Last month, East Villagers interns hit up Stanford Shopping Center to raise awareness of causes in East Asia. Here are some of the pictures they took during the event (in between educating passerbys). We're so proud not only because of the effort the put in that day, but also because they proposed and executed the event by themselves! If you know someone who is interested in gaining real-world social justice and leadership experience, refer them to our EV internship site, www.servicescholar.com!

We're so proud of our interns for continuously thinking of new ways to spread awareness of East Asian issues! This time, they decided to go to a local shopping center to speak to strangers about philanthropy. Read one intern's first-hand account of the experience below:


On January 2nd, the East Villagers interns gathered together at Stanford Shopping Center in order to spread awareness about the name and vision of Transparent Fish Fund. The game plan was to split into three groups, and then station each group at different sections of the mall. Each group carried fliers that contained information about the TFish Fund, and began stopping people respectfully in order to talk about the organization. We hoped to communicate our vision behind spreading a movement of philanthropy.

I was assigned to a group that consisted of three volunteers and myself, an EV intern. The experience was exciting, but at the same time, nerve-wrecking. We were all nervous at first, unsure how to approach people, and had to do a quick “rehearsals” before asking people walking by if we can borrow some of their time. Like any other mission, there are times of success and failure, and after a couple of rejections, people began to stop and listen to what we had to say. A few caring individuals were genuinely interested in our work and message and listened attentively, making our jobs as the communicator easier. After talking to six people, our group was stopped by the mall’s security official, stating that we could not continue because we needed to sign paperwork for permission.

Even though our mission had to conclude earlier than expected, the experience was still worthwhile. Together as a group, we sat in chairs in the center of the mall and debriefed the one hour that we had spent talking. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the experience, besides the challenges of rejection, and the early conclusion of the mission.
Now that I am more exposed and comfortable with communicating to the members of my community about the TFish Fund project, I cannot wait to spread the vision of TFish Fund through the many other projects coming forth this year!

Sophia Huang, EVSS Intern
Los Altos High School, California, Grade 11

Congratulations to our interns, who made the post-Thanksgiving charity dinner a big success! We raised over $1200 total that night, more than enough to fully fund the remainder of our children featured on The School Fund's website, and even contribute extra funds toward special projects like those listed on our new website. We're so proud of our interns and can't wait to see the achievements that come from future projects!

We were invited by our former partner, Seanan Fong, to attend this year's Community Health Symposium at Stanford. Seanan had taken a brief hiatus from his undergraduate studies late last year and during his time off, traveled extensively through China to document our work with Little Red Scarf. Last Thursday evening, he had the opportunity to present some of that work to his peers through a poster at the conference, as well as through his brief talk. In his 7-minute presentation, he took the audience through the story of Little Jiao, who he followed from pre-op to post-op. He also shared his experience interacting with people from rural areas of China and introduced the Chao Foundation's Service Scholar program. We hope that Seanan's experience will inspire other college students to get involved with work in less industrialized areas. We are grateful to Seanan for the effort he put into raising awareness for Little Red Scarf's work and congratulate him on his success at the symposium!

The Chao Foundation is highly dedicated to promoting a spirit of philanthropy among the next generation of Asians. However, it is equally committed to this goal at home. It was for this reason that East Villagers was launched several years ago. East Villagers lets users share their projects and support others in an online community dedicated to information exchange between Asia-related nonprofits. Now, East Villagers has just started recruiting its Service Scholars for the 2011-2012 school year. If you or someone you know is interested in a paid opportunity with benefits ranging from learning about careers in the social sector to raising awareness for global issues, gaining leadership experience, and directing projects, please apply! You can learn more about the program and its opportunities through our new Service Scholars website. Or, just email us at admin@eastvillagers.org. We'd welcome hearing from you!

Thank you for participating in the East Villagers Service Scholar Essay Contest! We really enjoyed reading every one of your essays and viewing each of your art pieces and videos. We were truly inspired by your enthusiasm and passion for service. Your commitment to serving the community and making the world a better place is very commendable. We thank the Ping & Amy Chao Family Foundation for their generous support and sponsorship. Winners from Northern California will be invited to read their essays at the annual Service Scholar Award Celebration hosted by the Ping & Amy Chao Family Foundation. With that, it is our great pleasure to announce our 2010 Winners:

High School Service Scholars

First Place ($500): Kuan-Chung Huang (Walnut, CA)
Second Place ($350): Daniel Hoilett (Charlotte, NC)
Third Place ($150): Caitlin Snaring (Redmond, WA)

Middle School Service Scholars

First Place ($300): Richard Black (Blythewood, SC)
Second Place ($200): Anthony Zunino (Los Altos Hill, CA)
Third Place ($75): William Zhou (Palo Alto, CA)

Artwork Category Winners

First Place ($300): Susan Chang (Fremont, CA)
Second Place ($200): Austin LoCicero (Damascus, PA)
Third Place ($75): Melissa Massimore (Hubbard, OH)

4C the Power is please to present an Acoustic Holiday Party which is being hosted by the Far*East Movement.  Guest performers include AJ Rafael, Vudoo Soul, Lydia Paek, IZ and other special guests.  We are so excited to be collecting small school supplies for the children of the Red Scarf Project in China.  Nancy Nguyen will be taking the school supplies with her when she travels to China after Christmas! Please join us for this wonderful night of fellowship, music, gratitude, and giving!