This article is by Dalmacia Shang, who traveled to Humahuaca with her mother, Xiran Du, and 42 other members of the Yale Alumni Service Corps. Her note speaks for itself.
Thank you, Dalmacia, for all the wonderful work you do.
When my mom invited me to go on my first YASC (Yale Alumni Service Corps) trip to Panama, I was 14. I had never been on a service trip, and Panama wasn’t exactly a “cool” vacation spot that I could post on Instagram. Nonetheless, the YASC webinar about the Panama trip sparked my curiosity, and I ultimately found myself on a plane to Panama, ready to spend a week of my summer in the mountains with minimal contact with the outside world. My week in Panama was packed with activities; I spent most of my mornings teaching elementary school students math and reading, with afternoons spent planting trees, painting school walls, and even building a greenhouse. At the end of the week, I discovered that a part of me wasn’t yet ready to return home and leave Panama behind. The YASC trip to Panama was the first time that I had given back to the community in a substantial way, and it left me feeling fulfilled.
The next year, when my mom told me about the YASC trip to Argentina, I was eager to go and recruited some of my friends to join me, some from California, others from Beijing. What I didn’t expect was that my second YASC trip was even more meaningful, something that I hadn’t thought possible. The students I met in Humahuaca were closer to my age, making the experience much more personal. What also helped was that the Argentina trip involved more interactions with the students; we spent most of our time in the classroom teaching about AI and computer literacy. We had most meals together with student interpreters, celebrated Pachamama (“Mother Earth”) with the locals, and discussed our schools and hobbies. Once I was able to look beyond the language and cultural differences, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had many similarities with my new friends in Argentina—we shared similar hobbies and bonded over things like our favorite music artists. They might not have had the same resources, but they were full of life and vitality, eager to experience and contribute to the world outside.
I knew something had to change. I partnered with Dr. Richard Low, a Yale alumnus in Argentina, to create a culture exchange program between students in the U.S. and Argentina. Dr. Low introduced me to Teacher Mariana who ran an after-school English program, and I decided to start doing weekly Zoom meetings with her students. When the program first started, it was primarily a one-way exchange; I would present to the kids anywhere between 9-17 years old, and they would listen. However, as time went on, the students in Argentina would also present details about their lives. I learned about their holidays and artistic traditions, with many of the students bringing in their own crafts to share. With my friends’ help, I recruited a handful of students from China to join the program, thereby transforming it into a three-way exchange. In 2025, we ran 8 sessions between the US, China, and Argentina, teaching English, sharing culture, and learning from one another in a way that no one thought would have been possible just months before. In the future, I hope to expand the program to even more countries and help the foreign students use the things they learn through the exchange program to succeed in life and broaden their horizons.
In 2026, I’m excited to continue my service trip journey, be it in South Dakota or Poland, learning from new communities and growing through experiences that push me beyond what I already know.
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