“Grains of Hope” is a non-profit established by Kaitlyn Wang from San Jose, California. Kaitlyn was a GYP Student Board member in 2021-2022 and a GYP advisor board member now.
The goal of “Grains of Hope” is to send warm greetings to seniors and children and spread holiday smiles to all of those in need. Currently, “Grains of Hope” is working on 2022 year-end fundraising on GoFundMe, and we hope more GYP students, parents, and friends can support this project.
Please click the following link to visit “Grains of Hope” fundraising page on GoFundMe, to make whatever amount of donation you are comfortable with. Any amount of donation is appreciated.
Kaitlyn Wang is a student at The Harker School, San Jose, CA. She is passionate about community service activities and the field of business. She competes in business conferences and serves as a DECA officer of her school chapter. She is excited about publishing a multicultural book series with the Bridge to Harmony club, and she also started a startup to help underprivileged students with tutoring. Additionally, she participates in STEM competitions and science research. In her free time, she enjoys art and writing as hobbies.
After a series of small-scale on-site students’ Art Shows in Boston and Brookline, MA, Global Youth Philanthropy formally launches its 2022 online art show in late of November. The online art show is parallelly on two platforms: <https://www.kunstmatrix.com/en >, this is a Europea based online art show website, and the Global Youth Philanthropy official website. Our art show on kunstmatrix will last about three months, and the display on our website will be permanent.
This online show includes more students’ artwork than on-site shows, as some of the artwork is for online shows only. Thanks to all students and parents for making a small amount of donations to GYP to make this event possible.
GYP’s second Mock Debate was a special outreach event with our partner school- Shanghai No.1 Experimental School Affiliated with SISU. The event was on November 12, Sat (EST). Three students team of the GYP Debate club had a debate with a team from the Debate club in Shanghai school. Both teams had excellent preferments. The motion of this debate was ” “Are grades and marks more important than social skills? ” Caroline from Boston and Emily from Shanghai co-hosted this event.
Following is the feedback from a few students in this event:
Hello, I’m Emily Li from SFLS. I am the president of our school’s debate club and the co-host&organizer of the GYP debate club’s 2nd mock debate on Nov.13. It’s my great honor to work with people from SES Chinese debate club, as well as to compete with the American debaters for the first time. I want to thank the SES debate club debaters for their support and coordination since we just knew each other for a short time. Also, our opponents presented very impressive speeches, and several judges gave us some really useful advice. From my perspective, “Are grades more important than social skills?” reflects the differences between the Chinese and American education systems. GYP debate club aims to make debating a way to unite people from different cultures. Thus, I think this debate highly reflected this value. After the debate, I learned quite a lot and met many interesting people. Moreover, the job of organizing events practiced my leadership skills, sense of responsibility, and so on. It was such a successful debate that most people enjoyed themselves. I hope to help organize more activities between the GYP debate club and other debate clubs in Shanghai.
This is Timmy Wang, the president of the SES Chinese debate club. I like such kinds of activities! Today’s debate is a precious chance to exercise my speaking. Besides, the debaters all leave me with a deep impression. They’re all passionate about talking freely. They’re good at expressing themselves, and communicating with them is a nice experience because what they said about the importance of social skills in the debate was very thought-provoking! I think I have a lot to learn from them. Also, I’d like to say that having such an international debate broadens my horizons and enhances my comprehensive abilities, not only my grades. I hope there can be more debates and we progress together through cooperation and communication.
Debate is a fascinating and powerful tool. It’s all too relevant in today’s political world; we watch presidential elections, and in this new age of unprecedented information sharing, we are often bombarded by contradictory news outlets. Although it can trace its roots back to the famous philosophical controversies of Ancient Greece, the debate is more relevant than ever in modern society. It is a way to thoroughly show both sides of an argument, it is an exercise in logic and reasoning.
And on Saturday, October 29th, Global Youth Philanthropy had its first mock debate, featuring the topic: grades and marks are more important than learning and social skills.
Molin Wang
Carinne Zhou
Two teams of two people each were tasked with exploring this issue. Team A, with Molin and Eric, was the pro side—they argued that the statement was true—while team B, consisting of Carinne and Caroline, was the con, arguing that it was false. And after a week of preparation, research, and writing, they were ready to make their case.
