A sea of pink.
That’s the first thing you would see as you enter the venue, and meet a crowd of 200 students clustered into the UT Arlington Texas Hall. From July 2-8, Chinese-American students ages 9 through 14 performed a course of activities to embrace their cultural heritage at the DFW Chinese Youth Camp at UT Arlington.
Campers attended classes such as Chinese etiquette classes, folk dancing, painting fans, spinning diabolos (Chinese yo-yos) and practicing calligraphy that engaged them in Chinese traditions. At the end of camp, students poured into Vandergriff Hall at UT Arlington, and the culmination of the counselors’ hard work finally came to fruition with performances done by the students.
Among the pink campers were camp counselors, denoted with bright blue shirts. Coppell High School sophomore Emma Zhao, junior Larry Liu and junior Amanda Zhu wore these blue shirts with pride. The journey wasn’t easy, as it took five years of camp to get to this point.
As young campers, Zhao, Liu and Zhu always admired the vibrant environment of the Chinese Youth Camp. The camp immersed them in Chinese culture, allowing them to deeply connect with their cultural roots around other Chinese kids their age.
This year, Jessica Chu, the associate camp director of the DFW Chinese Youth Camp chose Zhao, Liu and Zhu as counselors for the camp.
“All of them have an ability to learn, I think that’s always important as a leader,” Chu said. “Our leadership program is a big part of it and I’m so glad I got to work with all three of them, because they all grew from this experience and I love how they pushed themselves.”
For Liu, being a counselor at CYC was an experience teaching him to be less reserved by forcing him out of his shell. Liu’s self confidence grew and now he finds himself being a much more sociable person.
“I remember last year, I didn’t speak to anyone,” Liu said.“When I went to CYC, I became the loudest person, to make my campers laugh. I feel like now, I’m more outgoing and willing to put myself out there.”
Liu’s experience at the camp also helped him embrace his identity, connecting him to his culture more than ever. Prior to CYC, Liu felt distant from other Chinese teenagers. Being able to guide traditional Chinese activities devoted to Chinese-American youth made him feel like he truly belonged in his community as a Chinese person in America.
“CYC is basically the only time I have to talk to people of my community.” Liu said. “At school, there’s not really that many Chinese people, but at CYC there’s hundreds of Chinese people, which you don’t really see other than if you’re in China. Interacting with all these different types of people makes you feel more at home.”
Zhu started attending the camp when she was in fifth grade. She was inspired to be a counselor when she heard her friends’ conversations and stories about how much fun they were having being counselors at the camp.
“I knew I wanted to do volunteering during the summer so when I got the opportunity I was like this is perfect,” Zhu said. “It gave me a lot of leadership opportunities and I feel like I was able to grow as a person.”
Teaching Chinese culture to kids isn’t an easy task and requires a lot of patience. Through CYC, Zhu learned to persevere through tough situations to be an effective leader.
“I learned how to just roll with the punches,” Zhu said. “To persist even when it wasn’t the easiest situation to be in,”
Chu views Zhu as a compassionate leader who’s always willing to lend a helping hand.
“There’s a lot of potential with Amanda in the sense that she is a good listener, knows how to connect with people and finds ways to help people when they need it. She fills in the gaps, which is an important attribute,” Chu said.
Zhao has been attending CYC since she was in sixth grade. Her goal as a counselor was to make camp a positive place for her group.
“Camp taught me a lot about leadership and how to deal with kids,” Zhao said. “Before then, I didn’t really understand what it took to live with kids.”
Zhao faced initial difficulties getting her group to cooperate. The age group that she was assigned was 13 to 14-year-olds who were distant. Zhao encouraged the group to bond and worked diligently to come up with strategies to unite her campers together.
“One of the big things in my group in the beginning was that the boys and girls were very separated in the beginning,” Zhao said. “I got them to do this co-ed dance and that really brought them together. Every night, the counselors would get together and have meetings about how we could make the group dynamic better.”
As the CHS Chinese Club historian, Zhao looks forward to using the skills she learned in camp to bring more camaraderie to the club this year. CHS Chinese teacher and Chinese club sponsor Andrea Voelker recognizes Zhao’s leadership qualities.
“She’s very caring and very responsible. She wants to help others,” Voelker said. “I can rely on her, she’s very trustful. With her there, I know things will get done.”
At the end of the camp as students were saying their goodbyes, Liu, Zhu and Zhao felt prideful in the change they were able to invoke in these student’s lives. CYC was a unique experience that helped all three counselors mature as people, their time at the camp is something that they will never forget.
“It’s a good chance to connect with people from similar cultural backgrounds. It’s definitely something that I wouldn’t take for granted,” Zhu said. “I’m grateful that I got the opportunity to participate.”
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