亚利桑那州现代中文学校简讯

Contemporary Chinese School of Arizona Newsletter

CCSA Website: http://ccsarizona.org

2008-2009 学年 第 5 期 Issue 5 May 2009 总第 5 期

General
Well, we’re in to May already and many of us have great summer vacation plans and are looking forward to
spending some quality time with families and friends. The staff of CCSA wish you all a safe and enjoyable
summer. Even though things around here will be a little slow in summer break, we still gear up for
preparation of the new school year back, including setting up the on-line registration. Stay tuned for
additional information over the summer and be sure to check out your e-mails, or visit us on our school
website http://ccsarizona.org for a complete listing of classes and as always, feel free to contact us through
our school e-mail ccsa.ccsarizona@gmail.com with your comments, suggestions or questions.

本期简要
-林苏校长向大家致以良好祝愿！
-教学校长魏艺关于学生奖励制度的说明
-我校各中文班开展中文知识竟赛
-我校学生在近期亚省数学竟赛中获得优异成绩
-我校学生顾心泉参加演讲和辩论比赛的体会
衷心祝愿大家渡过一个愉快的暑假。新学年再会！

From Principal Su Lin

The 2008-2009 school year is coming to an end. First of all, congratulations to our students for their learning
progress and achievements in Chinese and other subjects. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank
our teachers for their dedication and hard work in educating our children, to thank the school executive team
and all volunteers for their tireless efforts and valuable contributions to our school’s success, and to thank all
parents for their continued support and understanding.

We have many reasons to be proud of our achievements for this school year –
 We have over 500 students enrolled in 25 Chinese language classes, 17 math classes and 15
enhancement/culture classes.
 5 students completed their 12th grade level Chinese and graduated from CCSA this year.
 Our students’ work was published in local newspapers almost every week.
 Hundreds of students participated in school-organized Chinese knowledge and culture competitions.
 Our math classes’ students participated in the Math Counts competition and achieved great results.
 We have established the Senior Student Award Program to recognize students’ long-term
commitment and high achievement in learning Chinese.
 Our tie with ASU Confucius Institute and the College of Education has been further developed with
strong mutual support.
 We actively participated in various community activities and organized our own school activities.
 Our fundraising team has organized another successful golf tournament to raise funds as well as the
awareness of CCSA in a big picture of perspective.
 A newly designed CCSA website will soon be launched to better serve our school and community.

All credits for our growing and continued success go to our volunteers and teamwork. It is truly an honor for
me to serve as principal at CCSA this school year and a true privilege to be supported by the school Board,
executive team and parents. I wish our school the best and wish everyone a happy and fun summer.

Su Lin 林苏
CCSA Principal
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- (Cont’d)

From Teaching Principal Yi Wei

To encourage senior students to continue learning Chinese, CCSA has established a comprehensive
scholarship program, which is overseen by Senior Student Award Committee. Members of the Committee
are Bernard Ho (Chair), Sophia Lee (12th Grade Chinese teacher), Tong Fu, Sherry Li and Yi Wei. Following
are the types of awards outlined in this scholarship program:

A. Chinese AP Test
1. CCSA will reimburse registration fee for our students if he or she is a CCSA student for at least
one school year prior to the AP Test

2. CCSA will award Excellence in Chinese Achievement to top 10% students and $50

3. CCSA will award Excellence in Chinese Achievement to top 5% students and $100

B. Chinese Senior Student (12th Grade) Awards

To qualify for any Senior Student Award, the student must have attended at least three (3) years of
Chinese classes in CCSA and meet the following requirements:

1. Excellent Student Award - $200 + plaque

a) Passed all CCSA exams
b) Independently complete a Chinese essay
c) Teacher’s recommendation

2. CCSA Achievement Award - $800 + plaque

a) Meet all Excellent Student Award requirements
b) Excellent Chinese ACT/AP test score
c) Participate in local, national or international Chinese composition and competitions
d) Participate in local public school Chinese teaching activities, if available

3. Outstanding Achievement Award - $2000 + plaque

a) Meet all requirements for Excellent Student Award and CCSA Achievement Award
b) Recommendation by CCSA teachers and teaching committee

The Senior Student Award Committee has reviewed applications and selected this year’s award recipients.
Scholarship will be awarded in Graduation Ceremony on May 2nd.