The pro side went first, introducing how grades are essential to helping kids understand what areas they need improvement on and how they provide critical motivation for young students. Next, Eric spoke about how focusing on social skills makes students too excited to concentrate and sucks away valuable time. He also touched upon how grades help students challenge themselves and get into a better college.
Carinne then argued that learning helps people get better grades since those that enjoy learning will try harder. She talked about the importance of happiness and mental health and how an overemphasis on grades affects one’s performance. Finally, she mentioned how grades are only a number and that many cheats to attain these grades.
Ben Han
Eric Wang
Then the rebuttals followed. Molin, on the pro side, re-emphasized that grades are the result of the effort that students put in school and that no grades would lead to no effort, defeating the whole point of attending school. She also discussed the earning gap between those with higher education and those without. Then, Caroline, on the con side, replied that pursuing grades can lead to burnout and loss of motivation. Furthermore, social skills can help you get a job.
Finally, each side was allowed to make a two-minute concluding speech, telling the judge and any viewers why exactly they were right. Molin and Carinne each artfully delivered their speech from their respective sides.
Afterward, the judge, Ben, provided insightful feedback and gave advice from his own experiences in competitive debate.
The final verdict? As the spectators and debaters held their breaths, he revealed that the con won him over.
Thus was the conclusion of GYP’s first mock debate, which will likely be held again 1-2 times a month from here on out. After this first successful event, GYP hopes to engage more people from different parts of the world. The next mock debate will take place Saturday, November 12th. The topic will be the same, but the teams will be different, and new ideas will almost certainly be explored.
On (EST)November 5, 2022, evening (Beijing time Nov 6, 2022 morning), Global Youth Philanthropy-Boston will organize a major online event. Three major components in this online event: 1), Celebration of the achievement of 15 GYP students to receive the 2022 President’s Volunteer Service Award; 2) the News of release GYP 2022 Art Show; 3) the News release for GYP 2022 students’ online concert.
Besides, two GYP-Boston students’ club leaders will also give introduction sessions on the recent GYP Debate club and GYP History Club.
The host of the event is Lucy Zhang
Lucy is the winner of the 2022 PVSA Gold
Andrew Zheng, who has been in charge of 2022 GYP Art show, will make news release on three onsite art shows in large Boston area this summer, and also the progress of GYP 2022 Online Art show that is scheduled to complete late of November this year.
Steven Alexander Miall， who has been in charge of 2022 GYP online concert, will make introducation of the whole production process and share a few outstanding parts of this online concert.
Ben Han, who is one of GYP Debate club leaders, will make introducation of GYP Debate club activities, such as entry level Public Speaking skill course, entry and advanced level of Debate skill courses. Ben will also introduce another feature of GYP Debate club: monthly mock online event that started on October 2022.
Sharon He, who is co-president of GYP History club, will introduce History club seminars that have started in October, 2022, and “GYP History Review” that is history essays writing project that five high school students are working on it now.
A few PVSA winners will also share their volunteering experiences or share his or her art talents online. The first hour of this event will be all in English and participated by young students all over the world.
The second part of the event will include short speaches of GYP World Network board member, GYP event partners, art advisors and distingualished guests.
This is opened event, so everyone is welcome to join the zoom meeting that time.
The event zoom link:
Topic: PVSA Celebration & Art Show-Online Concert News Release
Time: Nov 5, 2022 09:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Debate Club of GYP-Boston will offer new “Public Speaking Skills training” starting on (EST)November 19, 2022.
This introductory course aims to help novice students gain confidence in speech writing and public speaking. Throughout the course, students will learn about crucial techniques used in a successful speech and how to apply them in their speeches. Each class will include a slideshow-based lecture and activities to help students understand the material. Students will write their short speeches at the end of this course and deliver them in front of the class.
Prerequisites: none
Week 1: types of speeches, tips to overcome fear when presenting
Week 2: crucial public speaking techniques
Week 3: answering questions after delivering a speech
Week 4: how to structure your speech
Week 5: student’s speech, public speaking practice activities
Teacher Introduction: Lucy Yuxuan Zhang
Yuxuan Zhang is a ninth grader at Boston Latin School, experienced in public speaking and debate. She is the secretary and an active participant in the school’s Model United Nations club and is the Middle School Division officer for BLS Science Team. In her free time, she enjoys trying new things, drawing and painting, singing in the school’s acapella group, playing the violin, and fencing. Described by her teachers and classmates as an initiative student, she takes on every opportunity to help others and contribute to the community.
