Since its founding in 1996, FCSN has seen an abundance of volunteers with talent, creativity, and knowledge, all working toward a common mission to serve the special needs community. With the aid of many high school volunteers, FCSN has expanded to feature over 44 programs, ranging from one-on-one tutoring programs to individual enrichment classes. This year, although a roster of exceptional leaders and volunteers have ended their high school journey and will leave their hometowns to pursue different paths in life, many of them hope to still stay involved with FCSN. Started in the summer of 2022, the FCSN Young Leaders committee is a recent initiative dedicated to preserving these volunteers’ connection to FCSN through networking, events, and volunteer experiences. 

Established by founding members Katherine He, Isabella He, Anna Kuang, Sara Kuang, Erica Chiu, Kerensa Hardesty, Alana Tran, and advisors Linmei Chiao and Jim Chiao, the committee aims to gather together a group of highschool seniors and alumni that have been involved with FCSN to provide them with opportunities to continue enriching the lives of special needs individuals at FCSN. In 2023, four additional members, Rosalie Chiang, Jennie Wang, Maddy Zhang, and Joyce Lui were added. Led by Co-Chairs Katherine He and Sara Kuang, the committee has been holding monthly virtual meetings.  “[The committee allows] FCSN to become more of a long-standing organization where alumni can come back to FCSN and continue their efforts here,” Isabella said. Katherine further elaborates “One of the core goals of our FCSN Young Leaders Committee is to establish meaningful connections between alumni volunteers who are smart, hard-working, and service-oriented. As we continue our work, we want this community to last beyond high school and for our alumni to learn from and help one another.” 

The first highschool outreach event for the Young Leaders committee was held on May 20th. However, preparation began months prior, in early March. As Katherine explains, “the event was the first step in our initiative to expand the committee into the highschool community … we wanted to make sure that [the highschool volunteers] had a chance to build connections with one another while still actively involved in FCSN.”  For the next few months, the committee planned out the list of volunteers and activities for the event. The goal was to create  an atmosphere where all invitees would be open to get to know one another and to discuss freely amongst themselves. As Katherine describes, “we wanted it to be a circle, a round table where we would be able to foster more relationships between volunteers.”

On the day of the event, the committee invited FCSN youth volunteers for a short social gathering together at FCSN’s Chenming & Margaret Hu Center in Fremont. The event featured a short icebreaker session, in which participants all introduced themselves. Then, Linmei led the group through some fun activities, such as the Name Game and Pictionary. Shortly after, the volunteers all shared pizza and boba while socializing. 

During the event, many participants expressed their avid interest in continuing to work with FCSN beyond their grade level education. As participant Anshul Gupta describes, “I thought [the committee] would be a pretty great experience to expand my involvement in this community.” Other members also shared a similar interest in staying involved with the organization in order to continue to help special needs individuals with their daily lives. “[The committee will enable me to] work harder to build a brighter future for special needs children,” participant Aarav Sharma said.

For the past few years, passionate high school volunteers have offered countless hours to many volunteer programs in support of FCSN’s mission. The Young Leaders Committee allows these dedicated individuals to more easily continue their support to the special needs community at FCSN after graduating from high school, hopefully carrying this relationship through college and beyond. As for now, the committee is working on plans to set up an alumni network to share FCSN news/activities through a newsletter and a student council to help organize social events for high school and alumni volunteers. 

As FCSN’s Co-Chairman Jim Chiao explains, “FCSN’s future is really dependent on the younger generation. Some of the founding members, like myself, have spent 27 years with this organization … we are really looking at the young people to carry the torch to continue to help the special needs community.” 

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If you are a senior or FCSN alumni interested in joining the committee, reach out to founding member Katherine He at katherinehe2004@gmail.com. In the near future, the committee plans on creating a newsletter in which all events and volunteer opportunities will be posted.