Rancho Santa Fe student hosts second annual concert to benefit refugee youth

For the second year in a row, Rancho Santa Fe teenager Henry Hou used his love of music to uplift the San Diego refugee community.

Henry, an accomplished cellist and junior at The Bishop’s School, held his second annual Youth Benefit Concert in support of refugee youth education on Nov.  8 at Good Samaritan Episcopal Church in UTC. The church was filled with more than 250 attendees for the concert featuring over 60 young musicians and singers, raising over $8,000 to benefit RefugeeNet, a nonprofit that supports refugee families in San Diego.

“Refugee youth have enormous talent and potential, but without support, they are denied opportunities that other kids take for granted,” Henry said. “That’s why raising awareness matters so much to me. The more our community understands their situation, the more we can lift them up and help them thrive.”

The second annual Youth Benefit Concert was co-organized by ROOTS (Refugee Children’s Organization of Tech & Science), a student-led service club at Bishop’s founded by Henry.  For the past three years, ROOTS has run STEM summer camps and helped organize field trips for refugee children. Through his experiences, Henry got to know the children personally and they became more than just a statistic.

“As I got more involved, I saw the challenges they faced up close,” Henry said. “Some of the kids had never been to a beach or a park before because their parents, who are working incredibly hard to restart their lives here, don’t have the time or resources. One afternoon during camp, a child mentioned that the snack we handed out was his first meal of the day. Another couldn’t do experiments because he didn’t have money for basic materials or books at home. It’s impossible to hear things like that and stay unchanged.”

From the beginning, music was a way for Henry to connect with refugee students. A musician since he was eight years old, the 16-year-old cellist is the president of the North County String Ensemble Junior Orchestra and recently won a prize in the 2025 Grand Prize Virtuoso International Music Competition.

With encouragement from his cello teacher and orchestra director Lu-Yan Guo and enthusiastic support from the local San Diego music community, he had the idea to put on the benefit music concert last year.

“The idea to use music as a platform for ROOTS came from the belief that young people can create change using the talents they already have. After running STEM camps and seeing the immediate needs of refugee students, kids going hungry, kids without basic learning materials, I wanted to find a way to help that felt both meaningful and sustainable,” Henry said. “I kept thinking about how deeply music connects people, regardless of language or background. Music has given me so much; could it also give something to them?”

This year’s concert featured performances by the North County String Ensemble, UC San Diego’s Five Millennia Orchestra, the Golden Dragon Children’s Choir, and many talented student soloists. Student volunteers and performers came from not just The Bishop’s School but also La Jolla High School, Canyon Crest Academy, Torrey Pines High School, Westview High School and Del Norte High School.

The concert was able to double its audience and triple the donations from last year’s debut.

“The first concert last year was a leap of faith, but it showed me what’s possible,” Henry said. “It proved that when young people use their talents for others, they can raise not just money, but hope, visibility and understanding.”

For more on ROOTS club, visit rootsclub.org. To learn about RefugeeNet’s programs, visit refugee-net.org.