2019 & 2020 Winter Program for Thai Scholars
Winter Program, SIT graduate, VT, USA, 2019
During my senior year at Holderness School, I attended a winter program for Thai scholars. With my friends, we worked on our personal statements and several other essays for college applications. Then, in 2019, I came back as a teaching assistant, helping new Thai scholars navigate the American college application process. The work was very tedious as it includes application proofreading, but it felt really good to do something for my Thai friends TS ‘61 (Thai scholars Buddhist year 2561). I did the job again in 2020, working with another group, TS ‘62.
The people who arranged the winter program (or what we call “TS Christmas program”) were Chris and Jesse. Chris did the most work during the summer, but Jesse was the leader for the winter program. The picture above was Jesse and I during the Christmas eve. The program was only 10 days long for staffs like me, but longer for the kids. This is because the kids can stay as long as their winter break are. There were 3 groups of staffs at the program: the checkers, the readers, and the cooks. The checkers were those who proofread the applications; the readers were those who give suggestion on the essays the kids wrote; and the cooks would make Thai food for us!
We did have other activities besides working (although the time was so limited!). Every year the staffs would prepare a show to perform on the christmas evening. We performed a little dance along some silly song. It was so much fun for both of the year I went to. Going to the christmas program was very special to me because I got to spend a special occasion with my beloved Thai scholars who are both friends and family to me.
Links to the presentation that I made: How to list honors/awards and activities in the Commonapp.