The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has seen almost one billion children affected by school closures, many of who were relying on this time to work on their extracurricular activities.
Leading EdTech, Crimson Education, has been aiding students throughout these trying times. By hosting regular webinars focusing on the impact of coronavirus on education and supporting with extracurricular mentoring, Crimson have been making global headways.
One such example is the ‘Share a Mask with your Neighbour’ initiative in China, a unique ‘pay it forward’ campaign that was led by a Crimson UAE student, which so far has had participation from thousands of people.
While some people would be mistaken to consider Chinese New Year as a time to wish good fortune and gift red pockets filled with money, Yuxi Zhang, a 16-year-old student at ACG Parnell in Auckland whose family is based in the UAE, saw an opportunity to ‘pay it forward’ with kindness.
The unique mask-sharing project sparked a movement across Auckland and Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province of Southwest China, providing practical help to an elderly community suffering amidst the coronavirus outbreak.
“After the Chinese New Year, I had these red pockets that I received from relatives. I thought of creating a project where if you give a free mask out to someone, I will give you back $1 from my own red pocket.”
The project which in Chinese translates to “Let’s Take Care of Each Other” has seen the donations of over a thousand masks and generated over 400 positive responses on WeChat. Many comments on the social platform included users sharing their own photos of mask-gifting.
Additionally, the development of the ‘Ventilator Fundraising Art Initiative’ saw a Crimson student partner with a local artist based in New Zealand, who had commissioned 85 pieces of coronavirus related art. The student created a website to host an online auction to sell the collection, and in turn, all profits made will go towards buying ventilators for a local hospital.
Acknowledging a local shortage in hand-sanitizer, an inventive Crimson student decided to launch the ‘Hand-Sanitizer Home Production Initiative.’ By researching the various components of hand sanitizer and assembling packs by hand at home, the student donated the products to local low-income communities who were struggling to get sufficient supplies during the time of crisis.
Another student has interviewed citizens from the 25 most affected nations around the world including Iraq, China and the USA. Interviewees were asked a series of questions about how they are feeling, how the media coverage is affecting their emotions, how they are managing self-isolation and some fun questions. The idea behind the ‘Humans of the Coronavirus’ project is to provide people with an online channel where they can share their feelings and relate to other humans going through the same experience in long form text.
Lastly, the ‘Guide to Learning Online During the COVID Crisis’ blog was developed and published by a Crimson student, which focuses on online learning for both students and parents, aiding learning outcomes during the time of coronavirus.
The traditional approach to extracurricular activities has shifted, therefore students have had to reconsider in person projects and look at alternative ways to make a difference and boost their extracurricular profile.
From an extracurricular perspective, school closures do not have to inhibit a student’s activities, which is evident in the above noteworthy projects. In fact, these uncertain times have led to students thinking outside of the box and given them a chance to showcase entrepreneurial skills on a topic that matters to them.
Crimson’s team of online mentors are available to assist students through this time and help them stand out on their college applications to their dream university. For further information, please visit https://www.crimsoneducation.org/ae-en/.
