Twelve teenagers from South Philadelphia are packing their paddles for Taiwan this month, headed to the sport's biggest stage after climbing out of a hometown pipeline of local rivers, borrowed boats and a whole lot of community goodwill. The crew, all part of a nonprofit called Discovery Pathways, will compete in the 15th International Dragon Boat Federation Club Crew World Championships, set for August 29 through September 6 at Liyu Lake in Hualien County.
The team is made up of teenagers from low-income, predominantly immigrant and refugee families, according to WHYY. Discovery Pathways itself describes its dragon boat roster in more precise terms: the nonprofit says 100% of its youth dragon boat team members come from low-income households, and 85% are immigrants or refugees. The team will race in the small-boat mixed-gender category across the 200-meter, 500-meter and 2-kilometer distances at Liyu Lake, a freshwater lake in Shoufeng Township that regularly hosts major international water sports events, per the International Dragon Boat Federation.
Getting to Taiwan almost didn't happen. The team's fundraising campaign was hacked, according to coach Adam Forbes, who also serves as Discovery Pathways' executive director. The nonprofit says it recovered most of the money from the compromised GoFundMe campaign and is continuing to raise funds on a different platform to cover travel and tournament costs for the 12 paddlers.
An Underdog Crew Built on Borrowed Boats
Discovery Pathways was established roughly two and a half years before this reporting, and the dragon boat program grew directly out of Philadelphia's local dragon boat racing network. Fifteen-year-old Quamirah Smith-Lewis, a sophomore at Franklin Learning Center, said she joined the team partly to conquer her fear of water. She calls the group's rise an underdog story.
That story leans heavily on the generosity of Philadelphia's Southeast Asian paddling community. Soriya Or, captain of the Khmer Naga dragon boat team, offered a boat, supplies and training to the Discovery Pathways students. Khmer Naga was founded in Philadelphia in 2010 by Cambodian immigrants who initially relied on local donations to launch their own club, according to WHYY, illustrating a generational support network among the city's Southeast Asian paddlers. Or fled war in Cambodia with his family and was born in a refugee camp in Thailand.
The team practices at FDR Park and along the Schuylkill River, including a session on the river on August 6. FDR Park, a 350-acre South Philadelphia green space, is in the middle of a multi-year master plan renovation budgeted at more than $250 million, according to Grid Magazine. The park has long served as a cultural gathering point for the neighborhood's Southeast Asian communities.
From Local Wins to a World Championship Berth
The path to Hualien ran through Sarasota, Florida, where American dragon boat teams earned their qualifying berths for the 2026 World Championships at the United States Dragon Boat Federation's Club Crew National Championships in October 2025, held at Nathan Benderson Park, per the United States Dragon Boat Federation. Discovery Pathways' youth team had already sent four teens to Team USA, which competed in Germany in 2025, before the group won races in Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia and ultimately earned its own berth at the 2026 World Championships.
Fifteen-year-old Gisele Flores Lopez, a sophomore at George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science, said dragon boat racing increased her confidence and physical strength. Seventeen-year-old Chris Htoo, a junior at Kensington High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, said teamwork earned the group its place at the world championships. Discovery Pathways' larger boat team includes 25 students who speak 13 languages among them.
More Than a Sport for South Philadelphia's Newest Residents
Dragon boat racing is a centuries-old sport and a cultural touchstone across China and other parts of East and Southeast Asia. In South Philadelphia, it has also become a form of civic apprenticeship: Discovery Pathways teens participate in the nonprofit's environmental leadership program, lead public boating days, give public speeches and organize workouts for their own families and communities. Eighteen-year-old Tha Oo, who calls out “whose boat?” during practices, is among them.
Discovery Pathways is a small nonprofit based in South Philadelphia focused on environmental education and health, with more than 60 students in its broader programs. Forbes founded the organization after discovering that urban water sports served as an effective way to draw young people into environmental conservation, according to Grid Magazine, which noted Forbes' background in environmental studies and prior work with secondary students and English language learners in the city. Forbes has also reported improvements in students' grades and schoolwork tied to their involvement in the program.
The nonprofit's Youth Environmental Leaders Program, which offers free multilingual outdoor recreation and leadership training in Southeast Philadelphia, earned a 2025 Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. In 2024, the program trained 31 high-need students and reached more than 12,000 community participants across 21 boating events.
South Philadelphia has grown into fertile ground for programs like this one. Foreign-born residents made up nearly 16% of Philadelphia's total population in 2022, the highest share since the 1940s, with major concentrations of Asian immigrants settling in the neighborhood, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts. As of 2022, Philadelphia was home to more than 5,700 Cambodian-born and 12,100 Vietnamese-born residents, a demographic backdrop that helps explain why dragon boat racing has taken root as both sport and bridge between immigrant generations.
The financial squeeze of sending a dozen student-athletes overseas is one that few grassroots youth sports programs are equipped to absorb on their own. FOX 29 Philadelphia reported in April that the team had launched a major fundraising push to cover international travel and tournament expenses, since national federations rarely underwrite those costs for nonprofit youth programs. With the hacked campaign now behind them and a new fundraising effort underway, the Discovery Pathways paddlers are set to travel across the world at the end of August, carrying a South Philadelphia neighborhood's expectations with them to Liyu Lake.
