Friday, July 21, 2006

Idea

Before going to Chicago, I think community services confine to paying visits to the needy’s home, organizing some activities for the aged and poor children only. It is difficult to imagine that Internet can be one of the methods to help the needy.

Traditionally, interaction between tutor/mentor and students operates on a face-to-face basis. With the invention of Internet, charities should grasp the gist of such trend, because teenagers interested in it and it provides an opportunity for the charities to expend their services in a larger scale because Internet was an effective and flexible tool that it does not restricted by time and geographical differences. It signifies that more people can be benefited. Moreover, discussion forum on the Internet makes T/MC formed another community or family where friendships were built.

I think the T/MC works best if more former students or alumni can be tutors or mentors to teach the new generation upon graduation. The alumni, who share the same background with our students, can share their learning and working experience.

1 comment:

Tutor Mentor Connections said...

Michael, thank you for setting up this blog and sharing what you are learning while an Intern with the T/MC. I encourage you to invite some of the other Hong Kong students who are in Chicago this summer to join you on this blog, sharing their own experiences, and building a community based on the shared experience you all have of spending the summer working in Chicago non profit organizations.

I also encourage you to email friends and family in Hong Kong, to encourage them to also visit your blog. This way, the community can be enlarged.

The issues of poverty, social isolation, and poorly performing schools is common to all big cities, not just Chicago, or American cities. If we can connect people from around the world in forums like your blog, and the http://www.tutormentorconnection.org we each can learn from each other, and we can work together to overcome obstacles that are too big for single programs to solve.

Thanks.

Daniel Bassill
President
Tutor/Mentor Connections
Cabrini Connections