A VISION FOR A FUTURE WITHOUT BLOOD CANCER

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Emma Chang. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Emma Chang is a true visionary.

After losing a family member to leukemia, Emma attended a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society event and learned about the organization’s work to fund research and support blood cancer patients. When the opportunity to join their Student Visionary Program came up, the 17-year-old high school student was ready to take on a challenge.

Initially, Emma found herself struggling to succeed in the program, which invites high school students to develop their philanthropic leadership skills. While she recruited a bunch of friends to volunteer alongside her, she ultimately had to reassess their efforts and request a greater sense of dedication to the cause. The group established clear goals and deadlines, and hosted several community initiatives ranging from silent auctions to a donut fundraiser with Krispy Kreme. Educational seminars raised awareness about leukemia and lymphoma, and provided survivors the opportunities to share their stories and explain the vital need for continued research. Ultimately, Emma’s time in the Student Visionary Program was a tremendous success: The team helped to raise over $252,000 for blood cancer research in the Golden Gate area.

While Emma’s efforts to create awareness and raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society were a triumph, the personal journey she navigated through her volunteer work was also a major achievement. She learned important leadership and time management skills, and gained confidence that will carry her into adulthood. While Emma’s time in the Student Visionary Program has come to a close, she has big plans on the horizon. When she heads to college next year, she’ll study biomedical engineering or bioengineering with a focus on gene therapies. She hopes to use her education to help solve blood cancer. Emma’s story is a strong example of how volunteering gives us the skills to truly make a difference in the community and ultimately see a difference in ourselves.

Tell us about your volunteer role with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

I was chosen as a student visionary. In that role, I recruited my team to help fundraising efforts within a period of six to eight months, although I did continue this afterward. As one of the team leaders I recruited a bunch of my friends, posted on social media and gathered people from our community to help. We had community seminars based on blood cancers and the work that LLS are doing.

Some events we hosted included silent auctions and reaching out to community stores, asking them to donate products or experiences. We would sell those online at auction, and people would bid on them, and we would collect those bids as donations. Besides community seminars, I increased outreach to my school, teaching about blood cancers and chemotherapy to my classmates. By the end of the year, all the student visionaries combined for the Golden Gate area were able to raise around $250,000 for blood cancer research and patient support.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

After a family member passed away from leukemia, I first came to know of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through their Light the Night event, when you buy a lantern based on your relationship with someone who had blood cancer. From there, I learned about their Student Visionary Program. I thought it was really interesting that I didn’t know about it, since the LLS community, from my knowledge, was a really big organization. I thought if I could bring them support and raise awareness about all the amazing research and patient support they’re doing for my community, that would be so beneficial.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

I would love to increase awareness about lymphoma. I feel like we hear about blood cancer as a big general term, but we don’t understand specifics. It’d be nice to increase awareness in areas that maybe don’t have the resources to access this information. I still hope to continue raising awareness about what they do, because LLS has helped countless families with counseling and getting treatment. It would also be great to increase support for the cause.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

The most rewarding part has been meeting survivors of leukemia and lymphoma. Every year, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Student Visionary Program honors a survivor. At the time, one of our survivors had leukemia through high school, and that ended up delaying her to go to college. As a high school senior right now, I can’t imagine the stress and other challenging emotions that she could have been having. I think seeing someone so close in age to me have to go through this was impactful. It not only pulled me closer to it, but it made me realize that what we’re doing has a tangible impact.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

I learned that organization and strong leadership, in general, are just incredibly necessary to make an impact. I think it’s really important to have clear goals about what we want to do. As a high schooler with limited resources in this program, we weren’t going to raise a million dollars. That was impossible. However, having reasonable expectations and a timeline to keep organized was important. There were definitely occasions where we members got off track in meetings and on our timeline. I think leadership is necessary not only to keep the growth team, but also to help grow it.

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?

We want to support our communities and each other. The way I do this is by educating others on important topics like blood cancer. Not only will we be more informed, but more people can support a good cause. The best thing you can probably do is increase support for a cause that you care about.

Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?

When I was starting high school and beginning to volunteer, I didn’t know anybody doing similar volunteer efforts. The one piece of advice I would give is to not be afraid to start new efforts because no one’s going to hold you back. The worst thing people can say is no. We sent so many different emails to local companies and placed calls to them. The worst thing that happened was they wouldn’t reply to our emails or said they couldn’t support us. You don’t know how many people are going to support you until you ask. My parents, for example, were so incredibly supportive. They went above and beyond and posted on their social media about this. They helped spread the word in their offices, and we got a lot of love, and it helped our fundraising efforts.

What do you want people to learn from your story?

I think it would be great if people could have a deeper understanding of chemotherapy and blood cancer. On a greater level, just go for something if you want it. For me, I didn’t expect our fundraising efforts to have a big as big an impact as we ended up having. I think it was really interesting how that played out. I think one important thing I learned is to put all your effort into something while balancing all the different things in your life. If you want to do something, have the passion.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Emma? Find local volunteer opportunities.