Ooi with her trophy at the Queens Hall in Parliament of Victoria building in Melbourne, Australia.
A MALAYSIAN has won big at the 2025 Multicultural Youth Awards, which highlights the outstanding achievements of youths from multicultural backgrounds in Australia.
Undergraduate Ooi Shiao Lu, 23, bagged the award in Young Woman of the Year category for community-based, grassroots initiatives that promote social inclusion and connection.
She founded the Wombat Collective, an international student-run non-profit organisation based in Melbourne.
Among her key projects is the “Blooms Reborn” flower donation programme, which collects discarded flowers from events such as university graduations.
The flowers are then donated to hospitals and aged care homes to bring joy to patients and residents.
She also organises and co-hosts art workshops and tea-and-crafts sessions that foster dialogue and connection between international students and other community members.
Another notable initiative involved helping international students and migrants explore how to turn their lived experiences into entrepreneurial ventures that create social impact.
Ooi, who is from Penang, said: “I am truly grateful for this prestigious recognition of the work I have done so far.
“Coming to Melbourne in 2022, I would not have expected to achieve and grow so much as an individual.
“Moving ahead, I hope to continuously empower myself and others to make positive impacts in our communities,” she said after receiving the award at the Queens Hall in Parliament of Victoria building in Melbourne.
Ooi previously served as the Malaysian Students Council of Australia (Masca) chairman, representing about 20,000 Malaysian students in Australia.
She also coordinated efforts to collect and return 500 postal ballots from Malaysians residing in Australia during the previous general election.
The Multicultural Youth Awards is a national event organised and supported by Multicultural Youth Group and Multicultural Arts Victoria.
It is sponsored by the Victorian government; department of jobs, skills, industry and regions; city of Melbourne; Centre for Multicultural Youth; and Technical and Further Education (Tafe) Victoria.
There were 13 winners across 13 categories.
To be eligible for the awards, nominees must be from culturally diverse backgrounds, aged between 16 and 30 and meet the criteria for each award category through impactful work that benefitted the Australian community.
