Vital Volunteer Leon Tong ’28 has incorporated community engagement into every aspect of his W&L experience.

By Kelsey Goodwin
November 4, 2026

“Washington and Lee checked all the boxes for me when I applied to college. The opportunities to pursue my interests in and out of the classroom alongside continuing to serve the community all stood out.”

~ Leon Tong ’28

Leon Tong ’28 knew early on that he wanted to devote his time and energy to serving others and building community. At W&L, he has had the opportunity to do both, on and off campus.

Tong, a politics major on the pre-med track, grew up just outside of Austin, Texas, and joined Austin/Travis County EMS’s Explorer Post 247 as a high school sophomore. The program, run through Scouting America’s Learning for Life initiative, serves as a way for youth interested in emergency services or healthcare careers to get hands-on experience in their local communities. Over the next two years, Tong rose to a captain within the organization, coordinating events with other explorer posts, mentoring new members and riding along on frontline ambulances. He says he knew that wherever he went to college, he wanted to continue working in emergency services.

“Washington and Lee checked all the boxes for me when I applied to college,” Tong says. “The opportunities to pursue my interests in and out of the classroom alongside continuing to serve the community all stood out.” He says visiting campus during the PATH Fly-In Program and Johnson Weekend made him sure that W&L was where he wanted to be.

Upon arriving at W&L, Tong knew he wanted to engage with the Rockbridge community in a meaningful way. Tong met members of the Lexington Fire Department during Lexington’s Community Festival, and by winter, he had begun volunteering as an EMT. He has since been certified to work as a provider on the ambulance, and this past spring he added a second certification: becoming a state-certified firefighter through the Virginia Department of Fire Programs (VDFP).

“It’s a lot of hours, to say the least,” he says of the 150 to 200 hours of classroom and hands-on training required for the certification.

His class, which included several other volunteers from the surrounding community, drilled down on search and rescue, ventilation, fire suppression and building construction, and they took the state exams in May. Tong says the group posted one of the highest pass rates on the state’s HAZMAT test in the program’s history, said to be the hardest exam offered by VDFP. His interest in the fire department came as somewhat of a surprise.

“I came into it thinking, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna be EMS, ambulance only,’” he says. “And then I started getting exposed to the fire side of it, and I thought, ‘This is pretty cool.’”

The appeal, he says, goes beyond the initial instinct to want to be a part of the crew that runs fire calls. Tong says the field is facing a shortage of both careerists and volunteers.

“There is a national shortage of EMS and firefighters, and a lot of systemic issues underlie that,” he says, noting that his generation often doesn’t “really see EMS or firefighting as a very viable career.” He estimates that nationwide, more than 60% of fire and EMS are purely volunteer, and as longtime volunteers age out without replacements, the result is
“staffing shortages, longer response times and burnout.”

Tong notes that Lexington is an exception.

“We’re very lucky here to have a combined career-volunteer department,” he says, with at least four people on duty around the clock. Volunteers like Tong help fill the gaps.

“We go in there and we add to the numbers,” he says. Once he obtains the necessary credentials to serve as a firefighter, he can count toward minimum staffing on the engine for a run and respond to calls with the rest of the crew.

“Leon is a valuable member of the LFD team,” says Fire Chief Ty Dickerson, noting Tong’s commitment to growing within the organization.

His shifts also serve as his site for completing his required Bonner service hours. Bonner Program students are required to complete a total of 1,800 service hours over the course of their four years at W&L.

“Leon is an exceptional human being,” says Marisa Charley, director of the Bonner Program. “In 15 years of working with students, I’ve met few as selfless and generous of heart. His willingness to give up his own comfort for the well-being of others is simply automatic. Leon is service-minded with a heart programmed to pursue connection — a combination that makes him just the kind of person you hope will show up in an emergency. He is kind, sturdy, and brave, and we’re grateful and proud that he is part of our community.”

This summer, Tong interned at West Virginia Health Right in Charleston, West Virginia, through the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty’s Summer Internship program. West Virginia Health Right (WVHR) provides medical, dental and behavioral services for uninsured and underinsured West Virginians, and Tong worked with nearly every aspect of the organization. He conducted community outreach from a converted van, testing for HIV, hepatitis C and syphilis, often in partnership with a local meal program; triaged patients and supported primary care at their main clinic in dental and psychiatric care settings offered throughout the summer; taught a nutrition and cooking class alongside WVHR’s health educator and dietitian, showing participants how to make healthy meals from ingredients available at a local grocery store; and worked with a fully-equipped shelter-based clinic.. Tong says that the experience has changed how he thinks about his work in EMS.

“On an EMS call, you’re in and out in around an hour,” he says, “whereas in a clinic, you see the same patients fairly consistently. You get to see the big picture. It will definitely change the way I interact with people when I’m out on calls.”

Tong has twice served as a leader for Volunteer Venture, one of the longest-running experiences offered to first-year students through the Leading Edge program. Last year, Tong led a group of first years to Richmond, Virginia, to focus on service projects and discussions related to public health; this August, his group traveled to Charleston, West Virginia, to focus on food and housing insecurity. Tong’s willingness to go the extra mile for others extends beyond W&L’s campus. Last year, Tong stopped at a table in Elrod Commons to register himself as a bone marrow donor with W&L’s chapter of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP).

“Donors typically wait around five to 10 years before getting called for a match,” Tong says, “so I figured I had quite a while before I would hear anything.”

Tong didn’t have to wait long. He received word that he was matched to a recipient shortly before Thanksgiving. After completing the necessary medical tests, he flew to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, in February 2026 for the donation.

“I feel really incredibly honored to be able to donate,” he says. His father traveled with him, and he adds that his family was proud of his decision.

He also serves as president of Friday Underground, a weekly late-night hangout designed to help students connect and decompress at the end of the week. Tong says the group is already actively recruiting new leadership this year as he plans to pass the reins to students who love the event and want to bring fresh programming ideas to the table. He also plays trumpet in W&L’s Wind Ensemble, which he describes as a “family made up of students from a variety of different backgrounds.”

Tong plans to take one or two gap years after graduation to prepare for the MCAT. His long-term goal is a career in military medicine, as a civilian through the Health Professions Scholarship Program or at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland. After that, he wants to go into health policy.

His chosen path also has a family story behind it. Both of Tong’s parents were born in China and came to the U.S. when they were young, and his family is cognizant of what their experience in America has provided them, a gratitude that has inspired Tong to find a career that gives back to a country that has given his family so much.

“This country’s given a lot to me and my family,” he says. “I think it would be an incredible opportunity, if I’m able to pursue it, to also serve my country.”

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