Ccsa Newsletter May 2009

亚利桑那州现代中文学校简讯

Contemporary Chinese School of Arizona Newsletter CCSA Website: http://ccsarizona.org 2008-2009 学年 第 5 期 Issue 5

May 2009

总第 5 期

General Well, we’re in to May already and many of us have great summer vacation plans and are looking forward to spending some quality time with families and friends. The staff of CCSA wish you all a safe and enjoyable summer. Even though things around here will be a little slow in summer break, we still gear up for preparation of the new school year back, including setting up the on-line registration. Stay tuned for additional information over the summer and be sure to check out your e-mails, or visit us on our school website http://ccsarizona.org for a complete listing of classes and as always, feel free to contact us through our school e-mail [email protected] with your comments, suggestions or questions. 本期简要 -林苏校长向大家致以良好祝愿！ -教学校长魏艺关于学生奖励制度的说明 -我校各中文班开展中文知识竟赛 -我校学生在近期亚省数学竟赛中获得优异成绩 -我校学生顾心泉参加演讲和辩论比赛的体会

衷心祝愿大家渡过一个愉快的暑假。新学年再会！ From Principal Su Lin The 2008-2009 school year is coming to an end. First of all, congratulations to our students for their learning progress and achievements in Chinese and other subjects. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our teachers for their dedication and hard work in educating our children, to thank the school executive team and all volunteers for their tireless efforts and valuable contributions to our school’s success, and to thank all parents for their continued support and understanding. We have many reasons to be proud of our achievements for this school year –  We have over 500 students enrolled in 25 Chinese language classes, 17 math classes and 15 enhancement/culture classes.  5 students completed their 12th grade level Chinese and graduated from CCSA this year.  Our students’ work was published in local newspapers almost every week.  Hundreds of students participated in school-organized Chinese knowledge and culture competitions.  Our math classes’ students participated in the Math Counts competition and achieved great results.  We have established the Senior Student Award Program to recognize students’ long-term commitment and high achievement in learning Chinese.  Our tie with ASU Confucius Institute and the College of Education has been further developed with strong mutual support.  We actively participated in various community activities and organized our own school activities.  Our fundraising team has organized another successful golf tournament to raise funds as well as the awareness of CCSA in a big picture of perspective.  A newly designed CCSA website will soon be launched to better serve our school and community. All credits for our growing and continued success go to our volunteers and teamwork. It is truly an honor for me to serve as principal at CCSA this school year and a true privilege to be supported by the school Board, executive team and parents. I wish our school the best and wish everyone a happy and fun summer.

Su Lin 林苏 CCSA Principal Page 1 of 3

- (Cont’d) From Teaching Principal Yi Wei To encourage senior students to continue learning Chinese, CCSA has established a comprehensive scholarship program, which is overseen by Senior Student Award Committee. Members of the Committee are Bernard Ho (Chair), Sophia Lee (12th Grade Chinese teacher), Tong Fu, Sherry Li and Yi Wei. Following are the types of awards outlined in this scholarship program: A. Chinese AP Test 1. CCSA will reimburse registration fee for our students if he or she is a CCSA student for at least one school year prior to the AP Test 2. CCSA will award Excellence in Chinese Achievement to top 10% students and $50 3. CCSA will award Excellence in Chinese Achievement to top 5% students and $100 B. Chinese Senior Student (12th Grade) Awards To qualify for any Senior Student Award, the student must have attended at least three (3) years of Chinese classes in CCSA and meet the following requirements: 1. Excellent Student Award - $200 + plaque a) Passed all CCSA exams b) Independently complete a Chinese essay c) Teacher’s recommendation 2. CCSA Achievement Award - $800 + plaque a) Meet all Excellent Student Award requirements b) Excellent Chinese ACT/AP test score c) Participate in local, national or international Chinese composition and competitions d) Participate in local public school Chinese teaching activities, if available 3. Outstanding Achievement Award - $2000 + plaque a) Meet all requirements for Excellent Student Award and CCSA Achievement Award b) Recommendation by CCSA teachers and teaching committee The Senior Student Award Committee has reviewed applications and selected this year’s award recipients. Scholarship will be awarded in Graduation Ceremony on May 2nd.

