Student Projects – Page 3

Donating to Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation

Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation (LDCRS) is a volunteer-run organization with a small paid staff. It is located in Falls Church, Virginia. It has placed 2,000 dogs and cats per year for adoption. This community project idea was to select, buy, and deliver necessities such as dog collars, toys, and food to help out LDCRF during COVID-19 pandemic. Through this humble contribution, we want to cheer them on their continuous work and dedication to animal welfare.

Timeline: December 2020 – March 2021
Key Lead: Nancy Cu
Goal: Provide necessities and resources for LDCRF in times of difficulties to help them with their work during these uncertain times and seek out future collaboration to foster youth involvement in animal welfare.
How: Nancy pitched her giving back idea to LDCRF to a Giving Back Committee to get funding approval for this project. She then contacted LDCRF to find out what they needed the most, and purchased those items on Amazon. Together with her mentor, Nancy delivered food, toys, and collars to LDCRF and had a meaningful conversation with the volunteers there to learn about future volunteer opportunities at this wonderful organization.
Result-To-Date: AASuccess funded $400 for this project. LDCRF was happy to receive the gifts. They expressed appreciation and thankfulness to all AASuccess members who have participated in this meaningful project.

Fundraiser for Victims of Typhoon Molave in Vietnam

Since early October 2020, Vietnam has been battered by storms, heavy rains, and floods which have affected more than a million people. Especially, Typhoon Molave had caused mass destruction in Vietnam, left millions of people without electricity, and damaged 56,000 houses. Specifically, many families in Quang Nam Province are living on roofs and struggling to survive as they have lost many things to this storm. Vietnam urgently needs money to recover.

AASuccess is partnering with the Lasan Vietnam Organization to raise money to help families recover and rebuild after suffering Typhoon Molave. Colby Pham, an AASuccess Level 1 student, volunteered to lead this fundraiser. All proceeds from the fundraiser are transferred to the Lasan Vietnam Organization.

Lasan is currently helping distribute supplies and fundraising money to support the victims of floods. Lasan Vietnam members are currently visiting multiple affected areas and communities in Quang Nam provinces to provide relief and necessities, as well as providing human resources to help the victims repair and rebuild their houses from the damages by the flood. The financial support from this fundraiser will provide clothes, food, water, and financial relief to more families that are affected by Molave.

Timeline: December 2020 – January 2021
Key Member: Colby Pham, AASuccess Level 1 Student
Goal: To fundraise at least $1000 to support people in the affected areas by Typhoon Molave in Vietnam.
How: Colby reached out to various AASuccess supporters to fundraise for the cause. He set up a fundraiser on AASuccess social media such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as reached out to his family and friends via mobile messages. He also met up with students in Vietnam and volunteers from Lasan Vietnam Organization to further understand the situations in affected areas and how we can help.
Result-To-Date: The fundraiser was a success. Not only did we exceeded the goal, but AASuccess also matches every dollars exceeding $400. Altogether, $2,080 was raised. Upon discussion with Lasan Vietnam Organization, we decided to use this fund to purchase uniforms and textbooks for students in the affected areas of Typhoon Molave in Vietnam during the 2021-2022 school year.

The below links show what Lasan Organization has been helping for this disaster.
https://lasanvn.org/hinh-anh/nhat-ky-hanh-trinh-den-voi-ba-con-vung-lu-quang-nam-ngay-3-giao-xu-ha-tan.html
https://lasanvn.org/chi-tiet/caritas-viet-nam-tham-va-khao-sat-lu-lut-mien-trung.html

Toy Drive Winter 2020

This community project idea was to select, buy, and wrap holiday gifts such as toys and clothes to give out to the children in need at Takoma, Maryland. Through this humble contribution, we want to spread happiness and joy during the 2020 holiday season.

Timeline: December 2020
Key Members: Nancy Cu and AASuccess members
Goal: Spread happiness to the underserved children during holiday season 2020
How: The AAS team came together on December 20 to wrap gifts to give to the 6 children that we have on the list. A person delivered all the gifts to the children’s house after that.
Result-To-Date: The children were happy to received the wrapped gifts. They expressed appreciation and thankfulness to all AASuccess members who have participated in this meaningful project.

