Connecting Generations Through Science, Service, and Passion --High School Volunteerism with ChAbS
- YuYuan Zhang
- 4 hours ago
- 5 min read
十年同行，笔载真情
今年是华人抗体协会成立十周年，为了庆祝并纪念协会十年来的光辉历程，我们诚邀您分享难忘故事！无论您是携手共进的伙伴，还是关注我们的朋友，期待您的真挚来稿，共庆协会十年华诞。投稿地址：chabs.10years@chabs.org。此文是这个系列的第四篇，作者为参与过年会的小志愿者Yoyo Wu
In a metaphorical sense, I consider myself a translator—a translator between languages, between people, between research manuscripts and meaning.
The life of a translator is arduous yet rewarding. There are many divides in the world, and for each divide, there is one more bridge to build. Translation takes on many forms: in academia, I find myself translating manuscripts’ jargon—C-terminus,proteasome—into understandable language for the elderly, suffering mothers, sick children. Across cultural borders, I translate my impressions of our world from English to 中文 to français to 日本語. However, the crux of translating in my life has been volunteering: translating a community’s needs into actionable goals and tangible impacts.
My own journey with volunteering began with the current organization I lead, Shine-A-Light: Boston Chapter, a driven group of young volunteers that taught me to connect with our communities in Greater Boston, but also with the heritage within which I was born. While I discovered my passion for biology, the opportunity offered by the Chinese Antibody Society for interested Shine-A-Light members and beyond—to volunteer as a high school student at their Annual Conference—brought me an understanding of careers in pharmaceutical research and a look into my people’s profound resilience and innovation. Thus, the Chinese Antibody Society’s generosity in offering this opportunity has served me twofold: inspiring me with a glimpse into the professional pharmaceutical world, and providing me a tight-knit community of passionate volunteers who all share vivid memories of our experiences here.
At the Conference each year, I met hundreds of researchers who shared my cultural and ethnic heritage, all studying to treat the most biologically complex diseases our world deals with today through creativity, passion, and drive. During my first year at the Conference, I had just begun my studies in biological science and discovered my passion for constructing biochemical solutions to ailments. As I scribbled notes on SARS-CoV-2 and MASP-2 antibodies, I met a bespectacled PhD whose encouragement and enthusiasm inspired me, and I aspired to become like her—sharp mind, black fringe, an advocate for Asian voices in health. A translator across worlds—from research to medicine, from theory to application. The next few years were no different: as I studied chemical reactions and antibody interactions, I again met industrial and professional experts whose research posters inspired my own. The Chinese Antibody Society’s Annual Conference paved the way for me to conduct and present my research findings with confidence at high school state fairs, enriching my budding understanding of my favorite subject.
At the same time, each conference offered me something unique and something I will treasure forever: a community of like-minded, kindhearted, and devoted student volunteers. Through sorting name tags together, I’ve learned to share space behind the registration tables, to chat during idle breakfasts and learn more about the gentle humming of others’ lives across Massachusetts. Through drawing Mother’s Day decorations and antibody doodles in multicolored markers, I’ve shared the warmest smiles and created lifelong friends who return year after year to say hello again, even if just for one morning. I will always fondly treasure our lunchtime conversations about personality tests, empathizing about school in different districts, and wondering where others are going to college. We’ve offered advice and support, but we’ve shared laughter too. My favorite moment each year is when the conference is slowly fading to a quiet dusk, and the student volunteers return from our assigned tasks and exchange contacts with each other, snapping silly photos together and promising to stay in touch. I trust that I will meet them again—either at the next Chinese Antibody Society Annual Conference, our favorite day in May, or in our distant futures, where we have all found happiness and fulfillment.
Like a middle school student’s first lesson about DNA “translation,” I hope to continue living my life as a connector between worlds, no matter how different: from codons to protein, from English to Chinese, from dream to reality. Living a life of volunteerism has been the most rewarding aspect of my high school career—and the Chinese Antibody Society’s Annual Conference has truly offered me one of the most uniquely fulfilling opportunities to realize this aspect of my life for the last four years. The Chinese Antibody Society’s mission—to facilitate a multifaceted collaboration between industry, academia, healthcare, and investors in the realm of therapeutic antibodies—has directly aligned with everything this volunteering opportunity has brought me: it has nurtured productive networking opportunities for me and simultaneously fostered community, productivity, and togetherness in a manner no other opportunity has before.
From now on, as I turn to my future in higher education, I trust that I—as a past and forever volunteer for the Society—am passing the torch to successors that will far exceed everything that we have achieved thus far. I wish the utmost success for the Chinese Antibody Society, during its 10th Anniversary and beyond.
十年同行，笔载真情集锦
2026年5月9日至10日，美国马萨诸塞州波士顿剑桥(Cambridge, MA)，华人抗体协会（ChAbS）将迎来2026年年会暨成立十周年庆典。这是一场横跨学术界、产业界、投资界与监管科学的盛会。本次大会以“十年同行，共铸抗体药未来”（10 Years Together: Forging the Future of Antibody Therapeutics）为主题，从双载荷ADC、双抗ADC，到AI驱动的抗体设计，到商业化生产。超过20位全球顶尖讲者、3场深度圆桌、优秀海报评选与十周年庆祝晚宴，将共同勾勒抗体药物未来十年的技术版图。无论是深耕实验室的科学家，还是布局管线的企业家，ChAbS 2026都为您提供不可错过的思想碰撞与合作契机。即刻注册，与全球华人抗体社群一起，铸造下一个十年。2026年ChAbS年会Brochure已正式发布。敬请关注下载：https://www.chabs.org/2026-annual-conference
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华人抗体协会
华人抗体协会（ChAbS）是一个聚焦于治疗性抗体领域的独立的、非营利、非政府性质的全球性专业组织。协会的宗旨是致力于打造一个全球性抗体领域的交流、沟通与合作的专业性平台。协会与牛津大学出版社合作出版其官方期刊《Antibody Therapeutics》，该期刊已被 ESCI、PubMed 和 Scopus 收录。
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