Saratoga, CA

Status: ACTIVE

 

On March 18th, 2021, three high school students in California founded the eighty-eighth branch for the Alliance of Youth Leaders in the United States (AYLUS): Saratoga, CA.

Founders:

Congratulations to (from left) Charlotte Shi, Justin Shen, and Angella Zhao of the Saratoga Branch! Great job!

Current branch leadership:

(From left to right) Charlotte Shi, Justin Shen, and Grace Wang

Branch Mascot, Benson Hu

Description of the Saratoga Branch

The missions of this new branch include saving the environment, improving people’s body health, caring for others (elders, people with disabilities, etc.), tutoring students, and enhancing the inclusion of minorities.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, many workers could not do their jobs, such as cleaning up parks and local reserves. As a result, many places have become littered with trash, and this is harming the environment. During the pandemic, students spent most of daily time on the computer and were lacking physical activity. We want to create a branch of AYLUS here to organize cleanups for the local parks surrounding Saratoga. By cleaning up parks, we can save the environment and improve body health as well.

Face masks can reduce the spread of Covid-19. But many off-the-shelf masks do not fit well with young kids or people with glasses or hearing-aid devices. During the pandemic, we used 3D printers to create face mask extenders and distribute them to some local school districts and medical foundations. The feedbacks were really positive. We want to use this new branch of AYLUS to rally more students to brainstorm more ideas to care for others.

During distant learning, we found that not all the students are familiar with computer technology. In the past, we have learned some program languages (like Python, Java, Script, etc.), 3D printing, Raspberry Pi, and Arduino. We want to use this new branch of AYLUS to tutor students in these domains, which will help students in STEM.

Recently, more and more racism and violence against minorities (especially, Asian American and Pacific Islander, AAPI). We want to use this new branch of AYLUS to help the local community, show the contribution or care from AAPI, and improve the inclusion of minorities.

As a summary, we are going to organize biweekly or monthly activities mentioned above.

 

Branch Leadership

Position Name Email
President Charlotte Shi charlotteshilele@gmail.com
Vice President Justin Shen justinshen2006@gmail.com
Secretary Grace Wang wanggrace2797@gmail.com
Advisor Hualiang Shi hualiang.shi@gmail.com

 

Branch Members

Position Name Email
Member Angel Shi angel.shihu@gmail.com
Member Angela Xu xuluhua@gmail.com
Member Lilah Sage Monserrat t.sakhrani@gmail.com
Member Iniya Prabhu iniyasudha84@gmail.com
Member Qixuan Yao yao237900@gmail.com
Member Grace Wang wangrace2797@gmail.com
Member Richard Song isingisongihappy@gmail.com
Member Jenny Tian zh88.tian@gmail.com
Member Chloe Shen shushushen@yahoo.com
Member Annie Wu annieyuxin.wu@gmail.com
Member Sophie Pin sophie601@gmail.com
Member Jacquelyn Zhou
Member Joycelyn Zhou
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member
Member

 

Activities:

  • Local park + beach cleanups
  • Poster distribution to spread awareness of problems
  • Volunteering with external groups such as FMSC, RAFT