St. Louis Modern Chinese School

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A group of students uphold the SLMCS banner during the 2006 Chinese Culture Days on May 20, 2006.

The St. Louis Modern Chinese School is an American school teaching Chinese and Chinese culture. SLMCS is an active member of Chinese School Association in the United States (CSAUS) with some 150 member schools and more than 20,000 enrolled students.

1 Overview
2 History
3 Community Service & Contribution
4 Alumni
5 References

[edit] Overview

SLMCS is operated by volunteers and its financial support is mainly from tuitions and donations from individuals and private business and institutions. The school opens from 1:30pm-5:00pm on Sunday. The first two hours are devoted for language learning followed by cultural activities including Chinese arts and sports. This time is generally divided into 45-minute segments, thus forming two electives. Electives range anywhere from dance, to arts and crafts, to math. Special classes are offered for children and adults of non-Chinese descent to learn Chinese as a second language. The school strives to continue making SLMCS the place for students to learn Chinese language and culture, respect, and responsibility.

[edit] History

The St. Louis Modern Chinese School was founded in 1997 as a family-oriented non-profit Chinese language school dedicated to teaching Chinese as a second language. The school was built to encourage the education of Chinese culture. Started with 40 students in 1997, the St. Louis Modern Chinese School currently has over 400 students enrolled, making it one of the largest Chinese language schools in the United States.

SLMCS originally offered very few electives, dance, waistdrum, and arts and crafts numbering among the few. Over the years, it began offering a number of other electives such as martial arts, math, art, etc. It offered, for a period of time, an essay class whose finished works were published in the Chinese newspapers in St. Louis. Its math classes number among those that prepare students for the SAT II Math Subject Tests and those that prepare students for Math Contests such as MathCounts. SLMCS sent a team of students to MathCounts in 2005 and 2006. In 2006, the SLMCS team (comprised of those students who had not been accepted onto the primary team of their respective schools) won 1st place but was unable to go on to State MathCounts because the school was not a Monday-Friday school.

[edit] Community Service & Contribution

Students perform Chinese Gong Fu at the University of Missouri–St. Louis in December 2005.

St. Louis Modern Chinese School promotes Chinese culture throughout the St. Louis area. SLMCS sets up numerous performances and activities at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and various other locations. Performances range from Chinese Gong Fu to fan dancing.

SLMCS also hosts a Christmas Gala every year, which may or may not have contributions from individual classes, who may choose to put on a play or similar performance.

[edit] Alumni

Graduates of SLMCS have (eventually) attended such prestigious institutions as Harvard, Washington University in St. Louis, MIT, Duke, and Rice University.