All of you guys, H2H, the counseling team, everybody, parents... you’ve had an exhausting day, and the last thing anybody needs is more talking.

But, as Adrian and I, as well as several other people who couldn’t be here this evening… have had a lot of experience over the past ten years... we’re hoping that you’ll listen just for a couple more minutes and bear with us while we share our thoughts.
And you guys lucked out because originally, I was going to give this speech in Mandarin! Then you guys would have really struggled, but I thought, “no, I’m not going to do that!”
And the other reason [for not using Chinese]… and I say this seriously, is that this is an English camp. It’s Huadung English Camp, and in the spirit of that, I thought it was important that as one of the founding members, I address you guys in English tonight.
And I know as English teachers and counselors, all of you guys know what I’m saying, so I’m not going to beat around the bush, and I will keep it quick.
 

Angela asked me to share my thoughts... and I have two things:
The first is a memory of the past, and the second is a look forward into the future.
When Angela asked me to share a memory… it was really, really difficult to choose because after four years of my service in the camp, and together we have all worked with over 1600 kids, there’s so much, but I thought I would instead choose something that was more directly relevant to many people in this room:
 

As a veteran, when we come back, we tend to be critical and think “Oh wow! We would have done it differently.” Or, “How different things must have been!”
But the actual truth is that when Adrian and I walked into the curriculum room - because we were former curriculum team members, and I’m speaking directly now to the curriculum team , you guys are holding the keys to the kingdom here - we were just simply blown away.
You guys have become so accomplished. Each and every single one of you, regardless what team you’re from, have become leaders in your own way.
And the way that nearly forty of you guys could work together seamlessly, step up to the plate, do your work, and get the job done - that kind of efficiency is something that we never could have imagined. So I just want to share that “A-ha!” moment that both of us had when we saw you there.
On that note, that leads to my second point, which is that obviously, we’re celebrating tonight and we’ve had an amazing ten years together.
But causes for celebration are also a time for reflection. And I think it’s really important that each and every single one of us all think carefully about what it is that we are celebrating and why.
 

In my own view, I think Heart to Heart is an amazing program. There are plenty of programs that have been around for longer than we have.
But why have we been so successful?
It’s because we’re as good at listening as we are at teaching, and each year we learn to adapt.
The first year, when it was just Adrian and me and six of our close friends at TAS, Sanders as well, all of us, to be honest - we really didn’t know what we were doing.
We were working with three schools and one hundred kids in each school, and the goal was to feed them, to get them BianDan (便當) because they didn’t get anything to eat.
We realized that our initial goals in setting up this camp were two things: It was to take care of the campers and it was to teach them English.
And when year two came around and we were lucky enough to work with the Alliance Foundation, in no small part thanks to Mr.Stanley Yan and Ms. Angela Tsai, we did a hardcore curriculum reset:
We hired somebody with a Princeton education who was of Chinese descent but did not speak Mandarin and who got in with us in each of the classrooms and taught us how to teach an entire lesson in English without a single word of Chinese.And that’s the root where our interactive curriculum came from.
 

We’re so inspired by the way that it’s continuing to grow. Each and every year we’ve been successful because of all of you, and because of your edits
To make long story short, as we move forward to the future, the one thing I want to ask ourselves is this:
Why are we here? What are we doing? And what kind of impact are we making?
The two goals have always been: To take care of our kids and to teach them English, as this is an English language summer camp.
 

My hope for the future is that we continue to evolve and keep listening to our kids and listening to each other in coming up with new and innovative ways of doing that.
The last note I want to close on, and it’s something again that I commend all of you guys for, is that in order to do that, you have to get uncomfortable.
You know it is really, really difficult to work one on one with kids, especially when they’re feeling alone, and they’re isolated, and they come from really, really difficult family situations that none of us can possibly imagine.
They’ve been ostracized and marginalized. And we want to do everything that we can to protect them. And that’s why all of us are here.
But sometimes in our desire to protect them and to comfort them, we also lose sight of what our original goal is. Which was to address all of the issues that Mr.Yen talked about this morning in his speech:
These kids, they are not victims, they are innovators.
They are creators. They are survivors.
And when we work with them, we need to keep in that spirit and know that they’re tough and resilient.
And we need to continue using English with them, because that is the only way - in the world that has left them with no choice but to continue to protect and to spread their culture. And that has always been, and will always be our, mission.
And I can’t stress that enough as we consider not only sitting on our laurels and celebrating all the amazing things we’ve accomplished, but also moving forward. Because if we don’t, if we reflect really carefully on what we’ve actually accomplished:
The camp is not about us, it’s about the kids. The tears, the goodbyes, the piñatas, the ceremonies, the celebrations, the self expression
All of it is wonderful, but it’s also not sustainable. And we need to continue pushing as hard as we can, or else we only become glorified babysitters.
 

We need to continue to adapt and change, and to show the same level of creativity and innovation that all of our children have shown us.
And if we’re too afraid to innovate and to be brave, it’s not fair for us to expect the same from them.
So I congratulate everyone for an amazing ten years, and as we continue to grow together,
I can’t wait to see what I know we’ll accomplish.
Thanks for listening.
 

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The best way to plan for our future is to learn from our past -
to preserve our core mission of caring for our campers and teaching them English, and never being afraid to innovate and grow because our work is never done.