Student Grant Recipients |
2019-2020 Student Grant Recipients
Stanley Luu, Joseph To,
Dan Ha, Thuy-Tien Nguyen
Seniors at McKay High School
Project Goal:
We plan to organize a Lunar New Year show for a school assembly to celebrate Asian culture. It will include lion dancing, drumming, and runners passing red envelopes containing candy and positive messages out to the audience. With this performance, we hope to get the McKay community more interested in (or at least more aware of) Asian culture and to draw more members to our budding Asian Student Union.
We plan to organize a Lunar New Year show for a school assembly to celebrate Asian culture. It will include lion dancing, drumming, and runners passing red envelopes containing candy and positive messages out to the audience. With this performance, we hope to get the McKay community more interested in (or at least more aware of) Asian culture and to draw more members to our budding Asian Student Union.
Project Description:
The four of us founded the Asian Student Union (ASU) at McKay High School just last month. Many of its current members (including us) joined because we felt out of touch with our cultural roots, and we also felt that the Asian students in our community lacked an outlet to speak up about Asian or Asian-American issues (unlike various other ethnic minority groups at McKay). Many of us hope to learn more or share information about our cultures in the club. ASU is intended to be a place where members can connect with others over a shared background and similar struggles and serve as a platform to help break the stereotypes associated with Asian and Asian-American people.
As a club, we want to use the grant to help put together a Lunar New Year show. The performance will be on February 14th, 2020 in McKay’s main gym, and we may perform it again at McKay’s Multicultural Night on March 11th, 2020 as well. We will need to practice the lion dance and drumming routines and plan where people will run to throw out red envelopes to the crowd. Rehearsals will be scheduled over winter break and on weekends leading up to each event. We have access to a lion head and a drum that we are allowed to borrow, but we are working to raise money to buy our own as both items are quite expensive.
This project will help spread awareness of Asian culture in a school where it is not very prominent; it is hardly mentioned (let alone celebrated) at all. ASU members can also feel more connected with their cultural identities by participating in a dance that is very central to backgrounds that most of us share. Besides helping participants feel more connected with and take more pride in their heritage, the dance practices will also help build and strengthen community within the club. As many sports teams and musical groups can attest, rehearsals and working together toward a common goal is a great way to build bonds. With those stronger bonds, members will be more comfortable with sharing ideas with each other and working more closely together toward other club goals. Ideally, this will carry on in future years, and projects like these can continue to motivate the club members while drawing in new ones as well.
The four of us founded the Asian Student Union (ASU) at McKay High School just last month. Many of its current members (including us) joined because we felt out of touch with our cultural roots, and we also felt that the Asian students in our community lacked an outlet to speak up about Asian or Asian-American issues (unlike various other ethnic minority groups at McKay). Many of us hope to learn more or share information about our cultures in the club. ASU is intended to be a place where members can connect with others over a shared background and similar struggles and serve as a platform to help break the stereotypes associated with Asian and Asian-American people.
As a club, we want to use the grant to help put together a Lunar New Year show. The performance will be on February 14th, 2020 in McKay’s main gym, and we may perform it again at McKay’s Multicultural Night on March 11th, 2020 as well. We will need to practice the lion dance and drumming routines and plan where people will run to throw out red envelopes to the crowd. Rehearsals will be scheduled over winter break and on weekends leading up to each event. We have access to a lion head and a drum that we are allowed to borrow, but we are working to raise money to buy our own as both items are quite expensive.
This project will help spread awareness of Asian culture in a school where it is not very prominent; it is hardly mentioned (let alone celebrated) at all. ASU members can also feel more connected with their cultural identities by participating in a dance that is very central to backgrounds that most of us share. Besides helping participants feel more connected with and take more pride in their heritage, the dance practices will also help build and strengthen community within the club. As many sports teams and musical groups can attest, rehearsals and working together toward a common goal is a great way to build bonds. With those stronger bonds, members will be more comfortable with sharing ideas with each other and working more closely together toward other club goals. Ideally, this will carry on in future years, and projects like these can continue to motivate the club members while drawing in new ones as well.
Note: OATAG has edited the following report for student privacy reasons.
