–GYP Outreach news release Jan 31, 2022
As a member of GYP since 2020, Alan Zhang is a senior from New Jersey. Alan was GYP_PVSA award winner 2021. He is skilled at chess, having played for 12 years and holding the two titles of National Master and Chess Master. Alan tutors a student from China, Tiancheng, and reflects that he is proud of the progress Tiancheng has made since their first lesson. Tiancheng is 16 years old and lives in Shanxi, China. He can’t go to school regularly due to needing to go to the hospital for dialysis every week.
Originally, Alan had intended to help Tiancheng with English, however, he later discovered that working with chess would be a better endeavor for the pair. In the beginning, Tiancheng was unaware of the names and purposes of each chess piece, but now, with Alan’s help, he is able to form strategies and make logical decisions between moves. Alan recalls a lesson in which the way of their lesson was blocked by something all too familiar for most: technical complications. Tiancheng didn’t lose hope, though; he persistently looked for different methods, and eventually found a way for it to work again. Through Alan’s careful instruction, Tiancheng has grown extremely dedicated to chess, and Alan admires how he won’t let anything get in the way of his learning. Here at Global Youth Philanthropy, we provide scheduling flexibility and community service hours for tutors, who can be middle and high school students from anywhere in the world. Alan tells me, “One of my favorite aspects about Global Youth Philanthropy is actually its simplicity. As a senior in high school, I don’t always have a lot of free time, so I appreciate that I don’t have to jump through hoops to arrange my lessons with Tiancheng”.
A big part of GYP’s mission is to create more opportunities for our members across the world to help students with special needs. We hope that you or someone you know will take interest in working with us to uplift any child who could benefit from extra assistance in their educational growth.