CHRISTINA KWONG

Christina Kwong is an 18 year-old senior at Desert Vista High School who established a tutoring center at her church to help immigrant students improve their English skills in a friendly, supportive environment. Aware of her mother’s struggles as a young immigrant student from Taiwan, Christina discovered one day that there were high school students in her own church that were experiencing the same difficulties.

To Christina it was impossible to imagine how hard it is to be in a foreign country without the ability to fluently speak the language. Because of this, she thought of creating a tutoring center. She did more research and then obtained permission from her Chinese church to use its resources. Christina then called immigrant students personally to invite them to her new center, posted fliers in supermarkets and schools, and recruited native-born American students to serve as tutors.

The center now provides one-on-one tutoring for immigrant students to help with homework, public speaking skills, conversational communication and socialization. The tutoring has fostered a significant improvement in the students’ English skills, and as a result, many parents have also joined the center. Christina hopes to expand her program soon to include Hispanic and other immigrant students in addition to Chinese youth.