Planning Lunar New Year

In the last few weeks of September, the Lunar New Year Club has started to meet regarding the annual Lunar New Year Performance. This activity has always been a tradition for Asian students, which celebrates the most important time of the year in our culture. The Lunar New Year performance is one of the best things, I believe, that exists at EF Academy New York because it helps to ease home-sickness as boarding students traveling far away from home for our education, and creates a sense of belonging in a totally unfamiliar environment.

Our first meeting was all about giving general information to all of this year’s new members. We also discussed the disadvantages and problems that occurred last year and ways we plan to improve.

In the second meeting, the supervising teachers, Ms. Tran and Ms. Cai, asked the students who were willing to run for co-directors and assistants to give speeches about themselves. Three students were chosen to be Co-Directors and another three students were chosen as Assistant Directors.

Different from the previous years, the Supervising Teachers decided to come up with three Co-Directors this year, instead of one, in order to prevent too large of a work-load for one person and to create a more cooperative community. With that set, the three students as Co-Directors were assigned their duties by drawing lots. The duties include performances, public relations & decorations, and dinner.  The director in charge of performances would plan and organize the show from each country and keep track of the content. The director of public relations would be responsible for designing the poster, invitations and decorating the theater and the campus. The director of dinner would plan the meal after the show: gathering recipes and ordering budgets from each country in order to make sure that the dinner runs perfectly and participants feel at home. Each co-director has an assistant to help her or him.

During the third meeting, the candidates for the Master of Ceremony position were asked to give speeches. The Master of Ceremony will introduce the performances brought by each country and the culture in English. They are required to speak fluent English and preferably have experience on stage. Also, each country had to select two students as the representatives during the planning process and  on the day of the celebration.

Now, everything for the Lunar New Year Performance is on track and on schedule. Everyone is looking forward to an exhilarating performance which can once again teach our school community about Asian culture. It is sure to be an event that every student in the club is proud of!