Oreo Community Service Project: Helping local children broaden their views

Since 2015, the Oreo Community Service Project has made immense progress on educating local children English. The non-profit organization was formed by a former student of SMIC Private School, Kaiyi Mok, in an attempt to teach the local kids (ages ranging from 5-6) how English could influence their lives for the better. Furthermore, each student gains community service hours in accordance to how much time they have devoted to volunteering. The name itself was also created by Kaiyi.  The name of the project is not an abbreviation of any sort, but rather just a word that they mutually agreed upon. From an interview with the current manager, Yvonne Lin (10A), students from SMIC Private School have been collaborating with students from other international schools such as Dulwich College Shanghai, Concordia, and Shanghai American School.

In an Oreo session, which takes place once every two weeks, 4-5 people come to volunteer. In the hour of each gathering, the students assist the children in reading and understanding English books donated to the public library by the mothers or students themselves.

Yvonne explained, “In the first 15-20 minutes or so, we sit down and do an ice breaker to get more familiar with the kids. Because different kids come every time, we’re not sure if they’re really familiar with us, so we play name games, simple games, like hangman, that involve simple phrases and words that they may not know. We teach them, and the rest of the 40-50 minutes we allow them to read books.”

One of Yvonne’s most memorable moments in the outcome of this project was Christmas Day of 2017. Around 8 people from various international schools attended to organize the library space, and a few of their friends joined. On that day, they utilized the donated books to create a Christmas tree. Yvonne commented, “It was pretty fun.  We made a Christmas tree out of paper.”

Although many students are unable to come to every the session, Yvonne hopes to improve the issue, as “this is not only about teaching English to the little kids, it’s [also] about everyone from other schools working together on this project.” In giving the local children an opportunity to explore the English language, both the children and student volunteers are able to apply their skills to the real world, whether practicing it to communicate to diverse people in the near future, or utilize teaching skills for not only local children, but others as well. Here, Yvonne and members of the Oreo Project are exhibiting attributes of a Global Citizen, Persons of Character, and a Healthy Individual.

Featured image- Yvonne Yin Lin helps reading an English book to a local student Courtesy of Yvonne Yin Lin