When Eric Wang joined the AFS Global STEM Academies in 2024, he gained new perspectives on how innovation, collaboration and active global citizenship could further his impact initiatives and better address the complex social challenges his community faced. Today, his commitment to volunteerism, leadership and community service has earned him one of the highest honors available to young citizens of the United States: the Congressional Award Gold Medal.
Since its establishment in 1979, this award recognizes young people with demonstrated exceptional achievements in voluntary public service. To qualify for this recognition, awardees must complete over 400 hundred hours of service and community-focused social impact activities, as well as a minimum of 200 hours of personal development, 200 hours of physical fitness. For Eric, this journey began when he was in his first year of high school, when he founded and coached math clubs at two Title I* middle schools.
*Title I is a federal program in the United States that provides supplemental funding for schools with 40% or more low-income students.
“Since 9th grade, I have led weekly sessions, designed engaging curricula, taken students to competitions, and helped boost their confidence and interest in math,” Eric said. His interest in social change and STEM led him to apply and receive a scholarship to the AFS Global STEM Academies, where he would learn how innovation and design thinking could be used to address real-world challenges.
As part of his AFS social impact capstone project, Eric took the time to identify a local issue that truly mattered. While researching more about his community, he learned that people experiencing homelessness accounted for a significant portion of heat-related deaths during Arizona’s extreme summers. “The encampments were only a five to ten-minute drive from downtown Phoenix, yet it felt like entering a completely different world,” Eric recalled. “I couldn’t accept that so many people were living such difficult lives right beside us.“
Eric reached out to local non-profits like Keys to Change to better understand their needs. Through interviews and conversations with the organizations’ leaders, he discovered that funding, volunteers and public awareness were the most urgent needs. Inspired by these conversations, Eric developed “Homeless Stop” as his AFS Global STEM Academies capstone project: a “one-stop shop” website and app prototype designed to connect volunteers, streamline donations and increase awareness of homelessness resources. The project would later be reviewed and certified by the University of Pennsylvania Center for Social Impact Strategy, marking another milestone in Eric’s journey.
Homeless Stop would evolve into Students for Shelter, Eric’s current and most impactful project to date. With this initiative, Eric has collaborated with Food Banks and Hospitals in his community for thirst and heat relief aid, as well as monthly volunteer action. Looking back, Eric credits his time in the Academy’s virtual program and in-person exchange in China as the catalyst for many of his accomplishments. “Being selected as an AFS Global STEM Changemaker Scholar was a life-changing experience,” he said. “The Congressional Award and Students for Shelter both stem from AFS.”
After completing the Academies program, Eric continued giving back to the AFS community as an alumni mentor in 2025 and 2026. In this role, he helped guide dozens of scholars from more than 16 countries as they explored how STEM innovation could be applied to real-world challenges, just as he did only a few years earlier.
Eric’s journey demonstrates how young people can combine service and leadership to create lasting impact. From mentoring math clubs in his community to developing technology solutions for nonprofits and mentoring a future generation of changemakers, he embodies the values of active global citizenship that AFS seeks to cultivate.
His Congressional Award is a remarkable achievement, but perhaps his greatest accomplishment is proving that meaningful social impact begins with listening, learning from others and then taking action. As Eric reflects on everything he has accomplished so far, he traces it back to one defining experience: “All of this started with AFS, for which I am eternally grateful.”
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