Asian Youth Center Workshop
On July 21, 2021, Youth4ward hosted its first virtual workshop with more than 20 students from Asian Youth Center. Asian Youth Center, established in 1989, is a non-profit organization whose mission is to uplift underprivileged youth from various communities. AYC’s summer program hosts online arts and craft classes, STEM-related activities, health lessons, and virtual field trips. We are privileged to have connected with an engaging group of children, ranging from 2nd to 5th grade, from the summer program.
Initially, due to technology differences, it was difficult to communicate and share our lesson with the younger audience. Thankfully, Youth4ward was agile and quick to adjust to these circumstances. Because of the childrens’ unfamiliarity with certain internet softwares, some activities needed to be improvised. During the workshop, Youth4ward taught the class about foster care: why it happens, how long the process is, the reality of the system, and our approach to fighting the injustices faced by families. Shifting gears, we proposed the question: “What are you passionate about?.” Students then took turns verbally sharing their ideas, as well as drawing their interests through a game of “Passion Pictionary.” After, all the workshop participants began splitting into breakout rooms, with one Youth4ward representative in each, as a mentor. Student interest responses included helping wildlife, foster care recycling innovatively, beach cleanups, and alleviating the stress accompanying people who face homelessness. In these individualized groups, Youth4ward introduced how the organization was established through various processes and outreach efforts. The mentors encouraged the students to create their own passion project as a blueprint for a potential organization. Everyone formed a passion board through Google Slides, stating their organization’s name, issue, impact, mission statement, and partners. Youth4ward received a great number of questions on how foster care works and advice on how they could take their passions to the next step.
Looking back on the workshop, the successes definitely outweighed the difficulties faced in the beginning. Although we did not go as in-depth on certain content as planned, we ended up extending our lesson by thirty minutes due to the student involvement. Rather than solely teaching, the class quickly adjusted to becoming conversation-based. The Q&A approach effectively communicated our mission, accomplished our lesson goals, and most importantly, elevated the communication level between teachers and students. Because of how active the students were, they would engage and retain more in the class if it was discussion-based. They proved to have a wide knowledge of their select niches and were eager to highlight their projects at the end of the lesson to their classmates. Students showed great enthusiasm throughout the class along with providing impactful feedback necessary for Youth4ward’s future teaching events. Overall, this workshop was very valuable in exposing and educating youth on a topic not commonly overlooked in society.