EXPERIENCE INTERNATIONAL OUTLOOK FOUNDATION

Hello, I’m Ellen Guo. The only life I have ever known is that of a very privileged human. But I understand that even in the 21st century, so many people are unable to even vaguely experience a comfortable living. Thousands upon thousands of people die every day because of starvation. When my father was a child, he lived in a poor village in rural China. He lived with shoes never big enough for his growing feet, only eating precious meat during the New Year celebrations, and hoping that one day he could buy some candy. He made me realize that though I live such a comfortable life, there are so many people out in the world, even now, that cannot experience even the simple pleasures of food to eat and a roof to sleep under. When I was younger, I had donated money to organizations in hopes of improving the lives of poor children. On the website where I donated, I was able to see the smiling faces of the families I was helping. Now that I can make a larger impact on the world, I believe that I can make even more children smile. As a result, I met Tiffany and decided to create International Outlook Foundation. Because I am also an ABC, I hope to bridge the gap between the people like me in the U.S. and underprivileged people in China. With my knowledge of American culture, I want to help those trying to learn English and striving come to the U.S. From this, I hope that eventually I can put a smile on the faces of children in poverty. Because happiness shouldn’t be restricted to the privileged.

My name is Tiffany Zhao and I was born in northern California as an ABC (American Born Chinese). I currently attend the Harker School. I was born and raised mainly in San Jose, California. However, 5 years ago, my family moved to Shanghai, China where I lived as an international student. Only in my fourth year living in China was I really exposed to the diversity of its population. During the Christmas break of 2014, unlike my family’s usual plan to vacation on some exotic land, I went back to my dad’s rural hometown village to teach a class of 2nd and 3rd grade foreign language students about the American culture for two weeks. This experience helped me realize that even at the age of 12, I can have a large impact on people’s lives just by utilizing the intrinsic language skills that come with being an ABC. And so, when I moved back to Silicon Valley in 2016, I found myself surrounded by people just like me. If I could have such a large impact on so many people’s lives as an individual, one could only imagine the impact of multiple people. I initially wanted to start a club at Harker but after consulting Ellen, we decided to form a non-profit organization together. My hope is that we will be able to utilize our knowledge of the American culture and use them to help the society around us.