2020-2021 STUDENT GRANT RECIPIENT
Stacy Martinez Arroyo
McKay High School, Salem, OR
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Stacy Martinez Arroyo an 11th grade student at McKay HS in Salem has been awarded a student grant for the 2020-21 school year. Stacy will pursue a course of study in American Sign Language. In her application, Stacy says, “As a preschooler, I learned how to sign very few words. This was due to one of our classmates having a deaf mom, so we learned to help communicate and make her feel included.”…“My most recent experience learning sign language was just this summer. I took a short ASL course through Upward Bound. Throughout the years I have taken on learning more and more about the deaf community and ASL, and today with my basic knowledge of ASL I can communicate with customers at work and help them feel included.” In addition to her studies, Stacy plans to start an online club to raise awareness about ASL and deaf culture.
Although applications for the grants were affected by the uncertainties surrounding schools in the 2020-21 academic year, OATAG is pleased to help Stacy with this independent project. |
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2022-2023 Student grant recipients
Ethan Hill, Gilham Elementary, Eugene
Ethan Hill, who attends Gilham Elementary in Eugene, used the grant funds for individual tutoring at "Math is Magic". This tutoring allowed Ethan to advance beyond his third-grade classroom level. In his report Ethan states: “I learned a lot of math-related knowledge and skills at Math is Magic the last few months and had a very fun time. Two examples of advanced math I wanted to learn about are how to use the integral and where the factorial fits in the order of operations. Visiting Math is Magic helped me to understand higher math. It’s basically the only place I can learn that kind of math from and expand my already good brain. Every time I go to Math is Magic, I learn something new and I feel amazing. It’s my favorite part of the week!”
"I learned higher-level math every session. I now know order of operations (PEDMAS – parenthesis, exponent, division, multiplication, addition, subtraction), how to do a problem when x is multiplied by a number and lattice multiplication, which is cool!”
Ethan kept a binder, spiral notebook and folder full of notes and topics covered. He also started using a sixth-grade level math workbook.
The math workbook and examples from his notebooks are shown below.
"I learned higher-level math every session. I now know order of operations (PEDMAS – parenthesis, exponent, division, multiplication, addition, subtraction), how to do a problem when x is multiplied by a number and lattice multiplication, which is cool!”
Ethan kept a binder, spiral notebook and folder full of notes and topics covered. He also started using a sixth-grade level math workbook.
The math workbook and examples from his notebooks are shown below.
Sophia Li, Findley Elementary, Beaverton
Sophia Li, a rising 3rd grade student at Findley Elementary School in Beaverton, used grant funds for materials to start a Fun Math Club for classmates and students in neighboring schools. The club began meeting on Zoom in January of 2023 and met weekly. Sophia reports: “During our club meetings, we solved a huge array of fun and interesting math questions together, played math games, and most importantly, had lots of fun. We also had in person meetings in the library community room twice, where we got know each other better by playing math games like “Target”, “Math Blast”, and “ADSUMUDI”, did math problem relays, and even a “students VS parents” challenge! I never expected so much interest in the club. In fact, there was so much interest that we couldn’t accommodate everyone who wanted to join. Our club currently with 18 members, and is still continuing to grow!“
Below is Sophia's report (we had to remove some of the pictures since we did not have permission for the children shown)
Below is Sophia's report (we had to remove some of the pictures since we did not have permission for the children shown)
America Palomec, McKay HS, Salem
America Palomec, a rising senior at McKay HS in Salem, enrolled in a pre-college program hosted by the Academy of Art University. Her goal was to “better understand the basics of creating in order to develop my personal style/methods.” She used grant funds to purchase the art supplies required for the still life painting and drawing course. America says: “I’ve learned many things about painting and perspective that will not only help me to become a better painter, but also a better artist in general as I now know what techniques are used in the process. I’ve shared my project with many of my family members and friends. My younger cousins were especially excited to see what I accomplished and asked if I could teach them later on.”
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Yair Suarez, McLay HS, Salem
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Yair Suarez, a student at McKay HS in Salem, was given funds toward the purchase of a better-quality violin. His goal was to improve his playing skills. Yair says, “ my violin helped me get into the highest level orchestra class and play with better accuracy and musicality.” He goes on to explain, “My status changed from a bottom violinist to a co-leader in the symphony orchestra and a co-leader in the chamber orchestra as well.” Another of Yair’s goals was to work with younger students and encourage them as he had been encouraged. He reports that, “Though I was unable to attend a summer orchestra program and help out kids, I was able to do alternative things like play for a preschool class and help 4th graders from all schools pick out an instrument as well as influence them in two different events (volunteering in Waldo Middle School and Stephens Middle School).
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