Author: Ed Wu
Dear families,
As we celebrate PREP’s 10th anniversary, I can’t contain my excitement! There are so much to celebrate and reflect on. But the most important thing is this, from day one, our incredible host families have been the backbone of our business ministry, making everything we do possible.
Nowadays, it seems like the public school education system is a mess. Teachers’ burnout and turnover is high. Students stress out and misbehave. Parents? We get the easiest job: to dump our children at school and expect a miracle to happen. If not, we can still complain and criticize.
So that’s what has been happening in our beloved Westwood High School. A group of seasoned teachers left at the end of last school year. The previous principal followed. Students were confused and parents worried.
Only this time we parents at Westwood didn’t just sit there and complain. Instead, we started to take action. We surveyed all teachers and asked them what really bothered them and how we can help. We reached out to the district to voice our concerns. We organized a teacher and staff appreciation luncheon during the Double Ninth Festival and they loved it!
To our students in the Austin area,
You are cardinally invited to join 2022 Chinese New Year Celebration hosted by the Wu family!
There is no show and performance this year due to the pandemic, but you are welcome to stop by to join us for a family style lunch on Feb. 5th, Saturday. We are going to make dumplings together and cater some yummy Chinese food from a local restaurant.
This is a “poem” I wrote to one of my students when we are taking a vacation together and writing a “gift of words” card to each other. Definitely not a poet, I just want to capture the journey our students had, encourage them, and have a little fun!
Continue reading “Merry Christmas!”
PREP students and parents have prepared music performance and heartfelt blessings to share with the community. In this very special holiday, let us meet and celebrate on Zoom!
Oct. 2, 2020 8PM (Central Time)
Oct. 3, 2020 9AM (Beijing Time)
Watch the recording!
Continue reading “PREP Students and Parents Celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival”
Students,
Tomorrow I will fly to Montana, to join a group of men, for the LeaderTrek 2020. Together we will do backpack hiking in the Glacier National Park for five days and about 50 miles.
This is my third time taking such a trip in the past three years, but will be the first time in 2020 I travel by air. Almost all of my plan in 2020 was cancelled due to the pandemic: winter camp, No-fear camp, climbing a 20,000 ft mountain and celebrating my 20th anniversary of marriage… …
If you still think that Coronavirus is a joke, think twice.
Coded “COVID-19”, this novel coronavirus, first reported in Wuhan China, has literally brought the whole world down. My children asked me, is this worse than 911? The answer is an absolute yes!
Now, we all have to face the uncomfortable question: how can I survive the COVID-19 when,
School is closed
Office is closed
Can’t get tested
Can’t travel
Shelves are empty
No sports to watch
… …
The world is changing around us, right in front of us.
Millions of people are going to have to “hunker down”, because this is NOT “business as usual”, said Dr. Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.
To all PREP students, staff, host parents and school administrators,
As you know, the PREP community has done a lot of work since January to combat the Coronavirus outbreak in China. We donated $20,222 to purchase medical supplies and shipped to local hospitals next to Wuhan, thanks to your contribution. In US, we cancelled our Winter Camp program and Spring Break program for the safety of our students. But the situation continues to develop and it seems like a pandemic is on the horizon.
Last week, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases said, “We expect we will see community spread in this country,” “It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness.”
Today, it was reported, during a Travis County Commissioner’s Court Tuesday meeting, health officials said that Travis County is currently in “Phase 2,” which means there is an individual or individuals who are being tested for the coronavirus.
It becomes apparent that we, as a community, have to prepare for the inevitable.
Our preparation efforts consist of four approaches:
Continue reading “PREP prepares for the possible COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic”