HoCo High Schoolers Create Online Language Learning Platform During Pandemic

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — When the coronavirus pandemic swept around the world two years ago, no one knew how much heartache and devastation it would cause. There would be toilet paper shortages, face coverings became the norm and people were sequestered to their homes for days on end.

At the time, a brilliant student at River Hill High School decided to launch a nonprofit called BioMonkey along with five friends from Hammond High School that included a program called Literacy Lab, which helps students in kindergarten through eighth grade learn other languages. The concept quickly grew and reached students in half a dozen countries, thanks to students finding themselves stuck at home and out of schools. The timing was perfect.

"With the country becoming increasingly diverse, it’s necessary for children to grow up culturally aware and able to communicate with people of different backgrounds, which is why our efforts matter," founder Victoria Zhang told Patch. "I started BioMonkey with the goal of addressing education inequality in general. However, as I began to delve deeper into my interest in learning foreign languages, I noticed just how underfunded and underemphasized this sector of education is, which is ironic considering how it’s likely one of the most important.

"Seeing my classmates with little enthusiasm in taking their language all throughout high school, with many dropping the class just two years in, as well as the 2:1 student-to-book ratio that many Howard County schools see, made me pivot the focus of BioMonkey from general education to foreign language education," she said.

Initially, BioMonkey offered free virtual Spanish and French classes for kindergarten through eighth grade students. Zhang teamed up with Caroline Schreier from Hammond High School, the foundation's chief web officer, to deliver the material to eager learners.

"We were surprised at how much demand Literacy Lab saw. We primarily targeted our outreach to Howard County students but also communicated with people from different areas. In less than two days, our pilot session received sign-ups from students from 17 states and several countries––so many that we reached maximum capacity and had to close the enrollment form," Zhang said.

The classes focused not only on teaching the language but also exposing students to that language's native culture and customs.

"This, along with our thoroughness in covering as much material as we can in four weeks, allows our students to come out being able to converse at a beginner level. Seeing the demand, we decided to hold a 3-month summer session and offered classes for different age groups and skill levels––a big jump from what we had during our pilot session," she said.

Learning virtually from home posed a challenge for many students unaccustomed to that format during the pandemic. Zhang teamed up with Sarina Condon and they recruited high school students to create a community tutoring program. In four months' time, they, along with Amanda Nobil and Laura Keister, reached so many students during the pandemic that they initially were able to offer nearly 200 hours of online classes.

"From the beginning, we knew that we wanted our program to be completely virtual so that our services could reach all students, no matter their location. Because of this, the pandemic luckily did not change any of our plans and we were able to anticipate the challenges of online learning that laid ahead, such as low participation, which we countered with engaging the students with interactive activities," she said.

Zhang, who is fluent in English and Mandarin and semi-fluent in Spanish, is taking AP Spanish 5 and French 1 in school, along with an online course in Italian.

"I’m very interested in cross-cultural psychology and am currently conducting independent research on the topic. In college, I would like to succeed at becoming a polyglot and major in psychology with a specialization in neuroscience. As a professional, I would like to become a clinical psychiatrist and serve different cultural communities. I hope that my multilingualism will allow me to provide exemplary healthcare to those who do not speak English," she said.