Applications for 2012-2013 School Year are available and are due Friday, August 31, 2012.

You can download the student application here. You will need Adobe Acrobat to be able to read the application.

If you would like us to mail or fax you an application, you can call the Phillips Brooks House at 617-495-5526. Please leave your name, home address, and phone number so we can reach you.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at chtnasp@hcs.harvard.edu.

Volunteer Application

Thank you for your interest in becoming a Chinatown Afterschool counselor!

Please fill out the counselor application and we will be in touch shortly. If you have any questions, feel free to email us at chtnasp@hcs.harvard.edu.

Our program meets on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday during the
school year, taking into consideration both the Boston Public School,
Harvard University, and Wellesley College’s academic schedules.
Student volunteers leave college campuses at 3:00, arriving in Chinatown a
little before 3:45 to meet the kids and to walk
to our site, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association
building.

The first hour consists of homework help and tutoring.
Homework time is the most important element of our program to our kids’ parents.
The majority of them do not have the English skills to help their kids with English
grammar, reading and social studies homework. Additionally, many parents must work long hours
and are often times unavailable to help their kids.

During the last hour, kids do enrichment projects designed by their counselors,
often involving arts and crafts, science, math, reading, writing and
friendly competition. This is where the counselors get an opportunity to be really creative and give back to the kids. Between the two segments, the kids are encouraged to read, with
plenty of appropriate books provided. Program ends at 5:45 and volunteers are back at their college campus
around 6:30.

The almost 70 kids in our program age from 5 to 12 years. We divide the
kids into 6 groups,
each with
approximately 9-15 kids, according to grade level. Each year, the kids
reapply.
Admission is based on residence in Chinatown, academic and/or social need for an
afterschool
program and attendance of our program and/or the summer program (Chinatown Adventure).
We ask for a copy of latest report card and proof of residence.



Several families in Chinatown cannot afford the high prices of the other afterschool
programs,
such as Red Oak (located in the Quincy School) and ASP (After School Program on the
first floor of
Mass Pike Towers). Since we are the only free afterschool program in Chinatown, we are
able to see
successions of siblings go through our program. Furthermore, families learn about our
program
through their relatives and neighbors, so that many of the kids in our program are
related
to each other as either siblings or cousins.



Because of the structure of the Chinatown Afterschool program and the Chinatown
Committee,
we are able to follow our kids from the age of six when they first enter Group 1 of the
Afterschool
Program, through the Chinatown Teen program (grades 7 and 8) until they are junior
counselors
for the Chinatown Adventure summer program. With Chinatown Adventure, we are able to
provide
almost year-round supervision and activities for our kids. To learn more about these
other programs, please
visit the Chinatown Committee
Website.



Our approximately 75 volunteer counselors come primarily from Harvard
College and Wellesley College. With about 20 counselors on each day, we
have a counselor to child ratio of 1:3.
This allows for opportunities for group as well as one-on-one interaction with the
kids.

All of the counselors who work with the same group of kids meet weekly.
These meetings, often held over a meal in a Harvard dining hall or at a restaurant in
Chinatown,
serve as a curriculum meeting, at which counselors brainstorm project ideas.
They are facilitated by a group coordinator (GC), who
is
responsible for checking on
the
general well being of the group and its individual kids and for making sure that
projects are planned
and executed. GC led meetings are also used to plan individual group field trips, such
as sleepovers
and trips to the movie theatre. Because 60 kids is a lot to tote around, we only take a
few program-wide
field trips. In the fall, we have a Halloween Party at Harvard, with activity booths in
Currier and trick-or-treating in first-year dorms. We also have a
fall-themed
trip, such as apple picking or a trip to Wheeler Brook farm. At the end of the semester,
there is a
Parent Potluck. The spring semester is kicked off with an ice skating field trip.
Towards the end of the semester, each group goes on a field trip organized by its
counselors and GC.
The end of the year is marked by a Parent Potluck!

The Chinatown Afterschool Program was founded in 1984. Originally, program was held in
the Round Church, right next to Eliot Norton Park, where we pick up our kids. Our site
was then moved to Boston High School and the Asian American Civic Association until we
moved to the Chinese Consolidated Benevlolent Association (CCBA) in 2008. There, we have
three spacious classrooms partitioned in half, a supplies and directors’ room, and an
extra classroom for projects and events.

