Teen Who Teaches In Marlboro Wins Scholarship

By KAREN WALL (Patch Staff)

June 8, 2015

How do you give back to your community?

For Ellen Wu, a Freehold Borough High School student, giving back has meant helping recent immigrants from China learn how to speak English so they could communicate more easily in their new home.

What started as a young girl learning her family’s language -- Mandarin -- in classes at the Hua Xia Chinese School South in Marlboro turned into an opportunity to give back. Now Wu helps native Mandarin speakers learn English -- and that has sprouted into a full-fledged class, complete with a curriculum and lesson plans.

Her efforts to help others have been rewarded, as the senior is one of 25 students from across the state who have received a $5,000 Spirit of a Hero scholarship from the New Jersey Heroes foundation. The foundation is spearheaded by Mary Pat Christie, and honors people throughout the state for their efforts to give back to their communities in all manner of ways.

The students were honored last week during a ceremony at Drumthwacket, the governor’s official residence in Princeton.

Wu, who is headed to Northwestern University’s honors program in medical education, teaches her English class at the Hua Xia school, and the curriculum for her English as a second language class has developed extensively over the course of four years, creating new grammar, vocabulary, and ESL lesson plans to teach every week.

“This is our third year for the Spirit of a Hero Scholarship program and I am continually amazed by the character and commitment demonstrated by our young people in taking on serious issues impacting communities throughout New Jersey,” Christie said.

“From human trafficking and environmental stewardship to STEM education and programs for individuals with special needs, all of our applicants and awardees are doing outstanding work to give back and help improve the lives of others,” she said.

Since its inception in 2013, New Jersey Heroes has awarded $335,000 in scholarship funding to 67 students from across the state through the Spirit of a Hero program.

(PHOTO: New Jersey Heroes Foundation, 2015 Spirit of a Hero recipients)