TASSEL is one of those things that enters your life because so many things came together perfectly, with perfect timing, through a perfect God.

I started volunteering with TASSEL in December 2017 as a freshman in college. I was raised in a culturally and ethnically diverse area, though Southeast Asian culture never really made it onto my radar until a club fair at my small, midwestern college advertised a teaching opportunity in Cambodia. As an aspiring teacher, I leapt at the opportunity to work with underprivileged students in another country, hoping the experience would strengthen a future resume. Fortunately, TASSEL turned out to be so much more than that.

After a two hour video call with TASSEL’s founder, Joji Tatsugi, I called my mom to tell her I intended to go to Cambodia. I had never really been out of the United States before and I didn’t have a passport or the money to make it over there on my own. My mom, skeptical of the idea at first, listened to everything I had learned from Joji’s presentation, and became the single most supportive figure in making this dream come true. She helped me save for months leading up to the trip that would solidify TASSEL’s place in my life forever.

I traveled to Cambodia for the first time in the summer of 2018, a 19-year-old little girl flying across the globe all alone. When I got there, I saw poverty, distress, hunger, illness, and pain in many of the people we visited. I saw a little girl hunting in dirty water for hours, searching for snails and worms to eat. I saw a grandfather, sick and frail, raising his twelve grandchildren in a home made of scrap metal. I saw children so malnourished that their bones stuck out of their little bodies and dehydrated to the point of fainting in the hot sun. But then, I saw our students come back to the classroom each day, striving for all that an English education could give them. I saw them playing, laughing, running, singing, and dancing. I saw them crying in gratitude. I saw joy. And while I hope that I brought a little bit of that joy to them, the real heroes in this story are our TASSEL teachers.

To know the TASSEL teachers is to love them. Some of our teachers have been in the same shoes our students are in now; hungry, tired, and poor. When you speak to them today, however, you would almost never know it. Our teachers are the kindest and most loving people I have ever met. They work countless hours to support our students and their families across eight villages and beyond. And the way they lift up one another is something I admire most about them. I have been teaching TASSEL teachers online for over five years now, and it is a truly humbling experience to be a teacher to each of them. I am now a special education teacher in the US, and I make sure to keep pictures of the TASSEL teachers on my desk at work to remind me of the strength, determination, and love they selflessly give each day.

I have now been volunteer teaching with TASSEL for nearly seven years. TASSEL has seen me through all of my college years, graduation, getting married, becoming a special education teacher, starting a family, and, of course, a global pandemic. But none of those major life changes have ever changed the way I feel about TASSEL. It is an essential part of my life. I believe in TASSEL’s mission because I have seen the change in our students and their families. I see love and hope that didn’t exist before. I know there is so much more work to do, but I’m so excited to do it with this incredible team. If you are considering joining TASSEL or feel inspired to learn more, please do. Any investment of your time and/or money in this organization is an investment in a better future for the people of Cambodia. A future full of promise, love, and light.