Written by Fangwen Huang
Translated by H.B. Qin
Edited by Adriana DiBenedetto
Even the summertime heat could not diminish students’ enthusiasm at this year’s Tzu Chi USA Southern Region’s Youth Camp. Taking place from August 7–10, 2025, the camp welcomed nearly 50 Tzu Chi Collegiate Association (TCCA) members, also known as Tzu Ching, from all eight Tzu Chi USA regions. TCCA is a network of collegiate volunteers across the United States who uphold Tzu Chi’s spirit in their daily lives as community volunteers and proactive students as they develop into compassionate leaders. As trainees, they were accompanied by seventy camp staff members while exploring philanthropy and leadership development.
Camp Sets Compassion into Action
“Awakening the Heart, Acting for Good, and Changing the World” was set as this year’s camp theme. The program-planning team additionally arranged community service for the trainees on August 9, including pantry distribution and school supply packing, allowing the trainees to experience compassion in action firsthand.
In collaboration with the Houston Food Bank, Tzu Chi USA’s Southern Region holds a pantry distribution twice per month. Typically, between seventy and eighty volunteers participate in each event. This time, the camp’s trainees led the distribution, with volunteers from the Southern Region providing attentive support.
Participants were divided into groups to serve at registration, food packaging, guiding the queue, and package replenishment. Each group was paired with a volunteer familiar with the distribution process and details, so that if any unresolved questions arose, trainees could seek immediate assistance, ensuring an efficient and streamlined operation.
Firsthand Experience Through Community Service
Both trainees and volunteers persevered through Texas’ scorching heat and remained focused on their duties, although everyone was certainly feeling the weather’s effects. “Remember to stay hydrated,” volunteers frequently reminded the trainees.
Also at the summer camp were members of the Tzu Chi Youth Association, who are known as Tzu Shao. One such attendee from Tzu Chi’s Austin, Texas, Chapter, Caitlin Wong, is rising into her senior year of high school. She shared that guidance from Tzu Ching members enabled her to complete tasks more effectively, as she learned how to pack food more attractively and neatly, allowing recipients to feel the thoughtfulness behind their actions.
Wong was delighted to serve alongside college Tzu Chings from across the U.S. as well. When directing traffic, too, she could clearly see the expressions on recipients’ faces. “They all looked really happy when they came in, and especially when they left. So they were all very happy with warm smiles afterwards, and it was just really nice to see,” she said.
Discovering the Joy of Helping Others
Felisha Mireles is a Tzu Ching member at Texas A&M University. She worked alongside volunteers to register arriving vehicles and direct drivers to parking spots during the distribution. Despite the hot and humid weather, she maintained high spirits and a welcoming smile.
Being able to provide food for these families, because I know it can be hard, it could be really difficult, especially if you're maybe just a single parent or maybe just on hard times, having some kind of support really helps and goes a long way.
One of Emory University’s 2020 graduates, Rita Wang, was once the president of the school’s Tzu Chi Collegiate Association chapter. She is currently a medical school student in Connecticut. While working in hospitals, she had witnessed a great deal. Particularly, she noted how patients were sometimes overlooked or neglected in society due to financial hardship, disability, or other barriers. Her experience with pantry distributions has inspired her approach to future patient care, expressing that it helped her learn “How to be a better listener and make them feel cared for.”
Future Aspirations Shared
Kai-Tang Tseng, a biomedical engineering student at the University of Virginia, moved to the U.S. with his family in 2013, when he was in the first grade. He was responsible for registering guests at the front desk during the pantry distribution.
“You really feel a sense of joy when, after you finish registering them, they are thanking you with a huge smile on their face. They’re just very happy and are like, ‘Thank you,’ ‘Gracias.’ Yeah, it just makes you really happy that you’re able to contribute to someone’s smile, and, in a way, make them happy and feel you’re actually making an impact on their life as well as your own. So I also learned a little bit of Spanish just for this event, which is also good,” Tseng shared with delight.
During the distribution, Tseng met many families at the event, some of whom had experienced unemployment for months, and needed support during this time. Some larger households also faced a tremendous financial strain. He found that the net value of some households’ income and expenses calculated by the system was negative for a few families.
Tseng shared that, while his own family wasn’t terribly well-off, they had never experienced negative income. This event deeply impressed upon him that many people in this community and across the country are facing dire circumstances, and genuinely need Tzu Chi’s assistance. “It’s really nice to see Tzu Chi being able to provide food. Even if it’s just a little money, it’s still taking off some of the burden on their shoulders, some of the economic and financial burden that they might be suffering, and helping them be able to at least have a filling meal,” Tseng said thoughtfully.
I feel like it was a very important lesson, too, to be able to actually do the service, and actually feel in the moment. A lot of times you can see stuff on the news, see it in a story. But none of them is as good as actually doing the service yourself, and being in the moment to actually feel what it's like in that situation.
Support Students' Education
In preparation for the new school year, the Southern Region’s Happy Campus program additionally planned to distribute stationery, uniforms, and socks to three elementary schools: Landis Elementary School, Smith Elementary School, and Ed White Elementary School.
Inside the region’s Jing Si Hall, backpacks, notebooks, folders, pens, and other supplies were neatly arranged on long tables. Trainees took on the job of packing the items neatly into bags.
Many hands made light work; a total of 180 school supply bags were packed that day, while 2,500 pounds of produce were distributed, benefiting 338 families.
Through their hard yet heartfelt work, the students and community volunteers shared their sincerest blessings with the families they served. This experience taught them that compassion is not just a concept, but a practice of sincere and repeated service.
