Dear Parents and Students,
Thank you for all your support to IvyMax over the years! As one of the founders of IvyMax Foundation, a 501 (3c) non-profit organization, I would like to share some great news with you: We are now a President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) Certifying Organizations (CO) and our foundation is qualified to issue Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards to students who participated in our Global Philanthropy Leadership summer and winter programs in China and Nepal. And we strongly encourage our students to continue their volunteering efforts on related club activities in local communities in the U.S. during their school year; we will count these hours as well.
The President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation inaugurated PVSA in 2003 to thank and honor Americans who, by example, inspire others to engage in volunteer service. The program continues as an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which also coordinates AmeriCorps and Senior Corps. PVSA recognizes United States citizens and its lawfully admitted, permanent residents who have achieved the required number of hours of service within one calendar year. The awards are offered on multiple levels and are designed to recognize each milestone of your service achievement. The required number of hours for each level is differentiated by age. Students who are committed to volunteer service activities throughout their four high school years will, in addition to enhancing their resumes, develop strong leadership, emotional intelligence, presentation and communication skills and perseverance.
For over a decade, we have been leading our students in grass-root level volunteering projects locally and globally during summer/winter breaks, as well as during school year. These projects have included, but are not limited to, poverty relief through microfinance, sustainable environmental engineering, village public health care, and reconstruction of orphanages. In addition to the traditional classroom, we have created an “extended classroom,” a unique social environment in which our students are exposed to real-world problems in underprivileged communities and are offered opportunities to find ways of creating pragmatic solutions through collaboration. We firmly believe that the mission of education should be not only to improve students’ academic performance and test scores, but also to focus more on developing their sense of social responsibility and leadership. We want to inspire more teenagers to join us and work together to create a more sustainable future. Let me conclude by using Ben Franklins’ famous quote: “Tell me, and I forget; teach me, and I remember; involve me, and I learn.”
Last but not least, I want to remind those students who participated in our Ningxia or Nepal summer programs in June or August this year should contact your closest IvyMax learning center to get more information about how to apply to the “President Volunteer Service Award” 2015. Seniors should hurry because the college application deadlines are approaching!
Yours Sincerely,
Vickie Zhang
IvyMax Foundation
