Bloodline.Youth
Yew Chung International School Shanghai Pudong
Founded by Arjun, a Grade 11 student, Bloodline.Y is a student-led initiative dedicated to raising awareness about blood donation and mobilizing school communities to support local healthcare needs. Working closely with the Shanghai Blood Center and healthcare professionals, the initiative has grown into a cross-school movement that not only supports blood donation drives, but also fosters collaboration, compassion, and community engagement among young people.
What began as a deeply personal experience for Arjun has since evolved into a meaningful platform connecting students, educators, parents, and medical organizations through a shared purpose of giving back. Through perseverance, teamwork, and student leadership, Bloodline.Y has become a powerful example of how young people can create sustainable and impactful change within their communities.
We are delighted to interview Arjun, recipient of the Jim Koerschen Award, to hear more about his journey, inspiration, and the experiences that shaped this remarkable initiative.
1. We understand your journey started from a personal experience with your grandfather. Can you share how that moment changed the way you see healthcare needs, and what gave you the confidence to take the first step in starting Bloodline.Y?
When my grandfather in India needed a blood transfusion, I learned something I’ve never forgotten: some things cannot be bought—blood can only come from donation. That moment changed how I see healthcare needs. It made “need” feel real and urgent, because a hospital can have doctors and equipment, but without donors, treatment can still stop.
The confidence to take the first step came later, through consistently doing the work. During COVID, I volunteered in my community and helped with small things like translating local regulations for expatriates. That experience taught me that even as a student, I could be useful in practical ways. I then volunteered with the Shanghai Blood Center, saw how the process works, and met people who were building solutions—especially Dr. Maskey and the Bloodline team.
What finally pushed me from “volunteering” to “starting” was purpose. I wanted to honor my grandfather by building something that would outlast a single event—something that could mobilize young people and their communities to donate regularly. I also realized that Shanghai was facing an acute blood shortage, and this became my way of giving back to the city I have called home since I was two years old. There was also a more personal motivation behind this initiative. Having lived in China for a long time, as an Indian and a vegetarian, I have struggled to truly “belong” within my Chinese friend circle, this also became a way for me to connect more deeply with a community I care about. The Shanghai Blood Center and the Bloodline.Y initiative have made me a part of Shanghai’s story. Whenever the history of Bloodline.Y is written, I will be named as one of its co-founders. I now belong to Shanghai as much as Shanghai belongs to me!!
2. You focused on getting more people from international schools involved in blood donation. What made you feel this was an important group to reach? What were some of the challenges you encountered and how did you get them interested?
Bloodline was set up in 2017 and was already a well-known blood collection agency when I first volunteered with them. The quintessential Bloodline donor was a 35–40-year-old expatriate, mid-career Caucasian male who was used to donating blood in his home country. Similarly, the typical donor profile at the Shanghai Blood Center (SBC) was a Chinese male in the 25–40 age bracket. My first thought was that I had friends in school whose parents and teachers who could donate but they simply did not know that this opportunity existed. Even if they were willing, they were unlikely to drive all the way to the SBC clinic to donate.
After volunteering at a few Bloodline and SBC blood collection drives, I suggested organizing a drive at my school. The first few attempts were unsuccessful. My school had never organized a blood donation drive and did not know who should handle the regulatory approvals. At the same time, SBC had never organized a blood donation drive at a school and needed time to reconsider their requirement for guaranteed pre-registered donor names. Financially, it only made sense to deploy a donation bus if there were at least 25–30 donors, and the school was not in a position to commit to that number. I worked to convince both sides, and I am very grateful to Ms. Janelle Garrett, Mr. Roel Cruijff, and Ms. Sissy Shen for helping secure the necessary approvals at the school level, and to Mr. Zhu from SBC for waiving the minimum donor requirement for our first blood donation drive at my school—YCIS Shanghai Pudong.
We organized the first drive at YCIS, and it was disappointing. While 27 people showed up to donate, only 16 were eligible. Many willing donors were turned away due to medication or other factors. This made me realize that schools are a challenging environment for organizing such initiatives. I was not able to effectively communicate with the parent community, as students often forgot to pass along the information. As a result, turnout was lower than expected. In a school setting, you cannot simply “announce” something and expect participation. Blood donation requires clear communication about safety, eligibility, and the process, as well as strong coordination with medical professionals. This realization led me to the idea of creating a student volunteer corps that would take ownership of the process and feel a sense of pride in running these events. I approached Dr. Maskey with the idea of forming a junior group within Bloodline, and he immediately supported the creation of Bloodline.Y (Bloodline Youth). The rest, as they say, is history!
3. Bloodline.Y brings together students from different schools. What has it been like building a team across schools, and what have you learned from working with such a diverse group of students?
Building Bloodline.Y across schools has been one of the most rewarding parts of this journey. It started with four founding members from different international schools in Shanghai, which immediately made it a team built on diversity, not convenience. With Dr. Maskey at the helm, we were able to establish credibility through our volunteer training materials, as well as with school leadership teams. The involvement of a government medical agency, SBC, also made it easier for us to gain approval to bring blood collection buses onto school premises and to secure support from local authorities.
