Freshman teaches Chinese instrument after school

Freshman Selina Chen exits her parent's car in the parking lot and walks into the Cupertino Sunflower Learning Center. She prepares for her class, checks attendance for her eight students and says, “Dajiahao. Kaishiba” (Hello, Let’s start).

Unlike students in high school who go to after-school programs to learn a subject, Chen is teaching a class. In particular, she teaches young children to play the guzheng, or the Chinese zither, a traditional string instrument.

What makes her qualified to teach the subject? For one thing, she lived in China for 11 years, and she has been playing the zither since she was 6. Additionally, being fluent in Chinese, Chen is able to speak to her students in the language and reinforce language skills their parents want them to learn.

Chen teaches her class twice a week: eight students are in her first class and seven students are in her second class, ranging from kindergarten to second grade and third to fifth grade.

According to Chen, her two classes are exactly the opposite; while the first is boisterous, the second class is much quieter and reserved.

With her first class, she has had to use her improv skills to rope them back on track. Her classes are divided into two 30-minute sessions, with a break in between.

Some of her favorite memories teaching are from her group of younger students.

“To play Chinese Zither you have to tape plectrums onto your fingers,” she said. “I call these plectrums ‘fingernails”’ in Chinese. I assign each student a number to match their plectrum. After class, one day, my student asked her father, ‘Is your fingernail number 2?’ Her father was extremely confused. After a long time he finally figured out that she was talking about plectrums.”

Chen plans to donate the money that she earns from her teaching to the school’s LEO club, which is a youth volunteer and service club sponsored by International Lions; it encourages members to come up with ideas and create projects they are passionate about. As secretary, Chen wanted to do her best to support the newly formed club.

Unlike most students who have jobs, Chen is relatively young: only 14. But she believes that her age shouldn’t discourage learning centers from hiring her.

“During the interview, the principal of the center asked me if I was a junior or senior, and they were very surprised when I answered freshman. After the interview, I was asked to do a demo class, and I did really well on that,” Chen said.

According to Chen, one benefit of working during freshman year is that she doesn’t have as much school work to worry about compared to upperclassmen.

“Being young doesn’t mean I can shy away from the responsibilities of a teaching job. The standard age of working might be reasonable. However, once I proved to officers that I can perform well on teaching zither, the age wasn’t a problem anymore,” Chen said.