Little Sunshine Project creates crafts for foreign students

Sophomore Abha Agrawal creates a craft for the Little Sunshine Project.

Esther Kim

Munching their favorite flavor of lollipops while disentangling colorful strands of strings, students in Little Sunshine Project designed crafts for impoverished students around the world.

Little Sunshine Project, an eighth period club that meets on every Friday A-block, is an unique service club that creates a link between Jefferson and students living in China, Taiwan and Ethiopia. During their meetings, the members of the club participate in various activities, such as making bracelets, decorating cards and fabricating origami.

“Usually, our packages are sent to schools, orphanages or similar organizations,” senior Jess Chen, the publicist of the club, said.

Currently, the Little Sunshine Project is affiliated with the Youth Building Bridges Program, a program that allows American high school students to instruct underprivileged Chinese students for two weeks in China.

Through the project, the Jefferson students form a correspondence with one or two foreign students by writing letters in English, giving them a chance to develop and improve their interest in the language. The connection is made by contacting various schools around the world, an assignment that the officers are responsible for.

“I am currently communicating with an English teacher at RenAi Elementary School,” senior Michelle Shiu, the president of the club, said. “The officers are also coordinating with a school in Taiwan so we can begin sending letters to them.”

In addition to the letters, the members also send their completed crafts and the materials they used to create them, allowing the foreign students to participate in the same activity. The officers hope that this project will allow impoverished students and orphans to broaden their scope of the world.

“We hope to encourage students to enjoy learning English and provide an opportunity for them to write letters to native English speakers,” Shiu said.