Celebrating Chinese School Graduates and the Year of the Dragon [VIDEO]

The Northern Westchester Chinese School (NWCS) hosted its 43rd annual graduation ceremony on Saturday at .

The school of approximately 200 students has been operating out of on Saturdays since 2006, according to village resident Benson Louie, who serves as the non-profit organization's board chairman.

"The school was founded back in 1969 by a group of IBM parents here from Taiwan who wanted to make sure their kids kept up with their Chinese language," he explained.

The school previously worked out of Somers and serves students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, spread over 23 classes.

"Our student population is made up of the traditional Chinese families, along with a lot more of the kids that are adopted from China and a certain population that has no Chinese background, but wants to learn Chinese," said Louie.

In addition to two hours of language classes on Saturday mornings during the school year, students can take electives for the third hour—including "selective martial arts, Chinese dance, guitar, origami and calligraphy," Louie added.

The school, which is run by the volunteer board and administrators (parents), has attracted students from Rockland County, Long Island and Connecticut, but, "Our primary base is northern Westchester," said Louie.

On Saturday afternoon, family members and teachers filled the Frances G. Wills Auditorium to celebrate the seven high school graduates and nine elementary school graduates, as well as enjoy a performance program with appearances by all of the school's classes.

Throughout the program, high school graduates Jessica Liang, Alexander Malerba, Jessica Schaefer, Victoria Shek, Alexander Shih, Rachel Tsao and Alicia Wu each gave a speech in Mandarin.

Other student performances included song and dance, self-introductions by the pre-kindergarten class, jokes told by fifth graders, poetry and an opening by the school's adult chorus club.

The sixth grade classes served as the event's MCs.

The day also celebrated Chinese New Year, which officially begins on January 23 with a dinner party in the high school's cafeteria.

"This is the year of the dragon, so it's a little extra special," said Louie.

See attached videos for footage from the graduation ceremony and performance program.

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