Alumni Spotlight: Steven Hu '19

Steven Hu is living proof that a WPGA foundation can lead anywhere—from the classroom to global security work in Los Angeles. A graduate of the University of Toronto and Georgetown University and a former member of the Armed Forces, Steven shares how his time at WPGA helped shape a life of service, leadership, and lifelong connection.

I graduated in 2019. I came to WPGA in grade 8.  

I currently live in Los Angeles, California, and work in the field of content protection and global security technology. I work with major media and entertainment studios such as Disney, Prime Video, and NBC and their third-party vendors to mitigate information security vulnerabilities of their pre-release content and intellectual property.  

At the time, I really wanted to live on the East Coast, so I applied to only universities in Ontario. I attended Victoria College at the University of Toronto for my Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations. After that, I attended Georgetown University for my Master’s Degree in Intelligence Studies.  

I spent five years in the army, joining while I was in my senior year at WPGA. I graduated early from UofT to deploy overseas in 2022. I decided to leave the forces in 2023 to pursue other aspirations in the United States.

My time in the military was the most transformative experience of my life. It taught me the value of public service, civic duty, resilience, and personal responsibility. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. 

 

WPGA did an amazing job preparing me for postsecondary education. I had an excellent foundation in language arts and qualitative research, which allowed me to succeed in all my years of university. Moreover, the wide selection of AP courses allowed me to gain enough credits to graduate early from UofT. 

Working as a team. Leadership. I think many of our experiences in our youth carry us forward in life, and I think the responsibilities I had for clubs and teams gave me the early confidence I needed to succeed in university and early on in my career. 

I can’t think of a single event but it’s a tie between tech week for my senior year doing the play, and my last VYMUN conference on crisis staff. You don’t get to have as many of these opportunities as an adult, so the last go around with all my friends made it extra memorable. 

Model UN, varsity golf, First Responders, the annual drama production, and varsity basketball as a team manager. 

It would have to be Mr. Lu. He made learning fun and always had words of wisdom for life. We stay in touch still and I bother him every six months or so with what’s going on in life. He’s always there to respond with amazing supportive advice such as “just give up” or “the answer is blowing in the wind.” Some of my fondest memories were the silly games we used to play at the end of class, and our long talks about the political, social, and economic state of the world after school in his lab. 

It sounds very cheesy and corny, but you’re not going to be here forever, so enjoy it while it lasts. 

I can only think of one word and it'd be “home.” My sister now goes here and it’s where I met my best friends. 

In my first ever golf tournament on the school team, I set our record for the most strokes in a game. 

Having the courage to keep trying and start over when life didn’t go my way—and carving out my own unique nonsensical career path in the process. 

Get a football team!