CAAL PVSA Seminar 莱镇华协总统义工奖讲座与分享

原创华协社区委员会莱镇华协

CAAL PVSA Seminar

莱镇华协总统义工奖讲座与分享

（Scroll down to read in English）

Opening

Community service is not just a graduation requirement mandated by schools, but an opportunity for students to grow and develop. On July 11, at 7:30PM, the CAAL Community Service Committee held the annual seminar about the President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA), explaining the award, the application and selection processes.

CAAL PVSA Committee, whose members are Liying Kuang, Leeying Wu, Wendy Qin, Xiaomei Zhuang, and Julie Cai, have provided an opportunity to help students showcase their development and community service achievements through the CAAL PVSA. Host Liying Kuang gave an opening remark, and Wendy Qin, Chair of the CAAL Community Service Committee and PVSA committee, presented the history of CAAL and the CAAL PVSA. CAAL was established 38 years ago in 1983. It has committed to serve the community, to better integrate the Chinese American into the community, so that Chinese American in Lexington can better grow together with the community through serving the community and town. In 2015, CAAL Community Service Committee created a subcommittee called the PVSA Committee to help qualified students to apply for PVSA. As of today, through CAAL, there were 27 PVSA awards received which include two lifetime PVSA awards.

Eligibility

As explained in detail by Wendy Qin, no changes have been made to neither the eligibility rules nor the hour requirements required by the PVSA for each age group and award type this year. However, CAAL requires that 20% of your total volunteer hours should be CAAL related volunteer hours. Last year it was 15%.

Eligibility for the PVSA

The applicant must be:

A US citizen or a permanent resident (green card holder)
At least 5 years of age
The completed service must be:
1) Within an 12 month period
2) Unpaid
3) Beneficial to others
Service that is NOT acceptable for the PVSA includes (but is not limited to):
1) Donating funds
2) Political lobbying
3) Religious instruction
4) Conducting worship service
5）Proselytizing
6) Volunteer service performed as a part of court-ordered community service
7) Serving only family members

Age Groups

The age for PVSA application should be your age on August 31, 2021

Special case: If you are 15 turning 16, meaning that on August 31, 2021 you will be 16, you can also apply for the Teen (11-15) category instead of the Young Adults (16-25) category using hours earned from before your 16th birthday.

Different age groups have different service hour requirements for each award type as detailed below:

Application Process

Volunteer to meet the PVSA hour qualifications during the fiscal year (Sept. 1, 2020 - Aug. 31, 2021)

Meet CAAL volunteer hours requirements → at least 20% of hours are CAAL related volunteer hours.
Service hours submitted for school graduation requirements CANNOT be submitted for CAAL PVSA.
Prepare application package (more information on CAAL website):
1) Completed and signed Form A and Form B
2) Include all the original signed Volunteer Forms
3) Copy of official ID
4) Application fee of $25
Submit the package to the Community Service PVSA Committee by Sept. 30, 2021 and email to PVSA@caal-ma.org

Mail original application forms and supporting documents (the application package) to PO Box 453, Lexington, MA 02420

Send $25 application fee via PayPal (pay to payment@caal-ma.org) or via check, payable to CAAL, mailed to PO Box 453, Lexington, MA 02420. Please write “PVSA Application Fee” on the memo for PayPal or for check

Timeline

Sept. 1, 2020 - Aug. 31, 2021: Collect service hours (20% of which should be CAAL hours).
Sept. 1, 2021 - Sept. 30, 2021: Submit PVSA application to CAAL by email and mail orginal forms, as well as pay $25 application fee.
Oct. 1, 2021 - Oct. 15, 2021: CAAL PVSA Committee reviews, verifies, and submits the applications.
Recipients will be notified and honored at future CAAl events

Results will be on time if needed for high school seniors who may apply for an early college application.

Youth Programs

Two volunteers from CAAL youth programs, Ellen Wang from Helpful Hands and Trevor Xing-Xie from the CAAL youth computer science team, shared their volunteering experience.

One of the many CAAL youth programs is the Helpful Hands program led by Ellen Wang. This youth program provides aid to homeless shelters through mask making and clothing donations. At first, Ellen faced adversity with her program as her program originally lacked members and it was difficult to make a strong contribution on her own. As Ellen began branching out to get more members through flyers on WeChat, these new members were not as experienced in mask making. As a result, Ellen and her brother created mask making tutorials on YouTube, allowing them to recruit more volunteers.. While many others were donating masks to local hospitals like MGH, Ellen decided to donate to homeless shelters, as the homeless populations have been one of the hardest hit by COVID. Helpful Hands came together and donated over 1,000 masks to the homeless shelter. The Helpful Hands program did not stop there. As vaccination rates grew, and the need for masks decreased, Ellen and her program found more opportunities to help the homeless. The program ran a clothing drive, asking friends and neighbors to donate clothes that were in good condition. In just a week, the program donated over 300 pieces of clothing to the shelter. Through these opportunities, Ellen has been able to meet many inspirational people. Not only has this community service benefitted those in need, but also helped Ellen work on her organizational skills and grow as a leader. Through community service, you not only help others, but also develop your own characters and strengths.

