Student Essay – By Annie Zhu

I’ve always wanted to contribute to ACAN’s mission to serve the community and spread our Chinese culture. During my time at Project Melody, I performed many musical pieces with my peers to present a part of my chinese culture and share the love for music with my community. We visited nursing homes for the elderly, and seeing the smiles on their faces as they reminisced the nostalgic geniality of music warmed my heart. We also went to more established institutions such as hospitals and the ACAN banquet. The hospital staff were delighted by just a small gesture, symbolizing the saying “less is more”. The banquet was a major hit, with guests gracefully dancing to traditional Chinese music and classical waltzes. I loved watching our Chinese culture being seen through the artistic lens of dance.

Serving the community was also a big goal of mine, so I established Sunshine Tutoring with my friend to teach less-fortunate children valuable math and other subject’s skills, improving their education. I have long noticed the disparity in education between our community where education is highly sought and ubiquitous and the less fortunate community where grades are often overlooked. This also led me to better myself, teaching me patience. I thoroughly enjoy teaching these children, guiding them to see education with more curiosity, integrity and fun.

Besides creating my own group, I joined many other organizations to enhance the existing beauty of our community. These include food banks, where I learn and participate in the farming of crops to homeless and others struggling in poverty. It was an eye-opening experience, both a fun and diligent task. Not only that, I also participated in many gift wrappings in the Brown Santa donation, where I and many other volunteers carefully wrapped donated gifts, picking presents for each child and folding the paper with precision. Volunteering at the Brown Santa donation helped build my teamwork and bridge my connection with our community.