Leadership and Serve Community

Leadership And Community Service

As Vice President for two years and President of the Dallas Youth Volunteer Association (DYVA) this year, one of my responsibilities was organizing senior home visits and performances serval times every year. In addition to volunteers from DYVA, I also invited my arts students to participate. They made gifts, created holiday greeting cards, chatted with the seniors, and put on talent performances at the senior homes. Most importantly, this activity teaches the younger generation to care for and respect their seniors. The volunteers not only learn to further understand the importance of giving back to our community, but also have the opportunity to make connections with people that have extensive life experience.

DYVA’s Visit of Senior Homes

From a young age, I often visited senior homes several times a year. I chatted with the seniors, listening to their stories, and I danced or played flute for them. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the senior home was closed to visitors. As a result, I represented DYVA to send gifts and holiday greeting cards to the senior homes and also coordinated an online holiday performance for the seniors.

Livestream Holiday Performance for Senior Homes during COVID-19

As a DYVA officer, I organized a livestream of performances by volunteers for the seniors during the winter holidays. We received numerous appreciation emails and photos from the seniors afterward.

In-Person Performance at Senior Homes

Before COVID-19 hit, I organized and hosted volunteer performances at various senior homes each year. The volunteers included my art students as well as members of DYVA. Here we were visiting Brookdale Collin Oaks senior living in Plano.

Raising Funds for DCHC

I volunteered at performances hosted by the Dallas Children Help Children (DCHC) charity organization. The purpose of these performances was to raise donations for the Feed My Starving Children nonprofit organization. In addition to being a performer, I also served as Stage Manager and collected the donations.

Performance of YAA Award Receiver

As a member of CIE-USA (Chinese Institute of Engineers USA), I volunteered at the CIE/USA-DFW annual conference every year. I was selected as one of eight students who received the 2020 Young Achiever Award (YAA) and granted life-time membership by demonstrating excellence in academics, extracurriculars, community service, and leadership. All awardees provided performances during the conference. Due to COVID-19, the conference was hosted virtually, so I choreographed a dance to the music “A Spray of Plum Blossoms” and filmed it.

Visited Brookdale Spring Creek Gardens Senior Living

We visited Brookdale Spring Creek Gardens senior living, brought gifts, and performed. Spending a couple of hours with the seniors, we played games and chatted with them.

Visited Sunrise of Frisco Senior Living

We visited Sunrise of Frisco senior living, brought gifts, and performed. Spending a couple of hours with the seniors, we played games and chatted with them.

Visited Brookdale Spring Creek Gardens Senior Living again one year later

Seniors were so enjoyed of our performance last year, we visited Brookdale Spring Creek Gardens senior living again one year later. We have many talented kids, and we brought different kinds of performances each time. The most important role for us to visit is to spend time chatting with our seniors.

Performances at Cultural Festivals

I often performed group and solo dances as cultural events, such as the Dragon Festival or Plano Asian Festival.

Northeast Texas Girl Scouts

During Chinese Lunar New Year, I worked Northeast Texas Girl Scouts and performed classical Chinese dance solos at elementary schools in the Dallas downtown area.

Dance not only allows me to bring joy to people during performances at Senior Homes and Culture Festivals, it also gives me the opportunity to actively participate in my school’s celebrations. Every year, I dance in Hockaday’s assembly to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year and play a role in spreading Chinese culture.

With a strong dance background that I had built from a young age, I had my first group of dance students at the Dallas Modern Chinese Language School (DMCLS) when I was in 8th grad. After one year of teaching dance there, I became a Teacher Assistant and later the youngest Dance Teacher at XJ Star Dance School. In my classes, I teach younger students the basics of Ballet.

I served as the emcee in annual recital for my dance studio, XJ Star Dance School. I was also heavily involved with organizing and preparing the event.

I also performed with my classmates in different events at Hockaday. Dance has allowed me to meet new people and form lasting friendships within my community.