Yi Wei 魏艺
CCSA Teaching Principal

From Chinese Teaching Committee Chair Sherry Li

The Chinese Knowledge Competition was successfully held on April 4th, 2009. Almost 300 students
st nd rd
participated in this event, with more than 100 students winning 1 , 2 and 3 place trophies, 47 students
receiving Encouragement Award, and 134 students receiving Participation Award.

CCSA has held Chinese Knowledge Competition for a number of years. This annual event provides our
students a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of Chinese language, culture, and
traditions in a competitive, but fun and friendly environment. We encourage students to participate in the
competition on a voluntary basis, and no memorization is required for the competition. Competition styles
and contents varied from Pre-K to 12th grade, from classes of learning Chinese as Heritage language to
classes of Learning Chinese as a 2nd Language. Our higher grade students watched a Kong Fu movie, and
competed in re-telling certain parts of the story; 7th grade students did research on their parent’s hometown;
Conversational Chinese students practiced their language skills on how to ask for help while in a hotel.

The competition has become an integral part of our students’ Chinese language learning. We look forward to
another exciting event next year.

Sherry Li 李雨
CCSA Chinese Teaching Committee Chair
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- (Cont’d)

From MATHCOUNTS Program Teachers Zhong Lu & Yi Qin

It’s our great pleasure to report that two CCSA 7th Grade students Christine Xu and Jennifer Zhang won 12th
th
place and 13 place, respectively, and made into the top 20 in Arizona State MATHCOUNTS Competitions
held in Tucson in March 2009. In addition, 6th grade student Amber Gou and 8th grade student Naomi Jing
were also selected to go to Arizona State MATHCOUNTS Competitions.

Congratulations to Christine Xu and Jennifer Zhang for the good work, and thanks to their parents for the
encouragement and support behind the scene.

Thanks also go to CCSA for the strong support for the MATHCOUNTS program.

Zhong Lu 鲁钟 Yi Qin 秦艺
CCSA MATHCOUNTS Program Teachers

From Our School Student Paul Gu

For the past four years, I have been competing in Lincoln-Douglas (LD) Debate, one of many events in high
school speech and debate. In that time, I have debated topics from the justice of plea bargaining to the
prudence of US submission to the International Criminal Court. As a general underlying theme, LD focuses
on questions of ethics, forcing debaters to analyze "morality" and "justice". However, it has been evident to
me on each of the sixteen resolutions I have debated, murky questions of philosophy have very concrete
implications in terms of real world advisability. As an example, the nature of state obligation, whether the
"social contract" obliges states to look out for their own citizens even at the expense of the world, has deep
ramifications for US foreign policy in terms of humanitarian aid, "US hegemony", etc.

On a more personal level, debate teaches one not only how to present and argue, but fundamentally how to
think. At any of AZ's roughly 10 annual tournaments or the nation's most prestigious ones (Harvard,
Stanford, UCLA, etc), rounds are won on the strength of a competitor's research, writing, presentation, and
most importantly, reasoning. Given what I learned, the friends I made and the great experiences I had, I truly
cannot give a more unequivocal thanks to and recommendation for high school debate.

Paul Gu 顾心泉
CCSA Chinese 12th Grade Student

Quote
“Kindness is an inner desire that makes us want to do good things, even if we do not get anything in return.
It is the joy of our life to do them. When we do good things from this inner desire, there is a kindness in
everything we think, say, want, and do.” ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

“In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart,
there is the power to do it.” ~ Marianne Williamson

Contemporary Chinese School of Arizona

Newsletter Team

The CCSA Newsletter Team Members:

Irene Wei 魏怡平
Su Lin 林苏
Hong Qian 钱红
Gary Li 李光煊
Shicheng Tao 陶世诚

Comments on the Newsletter? Please send an e-mail to ccsa.ccsarizona@gmail.com.

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