Sharon is a junior in high school who lives and mentors students in China as one of our foreign correspondents. While academically skilled at English, History, and Geometry, Sharon also enjoys writing and being involved in middle and high school plays. Some of her interests include reading, sword fighting, and playing Chinese chess. She encountered GYP through its program with her mother’s school, joining the online tutoring program at the beginning of 2021, when she was studying in a private school in Boston. After returning to China last summer, she continued to work with GYP and has since demonstrated excellence in tutoring and responsibility for student volunteering.
When asked about her students, Sharon tells me that she has tutored a pair of middle school twins in math, as preparation for a final exam. Living in Zunyi, Guizhou, Jiaqi Song, and Jiaying Song is part of a special GYP global program to support students with special needs. Diagnosed with thalassemia major as infants, the brave twins have undergone 10 years of blood transfusions, iron removal, and stem cell transplants. With both parents working tirelessly to support their medical needs, a full private education for their children wasn’t affordable. For this particular program, Sharon’s main role was to be a companion for the girls and remain informed regarding what was going on at school.
Sharon has also tutored a small group of five students in another program. First, she taught them basic English speaking comprehension with the help of a textbook. Then, they moved onto a particular discussion of her favorite series: The Chronicles of Narnia. In class, she would orally translate the English content into Chinese for the students, and then hand out vocabulary lists for them to study after class. Sharon tells me a little more about their discussions about the world of Narnia; “When we began Narnia, we talked for a long time about the Lion, Aslan. One student said he watched the Narnia movie and sent a classic scene to me. I was happy to teach them about English literature, which was not available in their school”.
We at Global Youth Philanthropy are glad to have Sharon as a correspondent. A big part of our mission is to create more gateways into higher education by curating close mentorships within all global communities. As someone who has had to become accustomed to life in a different land, Sharon has been excellent at utilizing similar literary writings to connect with individual students and encourages them to keep on learning even while living in the midst of a global pandemic.
We hope that you or someone you know will take interest in working with us to uplift any child who could benefit from supplemental assistance and mentorship to boost educational growth.
By Romy Li in Boston