Sylvia Kwan

Sylvia Kwan was a contestant on Survivor: Fiji.

Profile
Sylvia Kwan was born in Hong Kong, where she lived for eight and a half years before moving with her parents and five siblings to Los Angeles. After graduation from high school, she relocated to the Bay Area where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree and Master of Architecture degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

Kwan is the founder and Chairman of a renowned architectural firm located in San Francisco. As Chairman, she is responsible for strategic planning and development for her award-winning firm. She has resided as the Board Chair of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and currently serves on the board of a number of Bay Area non-profit and for-profit boards. She is also a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Kwan is especially proud of designing the interiors of Pacific Bell Park (now AT&T Park), home of the San Francisco Giants.

Kwan describes herself as creative, energetic and determined, and according to her husband, holds the unofficial title of “Ultimate Consumer”. In her spare time, Kwan plays tennis, skis, hikes and plays golf. She’s also happy that she finally learned how to swim, because it was sink or swim as a Survivor contestant. Kwan's never met an exercise routine she didn’t like, keeping in shape with Pilates, yoga, Tai Chi, and any new type of gym equipment introduced.

Kwan resides in Marin County with her husband of 26 years, Denis Henmi. They are currently building their dream house, a mid-century modern creation that was inspired by years of designing homes for their clients. Kwan and Henmi have two children, Drew, 18 and Derek, 15. Kwan was born on August 18, 1954.

Survivor: Fiji
Sylvia's time on Survivor started off badly and got steadily worse and worse. For example, when the tribes were setting up their initial shelters, Sylvia used her background in architecture to help the building, but other competitors such as Rocky were annoyed by her efforts to be a leader. Sylvia was then chosen as the leader who divided up the two teams, and promptly got sent to Exile Island. While she avoided Ravu's first vote-out, she was also out of the loop when the tribe began forming internal alliances, and the fact that she had access to drinking water during her time away further irritated her tribemates (who were Have Nots and did not have a way to make fire so they could boil water), who proceeded to make no effort to welcome her back to the tribe. Sylvia tried to forge better relations with players like Michelle and Anthony, but they weren't interested, later telling a surprised Sylvia at the first Tribal Council that she was being pushy. Although they voted out Erica instead of her, Sylvia knew her time in the game would not last much longer unless she could use the clues from Exile Island to find a hidden Immunity Idol. While she was sent back to the island after Ravu lost the 3rd episode's reward challenge and found a clue that gave her a good idea of where it was located, she had neither the time nor the tools to really look for it. After Ravu lost its 3rd straight Immunity challenge, a few players considered keeping Sylvia around, but she never overcame her rough start and became the third person voted out on Fiji.

Trivia

 * Sylvia holds the record for the longest time without a tribe affilation. Joining Ravu after they lost the first challenge, she became an official member only at their next challenge.