Family is everything to Linda Chang.
Chang, a 30-year-old administrative officer with the UC Merced Police Department, was a quiet high school freshman when she joined the Leo Club, the youth branch of the Merced Breakfast Lions Club's community service organization.
The youngest of 10 children (including two sets of twins), Chang got involved with the Leos at Merced High School for a simple reason: She was following her older sisters' footsteps.
"When you're the youngest and you don't know what to do, you look up to your siblings," she said. Her parents, immigrants from Laos who fled the Vietnam War, trusted that the community service organization would provide a positive influence on their children.
Gary Eno met Chang when he served as the Leo Club adviser.
"Linda is a very astute young lady," Eno said. "She was very quiet, but I saw her blossom into a superstar for the Leos."
Chang went on to hold several offices for the Leos, including a stint as president. Upon graduation, she enrolled at UC Merced.
The university, she said, provided a second home for her and several of her siblings.
"Having it built here was perfect for us," she said.
Initially, Chang majored in human biology with a minor in psychology, eyeing a nursing career. Attempting to pursue this career path, she became an ER medical scribe at Merced Mercy Medical Center from 2019-2021. However, a chronic back injury during a 2015 summer program made her turn toward a different path - administration.
She worked in the Facilities Management Department at UC Merced as a student employee. Upon graduation in 2016, she accepted a temporary full-time position. She then worked for a number of departments around campus, including the School of Natural Sciences and Students First Center, then went back to Facilities Management as a help specialist/dispatcher before obtaining her current position.
"I get to build connections with different departments," she said. "I think that's why I like it here so much. The environment is just great."
In 2018, she joined the Merced Breakfast Lions Club and immediately got involved with numerous activities and community service efforts , eventually serving as the club president in 2022-23. Being the club president requires a five-year commitment, she said. Service begins with the office of third vice president, then second vice president, first vice president, president and then past president. Her family obligations, work and extracurricular activities didn't leave her with a ton of free time.
"I had to calendar sleep or nap," Chang said, laughing.
She found the time to meet her husband, Kenny Yang, during the COVID-19 pandemic at a store where he worked.
"It was an interesting time. We met with our masks on," she said. He's now employed at the federal penitentiary in Atwater, and the couple is expecting their first child, a girl, in May.
The Lions Club, of which Chang remains an active member, threw her a wedding shower.
"They really do become family," she said. "They've seen me grow up."
Eno said he has watched Chang grow from a quiet teenager into a "very determined young lady." He said that on occasions when he thoughtt the Lions didn't have enough volunteers for an event, Chang would get on the phone and suddenly the event was fully staffed.
"Linda has a gift in that she will never take no for an answer when it comes to doing something to help people," Eno said.
Helping people comes in the form of cooking meals at the D Street shelter in Merced or for other community organizations, as well as providing scholarships for students and support for efforts such as building bleachers at a local sports complex.
"During my (presidential) year, we helped the Boy Scouts with purchasing a trailer to store all their equipment, contributed toward a portable shower facility for the unhoused and we helped the Merced County Library fund their teen center," she said.
As she grows her own family, Chang said she has no plans to leave her Lions Club family behind.
"I'm trying to get my husband to join as well," she said.
She said she has been thrilled to watch the university and the community grow up around her.
"Seeing how campus has changed is really mind-blowing," she said. "It's so much bigger than when I went here. And it's fun to see student groups out in restaurants and in downtown Merced."
She's excited about the future with her family, her club and at UC Merced.
"Everything always works out for a reason," she said. "I still tell myself now, if all else fails you, you can't fail yourself. You have to keep going with what you have."
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