Community and field work
14 Entries · 72 Photos

Field Notes

Photos, reflections, and observations from the field — where research meets real life.

Milestone2026.03.227 photos

What iHOSA Taught Me About Bridging Disciplines

Standing in front of a panel of healthcare professionals, I realized that environmental data means nothing if clinicians don't know how to use it. My presentation on PM2.5 and pediatric respiratory admissions got the strongest response not from the data itself, but from the moment I showed a photo of a child at Qi'en looking out a hospital window on a high-pollution day. Science persuades. Stories move people to act.

Presenting at iHOSA China
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Presenting at iHOSA China

The gap between knowing and doing is where the most vulnerable people live.

#hosa#public-health#reflection
Milestone2026.03.158 photos

Conrad Challenge: Best Innovation Award

Gas Courier won. But the moment that mattered most was not the trophy — it was bringing the first batch of low-spice nutrition packs to Qi'en and watching Mingming eat something that tasted like home for the first time in four months. His mother cried. I almost did too. The Conrad finals were three days of intense pitching, lab demonstrations, and conversations with judges who asked the hardest questions about scalability and clinical validation.

Presenting Gas Courier at finals
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Presenting Gas Courier at finals

Innovation isn't about novelty. It's about who you're solving for.

#conrad#gas-courier#milestone
Photo Story2026.02.125 photos

Lantern Festival at Qi'en: Light in the Ward

We organized a Lantern Festival celebration for the children at Qi'en. Making lanterns with kids who can barely hold scissors requires patience and creativity. We pre-cut the shapes and let them decorate. Xiaoyu made a lantern shaped like a tree — her favorite subject. The ward was glowing by evening. For a few hours, the hospital didn't feel like a hospital.

Making lanterns together
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Making lanterns together

Light doesn't fix anything. But it reminds you that darkness isn't permanent.

#qi'en#lantern-festival#community
Photo Story2025.12.208 photos

Science Experiments in the Children's Ward

We designed hands-on science experiments for children with limited mobility. Flame color experiments (safe, supervised), dried flower pressing, crystal growing. The goal isn't to teach chemistry — it's to give these kids something to be curious about besides their treatment schedules. A seven-year-old asked me why copper makes green fire. That question was worth more than any competition trophy.

Flame color experiment
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Flame color experiment

Why does copper make green fire? — the best question I've been asked all year.

#qi'en#science#volunteering
Field Observation2025.12.084 photos

Saturday at Qi'en: The Lung Guardian Handbook

Today we distributed the first printed copies of the Lung Guardian Handbook to families at Qi'en. It teaches parents how to check AQI, when to keep kids indoors, and how to create a cleaner breathing zone at home with basic materials. Three families told me it changed their daily routine. The best intervention is the one people actually use.

Distributing handbooks at Qi'en
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Distributing handbooks at Qi'en

Xiaoyu asked me if the air outside was 'green' today. She meant safe.

#qi'en#community#air-quality
Photo Story2025.11.155 photos

Delivering Fresh Vegetables to Qi'en Families

Nutrition matters as much as medicine for immunocompromised children. We partnered with a local organic farm to deliver fresh vegetables to families at Qi'en every two weeks. It's not glamorous work — loading boxes, driving across town, carrying bags up hospital stairs. But when a mother told me her son ate broccoli for the first time because 'the volunteer sister brought it,' I understood that care is logistics.

Loading vegetables for delivery
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Loading vegetables for delivery

Care is logistics. Love is showing up with broccoli.

#qi'en#nutrition#community
Photo Story2025.10.204 photos

渝你童行 Annual Gala: A Year of Showing Up

The annual gala was a chance to look back at everything our team accomplished this year: 48 hospital visits, 12 science workshops, 3 festival celebrations, and the Lung Guardian Handbook. But the highlight was watching the children perform a song they'd been rehearsing for weeks. Half of them forgot the lyrics. All of them were smiling.

Gala performance
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Gala performance

48 visits. 12 workshops. One song with forgotten lyrics. A perfect year.

#qi'en#gala#milestone
Reflection2025.09.15

Why I Study What I Can't See

People ask me why I chose environmental science. The honest answer is that I didn't choose it — it chose me. Growing up in Chongqing, the air was always thick. We called it fog. Then I learned to read an AQI index, and the city I loved became a case study in invisible exposure. The same basin geography that traps river mist also traps PM2.5. The hotpot that defines our culture delivers capsaicin at concentrations 80 times what a sick child can safely consume. You can't unsee that.

Home is where the questions are.

#personal#environmental-science#chongqing
Photo Story2025.08.157 photos

WSDC Hong Kong: Debating on the World Stage

Hong Kong was my first international debate experience. Arguing environmental policy in English against teams from 15 countries forced me to think faster, listen harder, and accept that my perspective — shaped by Chongqing's specific geography and culture — is both a strength and a limitation. The best debaters don't just argue their position. They understand why the other side believes what they believe.

WSDC Hong Kong opening ceremony
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WSDC Hong Kong opening ceremony

The best arguments don't defeat the other side. They make both sides think harder.

#wsdc#debate#hong-kong
Photo Story2025.06.206 photos

World Scholars Cup Wuhan: Learning to Lose Gracefully

WSC Wuhan was chaos in the best way. Collaborative writing, team debate, scholar's bowl — all in one weekend. Our team placed well but not spectacularly. What I took away wasn't a trophy but a realization: the students who impressed me most weren't the ones who knew the most facts. They were the ones who connected ideas across disciplines in ways nobody expected.

WSC opening ceremony
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WSC opening ceremony

#wsc#debate#wuhan
Photo Story2025.02.205 photos

WSDC Chongqing: Where It All Began

The WSDC workshop at Liangjiang Nankai was where I first learned to structure an argument. Before this, I had opinions. After this, I had frameworks. The difference matters more than people think. Environmental advocacy without structure is just complaining. With structure, it becomes persuasion.

WSDC workshop opening
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WSDC workshop opening

Before: opinions. After: frameworks. The difference is everything.

#wsdc#debate#chongqing
Field Observation2024.11.286 photos

Green City Award: Seeing Chongqing Through a Lens

My short film about Jinyun Mountain's post-fire recovery won the Green City environmental video competition. The judges said what struck them was the patience — three months of biweekly visits, documenting soil pH changes and the slow return of bracken ferns. Recovery isn't linear. It's messy and beautiful.

Filming at Jinyun Mountain
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Filming at Jinyun Mountain

The mountain didn't bounce back. It grew forward.

#green-city#ecology#award
Photo Story2024.10.155 photos

Chemistry Is Everywhere: National Finals

The 'Chemistry Is Everywhere' competition challenged us to demonstrate how chemical reactions show up in daily life. Our team chose food chemistry — specifically, the Maillard reaction in Chongqing street food. Watching judges taste our demonstrations while we explained the molecular transformations happening on their tongues was the most fun I've had in a lab coat.

Competition setup
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Competition setup

The Maillard reaction: where science meets street food.

#chemistry#competition
Reflection2024.05.202 photos

The First Equation That Felt Real

In Professor Li Yongsheng's lab at Chongqing University, I watched electrolyte solutions change color under different conditions. Lithium-fluorocarbon battery chemistry isn't glamorous, but it taught me something fundamental: the world is full of reactions we can't see. That thought never left me. It became the lens through which I see everything — air quality, food chemistry, environmental exposure.

In the chemistry lab
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In the chemistry lab

This is where it started — not with a grand plan, but with a color change in a beaker.

#chemistry#research#origin