About Roots & Reach
Roots & Reach is a youth-focused nonprofit that connects middle and high school students with volunteer and learning opportunities in China. Our programs focus on education, conservation, and community engagement, including teaching, wildlife conservation, and cross-cultural experiences with local communities.
Why I Started Roots & Reach
Some of the most important things I have learned did not happen in a classroom.
They happened while talking with people whose lives were different from mine, going on a hike through an unfamiliar place, working alongside others, or realizing that something I thought I understood from a distance looked very different once I experienced it within a community.
That idea became the starting point for Roots & Reach.
Through my experiences traveling, volunteering, teaching, and learning in China, I began to see how much young people can gain from stepping into unfamiliar communities with curiosity and respect. While teaching in a rural village in Guangxi, I learned that even a carefully prepared lesson may not fit the students in front of you. During a panda conservation experience, I discovered that protecting an animal also means understanding its habitat, ecosystem, and the people whose work sustains it.
These experiences made me think differently about meaningful service—and meaningful travel.
I created Roots & Reach because I want more young people to have opportunities to learn through experience: to build connections, understand communities more deeply, contribute thoughtfully, and grow through what they encounter.
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Building Connections
A place can feel very distant when you know it only from maps, headlines, or other people’s descriptions. What seems unfamiliar or even intimidating from afar can become surprisingly comfortable once you are there—sitting in a classroom, talking with someone about their work, sharing a meal, going on a hike, or participating in a community project.
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The distance begins to disappear.
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A place that once seemed difficult to imagine becomes somewhere you can picture returning to. An experience that once felt out of reach begins to feel possible.
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I hope Roots & Reach can help create those connections by introducing students to opportunities in education, conservation, and community engagement in China.
Understanding through Experiences
Reading about another culture or community is valuable, but it can leave us with broad impressions about how people supposedly think, what they value, or how different their lives are from ours.
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Being there changes that.
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General categories begin to give way to individuals. You may meet people whose circumstances are very different from yours but who share more of your values, worries, humor, interests, and hopes than you expected. Often, the individuals are much more interesting than the generalizations.
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Things that seem strange from far away can also make much more sense once you see the circumstances around them. A choice that first seems surprising may reflect family expectations, local opportunities, limited resources, or simply a different way of approaching the same problem.
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That is the kind of understanding I want Roots & Reach to encourage: not just learning more about another place, but learning to look beyond first impressions and ask why something makes sense to the people living there.
Contributing Thoughtfully
Service matters, but meaningful contribution begins with respect for the people already doing the work.
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Local teachers understand their students. Conservation staff understand the animals and ecosystems they care for. Communities understand their own needs better than a visitor ever could.
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Our role is not to arrive with all the answers. It is to listen, participate, and contribute where we can.
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Sometimes those contributions may be small: seeing a student’s eyes light up, helping with work that conservation staff carry out every day, or bringing energy and curiosity into an exchange.
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But service is also reciprocal. You may leave a small mark on a place, while the people and experiences you encounter leave a much deeper mark on you.
Looking Forward
The name Roots & Reach reflects what I hope the organization can become.
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Roots remind us to understand where we come from—our communities, cultures, and experiences.
Reach asks us to move beyond what is familiar and connect with people, places, and perspectives different from our own.
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I hope Roots & Reach can continue building partnerships, expand opportunities in education and conservation, and help more students take part in meaningful cross-cultural experiences. A volunteer experience may last only a week or two. But the relationships, questions, confidence, and perspectives that grow from it can last much longer.
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That is what I hope Roots & Reach can help create: stronger connections, deeper understanding, meaningful contributions, and young people who return home seeing both the world—and themselves—a little differently.
Meet the Team
William Mo
VP of Outreach
Mindy Bao
Founder & President
Vik Duddila
VP of Programs
Vik Duddila
Secretary & Treasurer