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This version of NSU News has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of NSU News, visit news.nova.edu.

This version of SharkBytes has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of SharkBytes, visit sharkbytes.nova.edu.

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Division of Public Relations and Marketing Communications
Nova Southeastern University
3301 College Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33314-7796

nova.edu/prmc

SharkBytes Archives

Contact

Division of Public Relations and Marketing Communications
Nova Southeastern University
3301 College Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33314-7796

communications@nova.edu

Passion Shines Through University School Student

University School  student  Rachel Bomser

University School student Rachel Bomser

The Florence A. DeGeorge Boys & Girls Club in Davie proudly offers a Chinese class to its children thanks to University School student Rachel Bomser, grade 11. Rachel started learning Chinese in sixth grade and is now enrolled in AT Chinese Language & Literature and affirms that teaching Chinese reinforces her knowledge of the language. Since ninth grade Rachel has volunteered at a local children’s museum where she has developed a love for working with children. During her freshman summer, she participated in an intensive Chinese immersion program where she further developed her passion for the language. During that program, Rachel realized how fortunate she is to attend a school that offers Mandarin as a world language. This inspired her to develop a program combining both of these interests.

Rachel created a program to introduce students to Chinese language and culture, which she proposed to the Boys & Girls Club and was immediately accepted. She calls it Hǎo Péngyǒu (好朋友) Hour, which translates to Good Friend Hour. Rachel chose this name to reflect the friendships she has made with her students, who all look forward to her Friday afternoon lessons.

Rachel teaches the weekly one hour class to approximately 15 students in grades 4-6. The goal of the program is to expose young students to Mandarin, which is the most widely spoken language in the world. Rachel’s hope is that her students will develop a passion or interest for the language and continue to pursue learning it throughout school.

She started the program as a tenth grade student and Rachel was invited back this year after achieving great success with the children. Kelvin Harris, the program manager at the Florence A. DeGeorge Boys & Girls Club, is appreciative of this academic extracurricular program and feels “it is beneficial to the members because it helps them express themselves in another language. It also helps broaden their horizons and takes them to another level. They look forward to being in Rachel’s class.”

Striving to make each lesson informative yet entertaining, Rachel developed a detailed curriculum that includes 18 units based on lessons from her classes at USchool and the intensive Chinese language immersion program she completed. Lessons include objectives, vocabularies, interactive learning activities, such as games like Bingo, and take home exercises. Students create workbooks where they demonstrate their learning of vocabulary by recording the Chinese characters, pronunciation, and definitions for greetings, clothing, foods, sports, hobbies, and school subjects, among others. This allows the children to review previous lessons and to build the foundation for their learning. Rachel also teaches her students about the Chinese holidays and compares them to American holidays to give students a better perspective. For instance, the class celebrated the Chinese New Year with traditional games and treats, including lucky candy.

Rachel plans to continue teaching at the Florence A. DeGeorge Boys & Girls Club until her graduation next year. She would like to expand the program to other Boys & Girls Club locations by enlisting other USchool students to teach the program, using her proven lesson plans. Her hope is to expose more children to this rich language and culture that she has grown to love.

For more information about University School, please call (954) 262-4506 or visit us online at www.uschool.nova.edu/admissions.