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         We are excited to offer this program to families in Minnesota who are seeking tutoring options for their children who are learning Chinese. We realize that school districts are offering school programming in various platforms that will impact the needs of young learners. Our goal in creating “MN Chinese Tutors” Online is to provide options for Chinese language learners that are free and managed by families. Therefore, parent involvement of the young learners is essential to the success of the program. High school and university learners may have an ability to arrange the Zoom tutor sessions independently, but students who are minors still need parent permission and involvement to ensure the tutor sessions provide the best opportunities for the learners. Registration of all students who will be signing up for tutor sessions is required.

 

        All of our Chinese tutors are volunteers. Currently, the volunteers are all from Capital Normal University in Beijing, a partner university of St. Cloud State University. Therefore, there is a 13-hour time difference between the students in Minnesota and the students in Beijing. Our 7 am is their 8 pm on the same day. Our 7 pm is their 8 am on the next day. With this time difference, a 24-hour advance registration is recommended. Once a Zoom meeting request is submitted, the student will need to wait for a confirmation email from the tutor to ensure that the request is confirmed and scheduled. It is recommended to schedule a weekly set day and time so that both the learner and the tutor get to know each other and the needs of the learner for the sessions.

 

        We welcome feedback on our MN Chinese Tutor platform and hope to continually improve this opportunity for students learning Chinese in Minnesota. We aspire to expand the times that are available with students from China who are at local universities in Minnesota. Finally, we ask for your patience as we launch our platform. As with all new platforms, we anticipate challenges and aspire to address these in a timely manner.

 

         This program would not be possible with the support of SCSU Visiting Scholar Dr. Qijie Li, faculty at Capital Normal University, and colleagues at Capital Normal University who worked to recruit and train the volunteer tutors. We are extremely grateful for their assistance, determination and commitment to making this platform possible. We are also very grateful to Grace Schillewaert, a Monticello graduate, who was the inspiration for this program.

 

        If you have further questions or would like more information, please email Education Director, Andrew Stanoch at Andrew.stanoch@stcloudstate.edu.