2023-2024 Host Family Needs

Posted on April 30, 2023May 12, 2023 by Ed Wu

Hi friends,

I am writing to ask you for a favor that could make a huge difference in someone’s life.

Premier Education Partners (PREP) is looking for Christian families who can host a Chinese student at Hill Country Christian School, St. Dominic Savio High School, Concordia High School, Regents School of Austin or Westwood High School for 2023-2024 school year. The host family will get a monthly stipend as well as hands on support from the PREP team.

As you know, we are an organization with a mission to change lives together. By hosting a Chinese student, you will not only provide them with a loving home and a quality education, but also share with them the good news.

If you are currently hosting a student, I want to say “thank you” for your faithful services! I sincerely hope you will continue next year.

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Three parenting lessons I learned by volunteering as a traffic stop superhero at Westwood

Posted on October 17, 2022April 30, 2023 by Ed Wu

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!

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Celebrate the Year of the Tiger with us

Posted on January 16, 2022April 30, 2023 by Ed Wu

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.

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Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Ed Wu

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!

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PREP Students and Parents Celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival

Posted on September 30, 2020April 30, 2023 by Ed Wu

about the event:

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!

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ACT OF KINDNESS

Posted on September 28, 2020 by PREP admin

The following blog was originally posted on Brentwood Christian School, one of PREP’s partner schools in Austin.

It can be easy in today’s climate to lose sight of all the positivity and kindness that is going on all around us. The truth is, when you turn off the television and log out of social media you will begin to see all of the amazing and wonderful things happening in our community. Today we want to spotlight an act of kindness and the difference some of our students are making in and around the Austin Area.

Premier Education Partners (PREP) is a Christian hosting program for international students who desire to gain a better education in the U.S.. PREP has a long standing partnership with Brentwood Christian School as we both believe in the importance of offering an academically rich, Christ-centered environment for our students. We have a number of wonderful international students that attend BCS and are very active not only academically, but also in fine arts and athletics.

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Let’s Do Great Things…Together

Posted on September 11, 2020January 8, 2021 by Ed Wu

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… …

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THE SUMMER MANY PEOPLE HATED

Posted on September 2, 2020September 6, 2020 by Roy Zou

-A LETTER TO THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Mrs. Johnson,

First of all, please allow me to express my sincere thanks to you. Remember at the end of last school year, Brentwood Christian School offered an extra summer tutoring which required every student who had a significant grade drop to attend which lasted two weeks. I sent you an email, explaining my situation and my desire to have a restful summer. You responded to my email kindly and told me that I have your permission to exempt the tutoring. With that two weeks of resting, I was able to adjust myself and made a lot of progress during summer. I couldn’t have had such a productive summer without that two weeks for me to adjust physically and emotionally.

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Prayer of Examen

Posted on August 30, 2020September 5, 2020 by Emily Everswick

The summer of 2020 was hard but good for me. How about you? We had our daughter’s graduation from high school pieced together in a series of small events. Our summer vacation plans got altered and I found myself at home a lot more than usual due to Covid-19. Did you experience a challenging summer as well?

I was challenged to read the book “You Are What You Love” by James K.A. Smith over the summer by my school. I used my extra time at home to really dig in and read this book thoroughly. It became a highlight of my summer and helped me adjust the way I was viewing my current situation and how I wanted to choose to live daily.

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Miles for Life: Quarantined Premier Students Choose to Make a Big Impact Instead of Sitting Still

Posted on April 11, 2020September 11, 2020 by Emily Everswick

I asked Ed this week if there were any students who I could interview to see what they’re doing to pass the time during quarantine. I was envisioning my blog to be about kids on video games, enjoying snacks, downtime, completing school online, and sleeping in.

My expectations were very wrong. He introduced me to David and Charlie and said I might enjoy hearing what they’re doing during this time. So, I set up a ZOOM call with them tonight and couldn’t believe my ears as they told me about how they’ve chosen to use their quarantine time. I hope you’ll be blessed by these two young men, as I was.

Let me introduce you to these two amazing young men.

David is a junior at Brentwood Christian School in Austin. He’s lived in the United States for four years. He’s enjoying living his second year with Derek and Miranda. He really enjoys Derek’s cooking and his favorite food that Derek makes is his korean pork ribs. Sounds delicious!

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