Yi Wei 魏艺 CCSA Teaching Principal From Chinese Teaching Committee Chair Sherry Li The Chinese Knowledge Competition was successfully held on April 4th, 2009. Almost 300 students st nd rd participated in this event, with more than 100 students winning 1 , 2 and 3 place trophies, 47 students receiving Encouragement Award, and 134 students receiving Participation Award. CCSA has held Chinese Knowledge Competition for a number of years. This annual event provides our students a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of Chinese language, culture, and traditions in a competitive, but fun and friendly environment. We encourage students to participate in the competition on a voluntary basis, and no memorization is required for the competition. Competition styles and contents varied from Pre-K to 12th grade, from classes of learning Chinese as Heritage language to classes of Learning Chinese as a 2nd Language. Our higher grade students watched a Kong Fu movie, and competed in re-telling certain parts of the story; 7th grade students did research on their parent’s hometown; Conversational Chinese students practiced their language skills on how to ask for help while in a hotel. The competition has become an integral part of our students’ Chinese language learning. We look forward to another exciting event next year.

Sherry Li 李雨 CCSA Chinese Teaching Committee Chair Page 2 of 3

- (Cont’d) From MATHCOUNTS Program Teachers Zhong Lu & Yi Qin It’s our great pleasure to report that two CCSA 7th Grade students Christine Xu and Jennifer Zhang won 12th th place and 13 place, respectively, and made into the top 20 in Arizona State MATHCOUNTS Competitions held in Tucson in March 2009. In addition, 6th grade student Amber Gou and 8th grade student Naomi Jing were also selected to go to Arizona State MATHCOUNTS Competitions. Congratulations to Christine Xu and Jennifer Zhang for the good work, and thanks to their parents for the encouragement and support behind the scene. Thanks also go to CCSA for the strong support for the MATHCOUNTS program.

Zhong Lu 鲁钟

Yi Qin 秦艺 CCSA MATHCOUNTS Program Teachers From Our School Student Paul Gu For the past four years, I have been competing in Lincoln-Douglas (LD) Debate, one of many events in high school speech and debate. In that time, I have debated topics from the justice of plea bargaining to the prudence of US submission to the International Criminal Court. As a general underlying theme, LD focuses on questions of ethics, forcing debaters to analyze "morality" and "justice". However, it has been evident to me on each of the sixteen resolutions I have debated, murky questions of philosophy have very concrete implications in terms of real world advisability. As an example, the nature of state obligation, whether the "social contract" obliges states to look out for their own citizens even at the expense of the world, has deep ramifications for US foreign policy in terms of humanitarian aid, "US hegemony", etc. On a more personal level, debate teaches one not only how to present and argue, but fundamentally how to think. At any of AZ's roughly 10 annual tournaments or the nation's most prestigious ones (Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, etc), rounds are won on the strength of a competitor's research, writing, presentation, and most importantly, reasoning. Given what I learned, the friends I made and the great experiences I had, I truly cannot give a more unequivocal thanks to and recommendation for high school debate.

Paul Gu 顾心泉 CCSA Chinese 12th Grade Student

Quote “Kindness is an inner desire that makes us want to do good things, even if we do not get anything in return. It is the joy of our life to do them. When we do good things from this inner desire, there is a kindness in everything we think, say, want, and do.” ~ Emanuel Swedenborg “In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it.” ~ Marianne Williamson

Contemporary Chinese School of Arizona Newsletter Team The CCSA Newsletter Team Members:

Irene Wei Su Lin Hong Qian Gary Li Shicheng Tao

魏怡平 林苏 钱红 李光煊 陶世诚

Comments on the Newsletter? Please send an e-mail to [email protected]. Page 3 of 3