Cecilia Chen is a senior at The Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas. She's spent 13 years studying visual arts and piano, teaching her the power of patience and creativity in her everyday life. Her artwork has earned multiple Scholastic Gold and Silver Keys, and was selected for the 2025 Dallas Young Artists Juried Exhibition. Additionally, she received a high commendation for the 2025 John Locke Global Essay Competition in the Philosophy Category, looking at what humans owe to the current and future generations.

Over time, she started noticing those who didn't get access to the arts.

In the winter of 2023, Cecilia and her friend Margaret Hohenshelt co-founded Sloane the Brand, a sustainable art-history inspired clothing brand. Their shared love for the arts, and seeing how the sustainability crisis was impacting the fashion industry brought them together in founding their business. She designed each collection from the art history eras they loved most. With the support of her friends and community, Sloane made its way into Hockaday's bookstore, local boutiques, and eventually on FOX4 News. In September of 2026, they advanced to the finals of the Dallas $9K Pitch Club. To support her brand, Cecilia researched greenwashing and sustainability policy. Her paper was nominated for the Pioneer Research Journal, placing it in the top 6% of the program's 2025 papers.

Reading about huge budget cuts in DISD art education funding, she and Margaret created the Sloane Arts Initiative, in which they put profits from their sales toward donating art supplies and creating exhibition spaces for teen artists.

In September of 2025, Cecilia co-founded Brush & Beyond: Art for Tomorrow, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, with her friend. Brush & Beyond makes free art history and activity videos on Youtube, with the goal of bringing art education to any child who lacks access. Their content consists of 130+ videos and 46,000+ views, and Cecilia has taught over 100 children through in-person art workshops, seeing the transformative impacts of art education in children. As the Branch President and Founder of UstartTeaching's Texas Branch, which she started in 2024, she manages 20+ student volunteers and has taught a variety of subjects to 500+ children across Dallas.

In July of 2026, Cecilia was invited by the President of ECOSOC to the UN High-Level Political Forum as a youth delegate. She joined in discussions on progress towards the UN 2030 Agenda, producing five reels from the forums.