To register for this course or apply for membership in GYP students Clubs, please scan QR Code at the low part of the following poster, and fill in the information on your mobile or PC. Currently,GYP-Boston has Debate-Public Speaking Club, History Club, and Writing Club.
For any questions, please contact GYP-Boston at <info@globalyouthphilanthropy.org>
From Oct 15, 2022, EST, GYP History Club will organize a seminar series of 8 events. The event time will in Sat evening EST, which is Sunday morning Beijing time. These seminars are mainly for club members, but a limited number of students interested in joining the club will be accepted for the events. If you are interested in the seminars, please contact GYP-Boston at <info@globalyouthphilanthropy.org>.
GYP History Club Seminars Details:
Oct 15-16 Ancient Greece History by Austin Shen Oct 22-23 Ancient Greece History by Austin Shen
Austin is a 12-yr 7th grader at Lexington, MA. He enjoys reading, soccer, and hanging out with friends.
Oct 29-30 Ancient Rome History by Jesse Yang Nov 5-6 Ancient Rome History by Jesse Yang
Jesse is a 5th grader at Fudan International School(FDIS). He’s a dedicated reader, and he’s influenced a lot of children to read. He’s really into swimming, sketching, mapmaking, and coding. Besides, he’s a basketball player on the school team. In addition, he’s Vice President of the student council at FDIS.
Nov 12-13 The Story of the Jews-Ancient Israel by Sharon Ho Nov 19-20 The Story of the Jews-Modern History by Sharon Ho
Sharon is a junior in high school who lives and mentors students in China. 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.
Nov 26-27 Turkey Modern History by Keyu Yang Dec 3-4 Turkey Modern History by Keyu Yang
Keyu Yang is a sixth grader at the affiliated Elementary School of Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China. He has a great passion to help his school, community, and the world to be a better place for everyone. Besides his studies, he is really into 3 * 3 Rubik’s cube, lego assembling, and piano.
Molin Wang is an 11-year-old going into the 6th grade. She was born in the Shang Yang province and grew up in China. She recently relocated to California in 2020. Molin says she enjoys being able to express her thoughts and feelings through many different art forms. She has submitted four paintings for the art show. The titles are Happiness, Beautiful Home, Lotus Wind, and Happiness descended from the sky. Their favorite piece that she commissioned was Happiness shows Chinese painting with many different creatures, spider’s appearance is a good omen in olden times. The image represents good luck and prosperity for the future. The painting’s theme is based on love, joy, and happiness, filled with color and intricate details. When asked what she would do next time if she were to repaint this piece, she said she would “ would improve the decorations and details, make the colors more vivid and clear.”
Her paintings took around 20-30 minutes to complete, and she mostly used Chinese ink and watercolor. Her parents supported her on her journey in art, and she first showed interest around the age of five. When asked why she chose to draw these specific paintings and donate them, she said she is “doing charities for human society, and I would love to use art to benefit human lives.” She enjoys art and aims to express her feelings and bring up the brightness and joy in human nature for the future, inspire others, and provide hope in times of need. She takes pleasure in art and wants to show her creative impressions, add to her art, and express hope and feelings through many styles of paintings. When asked about her views on how art affects society, she says, “I think art is significant and powerful, and it gives people spiritual strength.”
She discovered PYD through a WeChat group and signed up as a volunteer teacher. Her aunt and parents helped her with some pieces, but the inspirations were original. She was inspired by nature and all the animals she saw outside. The biggest challenge, she said, was to come up with the ideas and clean up the details after the painting was almost completed. The art show program of Global Youth Philanthropy aims to encourage and support young artists to contribute to their communities and make better social impacts via art philanthropic projects. We are glad to see students like Molin using their own strengths and making their own effort to benefit the community. Please check the information in the “Our Programs” tab if you want to contribute to our programs. We sincerely invite you to participate and make the world a better place.
To effectively encourage and recognize student volunteers and students’ philanthropy projects, and at the same time, to let students learn charity giving by doing, GYP launched a students-run mini fund called: the “GYP Students Recognition Fund.”
We like to thank our first group of outstanding student contributors and their parents for their support, and we hope more and more people will join this group.
Here are the first group of students contributors:
