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On a recent afternoon, the sun glints off the Schuylkill River as Discovery Pathways Youth Dragon Boat Team glides through the water, paddles cutting through the thick, humid air while they push off from the deck.

“Whose boat?” yells Thao Oo, 18, from the bow.

“Our boat!” respond the other nine paddlers.

The team of teenagers from low-income, predominantly immigrant and refugee families focuses on technique and rhythm during one of their final practices before they fly across the world to represent South Philadelphia at the dragon boat world championships in Hualien, Taiwan, at the end of August.

Their journey is an “underdog story,” said team member Quamirah Smith-Lewis, 15.

“We didn’t start out with a lot,” she said. “We try to train as much as we can, but there are a lot of obstacles in our way. And even with all that, we still manage to show up and make the time for it.”

Those obstacles included early morning and afternoon practices at FDR Park and on the Schuylkill River, and a hacked GoFundMe, said Adam Forbes, coach of the youth dragon boat team and executive director at Discovery Pathways, a small nonprofit based in South Philly focused on environmental education and health.

The group got most of their money back from the compromised GoFundMe campaign and is continuing to fundraise on a different platform, Forbes said. But in the meantime, the team is thriving on surmounting any setbacks.

“The teens love the motto of, ‘Hungry dogs run faster,’ so we’re always just pushing through challenges,” he said.

The trip to Taiwan will be the first time Smith-Lewis, a sophomore at Franklin Learning Center, steps aboard a plane.

She said the team of 12, which will compete in the 200-meter, 500-meter and 2-kilometer races in the small-boat mixed-gender category, owes its accomplishments to communication and dedication. She joined in part to conquer her fear of water, and also because it “seemed very interactive.”

“A lot of the time when I’m on a team, usually like athletic sports, it seems like every man for themselves,” Smith-Lewis said. “But this is unlike track or cross country. You’re all in … close proximity. You can accept criticism. You can give it if they would like. You can talk to each other, ask each other how they think it went.”

Philly’s Cambodian youth dragon boat teams ‘pull each other to the finish line’

Philadelphia is a hub in the United States for dragon boat racing, a centuries-old sport that is a cultural touchstone in China and other countries throughout East and Southeast Asia.

The Discovery Pathways youth team grew out of that local network 2 1/2 years ago, Fobes said. Soriya Or, captain of Khmer Naga, the Cambodian dragon boat team, met Forbes and the Discovery Pathways students at FDR Park, where the teens kayaked and participated in activities with the nonprofit.

Or offered a boat, supplies and training to the teens. He wanted to pay it forward, he said, because the Cambodian team got started in 2010 also thanks to donations and support from community members and organizations.

“[Dragon boat racing] has always been in the Cambodian culture traditionally, but in the U.S. it’s always hard to get into the sport because you need a giant boat, and it’s very hard to find,” he said.

Or, 41, was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after his family fled war in Cambodia. It “blew [his] mind,” he said, that some of the students on the team of a different generation were also born in refugee camps.

“For these kids, it’s just going through so much, and just like me, I grew up very poor,” he said. “I went through a lot. I wish I [had] had someone to give me an opportunity to do a sport like this … Anybody can be on a boat, and we all can work together as a community to pull each other to the finish line.”

The students have benefitted from the mentorship offered by Or and other members of the Southeast Asian community, Forbes said.

“The kids really saw a lot of role models in these strong Cambodian men who are leaders in the community,” he said. “And a lot of the people who work at the [Southeast] Asian Market at the park where we [practice] are part of dragon boating, so there’s a lot of culture and community sharing in it, too.”

Or said It’s important to him to share dragon boat racing with Philadelphians of all cultural backgrounds. It gives him “great joy,” he said, to see this team of 12 headed to the world championships.

“I always imagined to do something like that when I was that age, but never ever had the opportunity or any type of person that tell me that, ‘Oh you can get this by just being who you are, just being strong and stuff,’” he said. “It just makes me happy all the time.”

Philly students see the effects of the ‘ultimate team sport’ on and off the water

From its bootstrap beginnings, the team has grown to include more than 60 students, Forbes said, and last year, their performance “exceeded all expectations.” Four of the teens made it to Team USA and competed in Germany, attracting more recognition, coaching support and gear.

“It’s taken years of hard work from the youth who’ve stuck with it,” Forbes said. “Early mornings here [on the Schuylkill River]. We go to a paddle pool to train in the winter. It’s a really full year. They’ve been working hard at it. We never cut kids based on just athleticism. So it’s been about their dedication to the team and their improvement and commitment to learning the sport.”

With wins in Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia, the team compiled a portfolio strong enough to earn them a berth at this year’s world championships.

But beyond victories on the water, the teenagers said that the benefits of dragon boat racing extend to other aspects of their lives.

“I feel like it [has] made me more confident and proud of myself for working so hard to the point that I got into the world [championship],” said Gisele Flores Lopez, 15, a sophomore at George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science. “And also, I feel like I’ve gained more physical strength outside of the boat, and also in general, [it] just made me feel better as a person for my abilities.”

Chris Htoo, a junior at Kensington High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, said he feels “accomplished” for the teamwork that earned them a place at the world championships.

“I’d rather choose this team over, against [any] other team because … they trust me, I trust them,” Htoo said.

The group’s diversity — the 25 students on the large boat team speak a total of 13 languages between them — is also its strength, Forbes said.

“We have to do a lot of team bonding and breaking down barriers and getting everyone to connect,” he said. Dragon boat racing “lends itself to that,” he said, as an “ultimate team sport.”

“Everyone has to be in perfect unison in the boat,” Forbes said. “There really can’t be any big egos or anyone trying to prove themselves. It has to just be about paddling together in timing. And so we’ve seen that … the kids have been really drawn to it. They’ve loved it.”

The teens also participate in the nonprofit’s environmental leadership program by leading public boating days, organizing workouts for their families and communities, and giving public speeches.

“This has been a great tie-in for them, where they get to work both physically and also mentally,” Forbes said. “And we’ve tracked it. We’ve seen a lot of improvements in their grade and their schoolwork. And a lot of students, they stay committed to our other program because of dragon boat. And so they’re like, ‘I gotta stay on the team. I gotta stay on the team.’ And so they’re willing to volunteer.”

Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series that explores the impact of creativity on student learning and success. WHYY and this series are supported by the Marrazzo Family Foundation, a foundation focused on fostering creativity in Philadelphia youth, which is led by Ellie and Jeffrey Marrazzo. WHYY News produces independent, fact-based news content for audiences in Greater Philadelphia, Delaware and South Jersey.