potential.

Cecilia Hon
DIRECTOR

“By embracing diversity, we broaden our perspectives and grow as individuals and as communities!”

Tallie Lieberman is Director of JYC Girls Impact Foundation (JYCGIF) and Senior Editor and Project Associate at CTF Education Group (CTFEG). A seasoned writer and editor from Washington, D.C., Tallie is a former Middle East-based journalist and served as Tel Aviv University’s Communications Manager prior to joining JYCGIF and CTFEG. Trained on the news desks of CNN at the United Nations, The Associated Press Jerusalem Bureau and The International New York Times/Haaretz, Tallie’s diverse international reporting and editing has run the gamut from breaking news, politics and national security to science, business, lifestyle and the arts. Tallie followed her passion for education to Tel Aviv University, where she spent seven years distilling complex, cutting-edge research into vibrant, newsworthy stories aimed at a global readership.

Prior to her work in the Middle East, Tallie’s writing took her to Beijing, China, where she worked as an English speechwriter for Israel’s Ambassador to China and freelanced at The China Daily and The Beijinger. Tallie holds an M.Sc. in Development Economics from the London School of Economics and a B.A. in History from Columbia University. Tallie speaks native English, fluent Spanish and Hebrew, and conversational Bahasa Indonesia. Tallie believes that diversity of experience, perspective and environment fuels creativity and innovation, bridges gaps and fosters lasting camaraderie: “By embracing diversity, we exponentially broaden our perspectives and grow as individuals and as communities!”

Tallie Lieberman