Before the creation of Group Coordinator positions, there were “Day Coordinators” who set
up the site and handed out the day evaluations after program. Counselors were responsible
for meeting with each other to plan projects. There was little or no communication between
counselors who were the same group but different days, and between counselors of same days
but different groups. But in the Fall of 1997, Group Coordinators were installed to help to
foster a sense of unity amongst the counselors of each group.

In the Fall of 1999, the leaders of Chinatown Afterschool felt a position was needed to
coordinate collaboration with Wellesley counselors whose interest in the program had been
steadily increasing. The Wellesley Director orchestrates Wellesley recruiting and events
with the the help of Wellesley GCs. Today approximately half of counselors come from Wellesley.
Each year there are also several students and Junior Counselors from other schools in the area.


Past Afterschool Directors

1991 Nancy Chen ’94

1992 Nancy Chen ’94

1993 Hamilton Chan ’95 & Michelle Osborne ’94

1994 Hamilton Chan ’95, Julie Wang ’96, Julie Yeh ’95

1995 Ryan Bradley ’97, Edy Kim ’97, Julie Wang ’96

1996 Ryan Bradley ’97, Edy Kim ’97, Regina Liu ’97

1997 David Chao ’99, Pintep Hompuem ’99, Bonnie Lau ’98

1998 Priscilla Chan ’01, David Chao ’99, Christine Chen ’00, Frances Hsieh, Amy Leung ’00

1999 Priscilla Chan ’01, Christine Chen ’00, Jenny Chou ’01, Amy Leung ’00, Kim Nguyen ’02

2000 Jenny Chou ’01, Cheryl Kim ’03, Kim Nguyen ’02, Vivian Song ’02

2003 Beverly Du ’04, Justina Wong ’04, Betty Ho ’05, Jennifer Hsu ’06, Tammy Yanagi ’06

2004 Sean Tom ’06, Tammy Yanagi ’06, Jennifer Hsu ’06, Aram Seo ’06, Dan Gale ’06, Xiang Yu ’06, Camille Chang ’06

2005 Dan Gale ’06, Xiang Yu’06, Camille Chang ’06, Kevin Jwo ’07, Yiyang “Yaya” Wu ’07, Angelico Razon ’08

2006 Camille Chang ’06, Keving Jwo ’07, Angelico Razon ’08, Yiyang “Yaya” Wu ’07, Weijie Huang ’08, Annie Chang (Wellesley) ’08

2007 Annie Chang (Wellesley) ’08, Weijie Huang ’08, Lauren Herman ’07, Emily Parrott ’09, Lisa Pao ’08, Cindy Cen ’08, Esther Son (Wellesley) ’09


2008 Spring Ying Ying Fok ’09, Grace Kim ’09, Candice Lee (Wellesley) ’10, Esther Son (Wellesley) ’09, Jennifer Yan ’09

2008 Fall – GAJJY - Ying Ying Fok ’09, Grace Kim’ 09, Amy Li ’10, Jennifer Yan ’09, Jeffrey Ye ’10

2009 Spring – JAIL - Amy Li ’10, Elizabeth Pan (Wellesley) ’11, Iris Tian ’11, Jeffrey Ye ’10

2009 Fall – JILE - Iris Tian ’11, Elisa Yu ’10, John Zhao ’12, Lydia Krooss (Wellesley) ’12


2010 Spring – SCELJ - Stanley Zheng ’12, Christine Shen ’12, Elisa Yu ’10, Lydia Krooss (Wellesley) ’12, John Zhao ’12

2010 Fall – SCWP$ - Sara Simon (Wellesley) ’13, Christine Shen ’12, Wendy Chen ’12, Patrick Li ’12, Stanley Zheng ’12

2011 Spring – SWERP - Sara Simon (Wellesley) ’13, Wendy Chen ’12, Esther Wu ’13, Ruo Chen ’12, Patrick Li ’12

2011 Fall – DREaM - Diana Schron (Wellesley) ’14, Ruo Chen ’12, Esther Wu ’13, Mona Huang ’14

2012 Spring – MMDKK - Mona Huang ’14, Michael Wang ’14, Diana Schron (Wellesley) ’14, Kevin Chin ’13, Katrina Malakhoff ’14

2012 Fall – VMAKK - Vickie Wu ’13, Michael Wang ’14, Alice Schlotterbeck (Wellesley) ’14, Kevin Chin ’13, Katrina Malakhoff ’14

2013 Spring – VAVA - Vickie Wu ’13, Alice Schlotterbeck (Wellesley) ’14, Victoria Chen (Wellesley) ’15, Alex Foote ’15