Like Ellen, Trevor Xing-Xie, one of the CAAL Computer Science Team, alos shared how he grows through his community service experience. Trevor loves video editing and various sports. Advised by Professor Wei Ding, he and others in the computer science program team are passionate about helping the community with their computer science skills. The team has participated in three projects: Creating a new Harrington PTA website, helping the Community Endowment of Lexington (CEL) with financial grant analysis, and implementing a pipeline for the Patriot’s Day celebration website. Currently, the team is creating lessons to teach others about computer science and creating a website to store the lessons, as well as analyzing hotspots from the Patriot’s Point walk. With the Harrington project, the team created a new website (using HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and Bootstrap) that was easily accessible and kept Harrington families informed and connected during the pandemic, a period when parents heavily relied on the website for updates. This project not only requires collaboration and communication between team members, but also demandes collaboration with Harrington PTA leaders. For the CEL project, the team analyzed the statistics and data for the CEL applications, which helped CEL redesign their application procedure. The team faced the most challenges for the most recent project. In assisting the Town Celebration Committee with their Patriot’s Day celebration, the team faced many challenges. Right before the deadline, the team found a bug in the code, meaning that they had to sacrifice their personal time to find a solution before the deadline. As project lead, Trevor routinely spent 7-8 hours a week on this project. Although this project put a lot of pressure on Trevor and the team, it taught Trevor how to persist and overcome difficulties. Through their participation in the community, Trevor and the team also demonstrated the importance and positive impact of Asian Americans on society. In the future, the team hopes to expand their computer science skills, find new opportunities to help the community and create a lexington town application.

Both Ellen and Trevor said that volunteer work not only helped others, but also developed themselves. Give people a rose, the hand has a lingering fragrance.

CAAL youth programs include: (can be found on CAAL website)

Helping Everybody Learn More (HELM)
English Teaching Program for Chinese Seniors
Youth Instrumental ENsemble
TriLex
Sponsor-a-Basket for the food pantry program
Helpful Hands
CAAL Computer Science Team
Translation Service
CAAL Dragon Dance Team
And more

Finally, Wendy introduced CAAL Youth Programs listed above, followed by a live question and answer session with the audience. Wendy, Liying Kuang, and Leeying Wu provided detailed answers to each question raised. We hope that this seminar and report are helpful and resourceful for students preparing to apply for the PVSA, inspiring and encouraging students for community service, and participating in CAAL Youth Programs if interested.

Link to Question and Answer

Question and Answer Session（Scan QR code to read）

开幕／华协PVSA历史

社区服务不仅仅是学校规定的毕业要求，也是学生成长和发展的机会。2021年7月11日晚上7:30, 莱克星顿华协（CAAL）社区服务委员和往年一样，按期举办 “PVSA总统义工奖评选说明的讲座。

华协社区委员会成员Liying Kuang 主持开场，她也是PVSA总统义工奖审核委员会成员。总统义工奖审核委员会共有五人组成，除她以外，还有Leeying Wu, Wendy Qin, Xiaomei Zhuang, 和 Judy Cai。华协社区委员会主任Wendy Qin作为本次讲座主要嘉宾向参与者介绍了CAAL 发展历史。CAAL成立于 1983 年, 至今已有38年的历史，一直致力于服务社区，更好地让华裔融入社区，让华裔更好地与社区共同发展与成长。在2015 年，CAAL 社区服务委员会成立了PVSA 小组委员会，帮助满足条件地学生申请 PVSA。迄今为止，PVSA 委员会已帮助学生获得 27 项服务奖，其中有两名学生成为终身获奖者。

申请资格

关于今年如何申请总统义工奖，Wendy 详细介绍了PVSA相关的申请资格与流程。今年”总统义工奖“的申请符合资格不变，不同年龄段的时数要求不变；但华协对所要求的义工小时数有所变化，从去年的15%调整为20%。

PVSA 的资格由以下因素决定:

申请人是美国公民或永久居民（绿卡持有者）
至少 5 岁
完成的服务必须是：12个月内, 有益于他人的义工项目

PVSA 不接受的服务包括（但不限于）：

捐赠资金
政治游行
宗教教育/传教
只为家庭成员服务

年龄

PVSA 的申请年龄是学生在 2021 年 8 月 31 日的年龄。

特殊情况：

如果学生今年是 15 → 16 岁(意味着在 2021 年 8 月 31 日将年满 16 岁), 学生实际上可以申请Teens (11-15) 并提交 16 岁生日之前的义工时间。

对不同年龄组有不同的服务时间要求:

*更多详情请查看CAAL 官网

申请截止时间和流程

2020年9月1日-2021年8月31日：

收集服务时间（其中20%为CAAL时间）
2021年9月1日-2021年9月30日：
1) 向CAAL提交PVSA申请
2) 电子邮件 PVSA@caal-ma.org
3) 邮寄原始表格: CAAL, PO Box 453, Lexington, MA 02420
4) 支付 25 美元的申请费: paypal to payment@caal-ma.org
2021年10月1日-2021年10月15日：CAAL PVSA委员会审查、核实并提交申请
2021 年 11 月至 12 月：通知收件人，并将在未来的 CAAL 活动中获奖.

结果在大学提前申请截止日期之前公布

青少年义工项目代表发言

(Ellen Wang & Trevor Xing-Xie)

接下来，两位华协青少年义工项目代表 Ellen Wang （Helpful Hands 项目负责人）和 Trevor Xing-Xie （计算机义工小组负责人）介绍了他们所做的义工项目和一路走来的心路历程。去年，Ellen Wang 创立了 Helpful Hands 项目。该项目小组为收容所的无家可归的人制作口罩必要时候还捐赠衣物提供援助。去年四月新冠疫情爆发，PPE 和口罩等物资极度匮乏，民众竭尽全力把自己仅有的物资捐赠给医院，当发现无家可归的流浪汉容易成为移动的传播病源，Ellen 心急如焚，帮助这些人也是在帮助麻州缓解疫情，口罩需求量极大，为了帮助更多人，Ellen 开始在微信上宣传自己的项目并和她的弟弟一起在 YouTube 上上传口罩制作视频，邀请更多感兴趣的人参加。Ellen 和 Helpful Hands 的小组成员在之后的大半年内共向无家可归者收容所捐赠了 1,000 多个口罩。随着疫苗接种率的提高，口罩需求量减少，Helpful Hands又看到更多帮助无家可归者的机会，那里的孩子缺衣服！Ellen 和组员立即行动，开始在朋友和邻居里征集青少年的衣服，要求干净整洁，短短一周时间，募集了300多年衣服捐赠给了收容所的孩子们，也缓解了燃眉之急。通过这些经历，Ellen 通过Helpful Hands 结识了很多有想法还能干的人。这项社区服务活动不仅让有需要的人受益，还帮助了 Ellen 理解合作的重要性。在帮助别人的同时，Ellen自己的组织能力，领导力都得到大幅提高。

同样，CAAL computer science team代表Trevor Xing-Xie也在善于社区服务活动中发现问题，解决问题，得到了成长。Trevor 喜欢视频编辑和体育运动。在丁教授的带领下，他和其他组员一起设计和参加了多个项目，用计算机科学技能帮助社区。该团队主要参与了三个项目：创建新的Harrington小学 PTA 网站，帮助Lexington社区基金会 (CEL) 进行财务拨款分析，以及设计网站庆祝爱国者日。目前，Trevor 和他的团队创建了课程教更多人有关计算机科学的知识，并设计了一个网站来存储课程。通过 Harrington 项目，该团队使用 HTML5、CSS、JavaScript 和 Bootstrap设计了一个易于访问的新网站，方便Harrington学生家庭在疫情期间了解情况并保持联系。这个项目不仅需要团队成员之间的合作和沟通，还需要与 Harrington PTA 领导者的合作。对于他们的 CEL 项目，Trevor和团队帮助CEL分析并重新设计了他们的申请程序。最近，Trevor 的团队接手了一个项目给成员们带来了很大的挑战。在协助镇庆祝委员会举行爱国者日庆祝活动时，Trevor 和组员面临截止日期前发现代码错误。他们不得不利用许多个人时间去解决。作为领导者，Trevor 会每周花 7-8 小时为这个项目作贡献。虽然这个项目给 Trevor 和团队带来了很大的压力，但是教会了 Trevor 如何坚持并克服困难。通过他们对社区的参与，trevor 和团队也展示了亚裔美国人对社会的重要性和积极影响。未来，团队希望扩展自己的计算机科学技能，寻找新的机会帮助社区，并创建Lexington应用程序。