CHAD seeks to enrich and improve the quality of life for underprivileged youth in Boston’s Chinatown community. It is committed to the academic, social, and personal development of youth by promoting personal growth among its campers and creating opportunities for developing fundamental social skills, healthy self-identities, high self-esteem, cross-cultural awareness, and social consciousness. The majority of CHAD’s campers come from low-income backgrounds that afford few opportunities for summer educational enrichment and employment. The youth of Boston’s Chinatown face many obstacles: crime, poverty, gentrification, and lack of support in the city’s most overcrowded community. CHAD is dedicated to helping our campers overcome these challenges. Senior Counselors for CHAD are provided housing in suites at Emerson College a few streets down from the heart of Chinatown, allowing them to become immersed in the community in which they work. chad@hcs.harvard.edu
As a Chinatown Teen counselor, you will have the opportunity be an influence in a middle schooler’s life through interacting with them in a group environment. Teens are encouraged to develop relationships with both the counselors and their fellow teens through a two hour program on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as various field trips throughout the semester. Regular program consists of a mixture of homework time and a fun and skill building project designed to foster maturity, creativity, leadership, teamwork, and responsibility. The time commitment is one to two hours per week. For more information, please contact Joan How (cjhow@fas) or Chen Yan (cyan@fas).
This post was written by admin on July 2, 2009
Posted Under:
Chinatown,
Teen
Chinatown ESL allows its volunteers the unique opportunity to teach a class of enthusiastic, motivated adults, mostly recent Chinese immigrants. Our free classes are incredibly popular in the Chinatown community, so we are always looking for new tutors! No teaching experience or Chinese language ability are necessary, although Cantonese speakers are always especially in demand. ESL offers five levels of classes, from beginning fundamentals to advanced conversation; lessons focus on developing practical conversational, reading, and writing skills useful for everyday situations. Curriculum is provided and classes are on campus once a week for two hours. For more information, please contact Siran Cao (si.c.1216@gmail.com), Naomi Funabashi (funabashi@fas.harvard.edu), Iris Lee (iristlee@gmail.com), Jun Ying Liu (jyliu@fas.harvard.edu), Marion Liu (mliu42189@gmail.com), or Wilson Yu (wilsonyu@fas.harvard.edu).
Chinatown Citizenship prepares students for the American naturalization process by teaching basic English along with American history and government. Citizenship is held in Harvard Yard: the two-hour classes take place on weekends from 1:30 to 3:30. All volunteers teach in pairs. Volunteers are trained and provided with curriculum materials but still retain full creative flexibility in designing lesson plans to best fit the needs of their students. Chinatown Citizenship is a fun, valuable, and rewarding program for all its participants, teachers and students alike. We have levels suitable for volunteers of all Mandarin and Cantonese abilities! For more information, please email ccitizenship@gmail.com or Angela Liu (liu11@fas), Zhi Dong (zhidong2012@gmail.com), Edith Chan (echan@fas), and Chi Zhang (chiez7@gmail.com)
There are also summer opportunities through PBHA’s Chinatown Citizenship Program.
The Big Sibling Program strives to establish positive relationships between young adults and school-aged children (mostly 7-12 years old) from families in Chinatown. Through one-on-one interaction, big sibs provide both mentorship and companionship, seeking to bolster their little sibs’ self-esteem and encouraging them to explore new opportunities. Students individually plan activities for their sibs and establish unique relationships that offer new experiences possible only in a one-to-one setting. For more information, contact Frank Chen (fwchen@fas) and Flora Luo (fluo@fas).
Chinatown Afterschool is a tutoring and enrichment program which serves children in the Chinatown area who are in grades 1 through 6. Our volunteers strive to provide a safe, educational, and enriching environment for the kids, running Mondays through Thursdays. Each grade of approximately 10 students is led by 2 or 3 volunteers per day. Homework help and tutoring are the focus of the first hour of program, followed by an hour of creative enrichment activities designed by each counselor group. We combine individual attention with cooperative group activities. Field trips and other program-wide activities outside of the classroom are planned throughout the semester. If you would like to make a difference by serving as a mentor and role model for these awesome kids, please check out our website (http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~chtnasp) or e-mail the all directors at chtnasp@hcs.harvard.edu. Our Spring 2010 Directors are John Zhao (zhao.john.z@gmail.com), Lydia Krooss (lkrooss@wellesley.edu), Elisa Yu (eyu@fas.harvard.edu), Christine Shen (cshen@fas.harvard.edu), and Stanley Zheng (szheng@fas.harvard.edu).