Working across schools taught me two important lessons. First, communication and coordination become essential when you are not in the same location every day—you learn to be clear, respectful, and organized. Second, you develop empathy in a practical way. People come from different school cultures, with different strengths and confidence levels, but a shared mission creates unity.
The most important lesson that the Bloodline.Y initiative has taught me is that humility is the first step of leadership. I now understand that leadership is not about doing everything yourself—it is about training others, trusting them, and creating systems so the work can continue even when founders are busy with exams or other commitments.
One of my proudest moments came during my IGCSE exams, when a blood donation drive was conducted at NAIS Pudong. I was calling my volunteer team almost every day to coordinate, and one of the NAIS volunteers picked up the phone and said, “Arjun, chill man! Focus on your exams, I am here!” He was someone who had joined a volunteer training program two years earlier. That one conversation brought a smile to my face—Bloodline.Y was truly up and running!!
4. Since starting this project, is there a moment that has stood out to you as especially meaningful? Why?
One moment that stands out is when our work was formally recognized beyond our schools—especially by the United Nations China office. It mattered because it wasn’t recognition for an “idea”; it was recognition for execution—turning a student initiative into real community participation and actual blood collection support that made a difference.
A second meaningful moment is simpler—at a donation drive, when you see people step onto the blood donation bus, donate, and walk away quietly proud.
I started this initiative as a project to honour my “Dadu”—my grandfather, but I have received so much love and support from my fellow students, my teachers, the nurses and doctors at SBC, and Dr. Maskey (my role model) that it feels almost like a disproportionate exchange, where I have ended up receiving more than I have given.
5. What are your hopes for Bloodline.Y moving forward? What steps are you taking to ensure the project continues to grow and sustain itself over time?
My hope is that Bloodline.Y becomes a global sustainable student movement that continues to increase donations, reduce stigma, and build a long-term culture of giving. I want it to become a familiar name within school communities in Shanghai, and to keep expanding to more schools—not just in Shanghai, but globally.
To sustain this, we are focusing on structure, not just events. We are building a steady pipeline of trained student volunteers, creating stronger city-wide collaboration, and improving communication channels—especially by developing a stronger presence on WeChat so the community can interact and stay engaged. We also aim to leverage existing recognition and networks to reach wider communities and institutions, enabling us to host more opportunities for donation and awareness in safe, credible ways. In fact, the funds that ACAMIS has awarded will go towards strengthening our online presence and enhancing volunteer engagement through social media.
I am also committed to Dr. Maskey that, wherever I go in the world for my undergraduate studies, I will establish a Bloodline.Y unit in that city.
6. You’ve spoken about connecting more with local communities. How has this experience shaped your understanding of community, your identity, or your role as a young changemaker?
This experience taught me that community is not just about who you know—it’s about who you show up for. Volunteering during COVID, supporting expatriates through translation, and working with local medical organizations helped me step outside the “international school bubble” and engage with Shanghai in a more meaningful way. It also shaped my identity as someone who can be a bridge. The story of Bloodline.Y is explicitly about building social connections between communities, and that matters to me because I live in a place where cultures meet every day.
The Bloodline.Y story was shared by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs through its India-based Twitter account as an example of someone connecting India and China. The Indian Consulate in Shanghai also felicitated YCIS Pudong’s team for their support in incubating Bloodline.Y, and ACAMIS has recognized us with the Jim Koerschen Award. These recognitions and awards have helped us engage with local communities, initiate conversations, and address common misconceptions about blood donation—such as the belief that it drains one’s “life force.” Progress has been slow but steady, and we are beginning to see a higher percentage of ethnic Chinese parents at schools coming forward to donate. While we at Bloodline.Y cannot claim full credit for this change, we would like to believe that we are making a difference—however small it may be.
As a young changemaker, I’ve learned that “impact” is not just a slogan. It is about logistics, planning, persuasion, resilience, and doing the same work again and again—even when the first attempt does not succeed.
7. Now that you’ve received recognition for your work, has the journey met your expectations? What advice would you give to other students considering starting a similar initiative?
Yes—this journey has met (and honestly, exceeded) my expectations, because it became bigger than a personal motivation. It has grown into a collaborative effort across schools, supported by professionals and recognized by institutions.
My advice to other students is practical:
- Start with a real problem and a clear purpose. If your “why” is strong, you will keep going when things get hard.
- Partner with credible professionals. In healthcare-related work, safety and trust are non-negotiable, and working with established medical organizations is essential.
- Expect setbacks—and don’t let the first one define you. Our first drive did not have a high turnout, but it taught us how to improve, recruit, and motivate more effectively.
- Train others early. If the project depends on one person, it will stop. If you build a team and systems, it can grow.
- Be consistent and detail-oriented. Small details determine whether an event runs smoothly, and consistency builds credibility over time.
- Most importantly, in this world of mobile apps and digital media, physical presence is EVERYTHING.