Viet Technology Workshop

Four Viet College students, who are currently enrolled in AASuccess Work Readiness Program in Vietnam, engaged more than 25 peers in an innovative technology workshop that introduced the pros and cons of modern technology.

Timeline: October – November 2020
Key Members: Dung Nguyen, Phuong Tong, Nguyen Tran, and Nam Truong
Goal: Bring out a few important concepts about technology advancement and applications nowadays, such as cybersecurity, entertainment, education, finance, and healthcare, and advise people to be active creators and users of technology, not just merely passive consumers.
How: Host a workshop with at least 25 attendants
Result-To-Date: More than 30 students showed up at the workshop. Initial evaluations showed that the students, ranging from freshman through senior college, have growing concerns about the fast-paced development in new tech as well as how to sharpen their skills in order to get ahead of this 21st-century problem. The workshop concluded with a recommended course of action to explore ways to extend students’ initial experience with programming languages. It also included several strategies for encouraging the youths to pursue self-learning courses to enhance their knowledge in technology.

Scrapbook to Encourage Doctors during COVID-19

Tram and Truc’s community project idea was to make a scrapbook filled with positive and encouraging words to give out to healthcare providers at their local hospitals. Through this humble contribution, they want to encourage the doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic and express their appreciation for their work.

Timeline: August 2020 – October 2020
Key Members: Tran Le and Phuong Bui, 7th grader at Le Loi Secondary School
Goal: Spread positiveness and express appreciation to healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
How: Making a scrapbook with photos of health care providers around the world and delivering it to a local doctor
Result-To-Date: “Dr. Dung was so happy to receive the scrapbook. He gave us two big bags of candies when we visited him. We had an interesting conversation with him, which helped us understand more about his job.”

Read for Needs

Student Deanna Morgan takes a stab at organizing an online tutoring program, which aims to support the Spanish-speaking community.

Please see below for her letter and project scope:

“My name is Deanna Morgan. I’m 16 years old, and I am a girl scout with the Nation’s Capital, troop 5153. Additionally, I am a new student at AASuccess. When I was little, I attended Rose Hill and became fluent in Spanish due to the Immersion program there. However, throughout my years at Rose Hill, I realized that many students in the Immersion program immigrated to the U.S and knew little to no English. They had a hard time learning in school, making friends, and speaking English to others.

This year, I have been currently working on gaining my Gold award which is the highest rank in girls scouts. For my Gold project, I decided that I wanted to help migrant children who only speak Spanish read and translate a book into English.

I would gather friends and volunteers who are taking Spanish in school or are native speakers to help tutor the children on Google Meets. My program will be three to four weeks on the weekend so that the kids can grasp the content fully. At the end of my program, the students will be able to analyze and comprehend the book in English.

In order to complete my project, I need native speaking students who like to learn English; they must range from the ages of 10 to 12. Attached below is a sign-up form if you know anyone in need of tutoring. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at deanna.morgan@aasuccess.org.

Thank you so much and I look forward to hearing from you. Be safe and stay healthy!”

Featured article: https://blog.aasuccess.org/diversity-at-aasuccess/

Link to apply as a student >>

Link to apply as a tutor >>

Art Gallery Fundraiser

Want to use your skills for a good cause? We are calling for all volunteers to participate in this fun yet meaningful project led by Linh Le, a Level 1 AASuccess Student.

Timeline: September 2020 – March 2021
Key Member: Linh Le, a Sophomore at Poolesville High School
Goal: Raise at least $600 to donate to Art Works Studio School, which will go towards providing 6 students with 10 weeks of art classes OR towards hiring an ASL interpreter. Art Works Studio School is a non-profit organization based in Washington D.C. with the mission to help adults and young children learn art
through accessible programs in schools that may not offer creative education.
How: Raising fund via creating and selling artworks. Linh will be holding an art workshop once a week with all of the members to create art together, which include all types of mediums, from watercolor to acrylics to pencil sketches.
Result-To-Date: Organized weekly virtually meetings to learn how to create art together with 3 main participants.

