Tzu Chi Collegiate Association emblem Tzu Chi Collegiate Association Northeast Region

Tzu Chi Collegiate Association · Northeast

Great Love, carried onto campus.

We are Tzu Ching, college students across the Northeast who turn compassion into everyday service. Backed by a global humanitarian family, and open to every background.

口說好話 心想好意 身行好事 腳走好路

“Speak kind words, think good thoughts, do good deeds, and walk the right path.”
Dharma Master Cheng Yen

What is TCCA

A worldwide family of student volunteers.

The Tzu Chi Collegiate Association is the youth branch of Tzu Chi USA, a global humanitarian organization founded in 1966 on Buddhist principles of compassion, relief, and mindfulness. Members are affectionately called Tzu Ching, “Tzu Chi Youth.”

While our roots are inspired by Buddhist philosophy, TCCA is completely secular in practice and open to students of all backgrounds. Whether you are religious, spiritual, agnostic, or atheist, everyone is welcome. All you need is the desire to make the world a little better.

1966
Founded in Hualien
4
Core missions
4
NE chapters
All
Backgrounds welcome
Many drops make a river. TCCA grew from the same spirit as Tzu Chi’s bamboo coin banks: small, daily, mindful giving from ordinary people who choose to give what they can.

Why join

More than a club, a way to grow.

College can be about more than exams and parties. Here is what students find when they lend their hands to Great Love.

Grow as a leader, live mindfully, and help reduce suffering in the world.

A student stands beside a wall of sticky notes, presenting to eight others seated on couches and the floor of a living room.
Chapter officers mapping out a semester of service.
01

Make a tangible, global impact

Backed by an international relief organization, your work has real reach: food distributions, tutoring underserved youth, campus recycling drives, and climate awareness.

02

Recognized leadership development

National training camps and retreats, global humanitarian speakers, and the prestigious Tzu Ching uniform, a milestone that speaks volumes to grad schools and employers.

03

A wholesome, grounded community

A culture of kindness, mindfulness, and mutual respect, plus a welcoming, substance-free social circle when college life feels chaotic.

04

An international network

Tzu Chi is active in dozens of countries. Join a chapter and you join a global family: youth summits, overseas service, and lifelong friendships.

Four Missions

The work we carry forward.

Every Tzu Ching commits to four founding missions, the ground on which all of our service stands.

A Tzu Chi volunteer in a blue cap reviews notes with soldiers and a rescue worker in an orange helmet at a relief site in the Philippines.

Charity

Direct relief and recovery for families in hardship, given with dignity, never pity.

Tzu Chi disaster relief medical tents pitched in the rain after the Nepal earthquake, with staff and patients sheltering beneath them.

Medicine

Free clinics and health outreach that bring care to those who cannot reach it.

Women in grey training uniforms hold completion certificates after a Tzu Chi vocational sewing course in Nepal.

Education

Tutoring, scholarships, and vocational training: the skills people build a life on.

Two Tzu Chi volunteers press a peace charm into the hands of an elderly woman outside temporary housing in Japan.

Humanistic Culture

Presence that outlasts the headlines, and stories told with truth, goodness, and beauty.

In the chapters

What this actually looks like.

Retreats, service days, and the ordinary weeknight planning that holds it all together.

Around twenty students in matching purple and navy polos stand in a line, one holding a small Tzu Chi bear, in front of a screen reading Empathy in Motion.
Spring Retreat 2025 · Empathy in Motion
Two students hold up a large handwritten planning poster while a third looks on.
Spring Retreat 2025 · Chapter planning
A group of about fifteen students gathered for a photo indoors, one holding a donation cheque and a Tzu Chi bear.
Giving Café · Northeast chapters
Students serving drinks and refreshments from a long table beside a wall display titled Relief Effort for Ukrainians, with visitors talking in the foreground.
Giving Café · Relief effort for Ukraine

Chapters

Find your community in the Northeast.

The Northeast Region supports campus chapters at NYU and Stony Brook, plus community chapters in Boston and New York City for students whose schools don’t yet have a dedicated TCCA club.

Campus chapter

New York University

New York City

Email to connect

Campus chapter

Stony Brook University

Long Island, NY

Email to connect

Community chapter

Boston

For students across Greater Boston

Email to connect

Community chapter

New York City

For students across the five boroughs

Email to connect

No chapter at your school? You can still join a community chapter, or we’ll help you start one. Reach out below.

For members

Resources that carry beyond college.

Two forms of recognition your chapter advisors can formally provide, useful long after you graduate.

Graduating students wearing Tzu Ching sashes stand behind a seated row of chapter advisors and volunteers in Tzu Chi uniform.
Graduation ceremony · Advisors and graduating Tzu Ching

Service-hour verification

TCCA verifies the service hours you log toward scholarships, applications, and graduation requirements.

Letters of recommendation

Advisors provide recommendations for graduate school, medical school, and employment for active members.

Get involved

Lend your hands to Great Love.

Whether you want to join a chapter, start one at your school, or simply ask a question, the Northeast Regional Advisors would love to hear from you.

tcca.neregion@us.tzuchi.org