Harker’s chapter of the National Chinese Honor Society organized a series of online classes over the summer to teach English to children in rural China. The classes, called The Little Star Program, took place over four weeks and were attended by 17 children. Yi Jiang, upper school Chinese teacher, connected with the community in her hometown in rural China to find students for the program so they could benefit by learning from native English speakers.

“NCHS is always looking for ways to contribute to The Harker School and to society,” said senior Yinan Zhou, Harker’s NCHS president. Several student teachers from NCHS were present at each session.

“The Chinese children reviewed their material that they had learned that year since it was the end of their school year in China, and the teachers focused on pronunciation, writing and reteaching the basics,” said Zhou. “We even had a teacher who showed ‘Peppa Pig’ to her students!” The pupils were primarily third graders, with some sixth graders also participating. Their teacher in China reported that students who participated in The Little Star “were smiling and more willing to talk at the end of the program,” Zhou said.