From the Smallest to the Biggest Things

As part of the DELTA program, last Summer, two students in Vietnam Khoi-Nguyen Nguyen and Nam Nguyen started to collect recycled trash, sell them to the scrap shop, use the money to buy food and gifts, then give to underserved families around their neighborhood.

Timeline: August 2020 – October 2020
Key Members: Khoi-Nguyen Nguyen and Nam Nguyen, 7th grader at Le Loi Secondary School
Goal: Help people around our neighborhood while protecting the environment
How: Raising fund via collecting and selling recycle materials, then buy gifts and foods to give out to the underserved families in our neighborhood.
Result-To-Date: Raised 300,000 VND and gave out presents to 3 families. Reached a total of 14 people. Spent time playing and engaging with people from these families.

Featured article: https://blog.aasuccess.org/recycle-to-support-our-neighbors/

Hand Sanitizer for Underserved Community

Recently, there was a COVID-19 breakout in Vietnam. Hand sanitizer and face mask are completely sold-out, and are very difficult to buy. 2 middle school students in Vietnam, Tram and Truc, quickly realized that they were in a position to help the community in a meaningful way by producing hand sanitizer. Their first bottling was hand-made based on a recipe that they found on the internet. It met the basic alcohol-by-volume required to kill bacteria and viruses. Tram and Truc then gave out these bottles of homemade hand sanitizer to the underserved community at their hometown in Di Linh, Lam Dong Province, Vietnam. Through this project, they hope to make a small and humble contribution to the fight against COVID 19.

Timeline: August 2020 – October 2020
Key Members: Tram Nguyen, 9th grader at Nguyen Du Secondary School, and Truc Ta, 9th grader at Lien Dam Secondary School
Goal: Spread awareness about COVID-19 at Di Linh, Lam Dong, and providing hand sanitizer to poor people so they can wash their hands frequently.
How: Using the fund provided by AASuccess to buy the ingredients, Tram and Truc spent 2 days bottling hand sanitizer. They then met up to deliver the bottles together.
Result-To-Date: 60 bottles were made and given out to the underserved community at Di Linh, Lam Dong. The two students also engaged and had a meaningful conversation with the people there. They had a meal with one family afterwards.

Featured article: https://blog.aasuccess.org/hand-sanitizer-with-love/

Life Skills Workshop for College Students

As part of the live project of the Work Readiness Program, which allows students to demonstrate what they have learned in a business environment, three college students in Vietnam planned, organized, and hosted a free life skills workshop in front of more than 20 of their peers in English.

Timeline: June 2020

Key members: Thuat Vu, Thuy Vu, Luong Nguyen

Goals:

For the workshop attendees: engage them in positive behaviors that nurture their well-being and equips them with the necessary tools to make positive decisions
For the three students who hosted the workshop (who also student members of the Work Readiness Training program): The project serves as a training tool, which is designed to train them in project managing, practicing their public speaking skills, event planning skills, collecting and extracting information, as well as working as a team to deliver the result in a timely manner.

How
The three students work with each other weekly to plan, organize, discuss functions, recruit team members, figure out logistics details, and build the content for the workshop. They designed an invitation and sent out to their peers and successfully secured 24 attendees. Simultaneously, students met up with the Program Manager each Tuesday to update their progress and receive guidance on project management. On June 27, they presented their life skills workshop with 2 main topics: “Communication skills and How to Deal with Stress”. They also created a small game to engage the audiences, as well as a post-event survey to collect feedback.

Result-To-Date
95% of the attendees provided positive feedback to the organizing team, including criteria such as Content, Structure, Use of visual aids, Clarity / Expression, Ability to Handle Questions, and Time Control. The team also successfully reported their result summary and reflection in front of a group of mentors and students at AASuccess from the US.