To all those young students who want to give back to their community (or to simply get their volunteer hours in), it can be hard to know where to start. Kevin Wang from Silicon Valley, founder of Bridge to Harmony, offers some advice.
“Get your feet wet. Some people might want to volunteer, but not know what’s the perfect fit,” he says. “Go to a local library, or a local nursing home, or even just go out and do basic things, like picking up trash on a beach.”
After all, there’s always something each of us can do to make this world a little brighter. For Kevin and Bridge to Harmony, that includes writing a book or making a podcast.
“It’s great to just go out and to familiarize yourself with working with a group of people to serve the community. Based on that, opportunities will branch off.”
Getting started may just be the hardest part, but Kevin assures you that it will pay off. Many organizations would be delighted for another pair of helping hands, especially right after the pandemic. And plus, everyone has to start from somewhere.
“Just go for it!” Kevin urges students. “One of the most valuable things you can do is to put yourself out there, even if you aren’t sure how things will turn out, just trust that the dots will connect in the future. Even if things don’t go well, you can always grow from the experience, and learn and pursue the next thing.”
“In our first club meeting, everyone unanimously liked the food,” recounted Kevin Wang, a 12th grader from Silicon Valley, California.
Sure, everyone has their differences. But everyone eats food. In 2020, we saw the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement, followed by Stop Asian hate; people from around the world took to the streets in protests, crying out defiantly against injustice.
“In my free time, I like to follow politics,” Kevin said, “And I like to follow politics from a broad range of viewpoints. What’s immediately evident is the tribalism, polarization, and cultural misunderstandings, ignorance, and hate.”
So, in this backdrop of social and political turmoil, Kevin and some of his friends began to create a club: Bridge to Harmony. As the Golden Gate Bridge connects San Francisco to Marin County, Bridge to Harmony aims to, as the name implies, act as the bridge between different cultures.
“We don’t claim to be able to solve tribalism. But, we want to promote an atmosphere of fostering education, do cultural sharing, and unite on things that everyone loves, like food, to be able to give people a better sense of cultures that they may not be familiar with themselves.”
“We also want to mix in a lot of fun,” he added. That’s what led him and the other Bridge to Harmony members to start their first book: Taste of the World. The book covers traditional foods of different countries across the world, from Japan to Ethiopia to India, just to name a few.
“Through the lens of food and cuisine, we can glimpse the values, traditions, and cultures of different countries across the world.”
Just like the food we eat, we all have the differences that make us and our respective cultures unique.
In addition, he spoke about the collaboration that made this project possible.
“We worked together to do something that we all enjoyed. We have some great artists in the book; I’m really proud of the art we do. Also, we have researchers. Then, we have a writer that creates the narration. Being able to pull together with a diverse group of people, with a diverse set of talents and backgrounds, to create something, was a very fun and enriching experience.”
“The number one thing is that we are very warmhearted, even though we are different, we are very welcoming. Our club meetings have a very vibrant atmosphere,” he noted.
Although they faced difficulties with organizing schedules during covid, they ended up publishing a beautiful book, as vibrant as the club itself.
Kevin commented on their sense of achievement, saying that “the most rewarding part was revealing and being proud of the final product. Just having that physical product, and having it turn out so well, with all the amazing art and cultural content, is something that was very rewarding, since it showed that our hard work paid off.”
In the future, he plans to start a second book, along with a podcast, The Week in a World. “Every week we talk about an event in history, like an anniversary or a cultural event,” he explained. “It’s sharing cultural nuggets. Our projects are centered around bringing diverse people together to have a conversation.”
The issues in our society that set BLM and Stop Asian Hate in motion are likely to continue, even as students return to their schools and the world tries to find a new normal after the lockdown. Of course, it’s easy to lose hope in the face of daunting issues like social injustice and polarization. It’s even easier to feel like you’re alone, especially after the isolation that many people faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. But as Kevin Wang and the rest of Bridge to Harmony reminds us: everyone likes food.
Perhaps this testament to our humanity can bridge us together.
