Penn Go Society
The Guang Hua Chinese School is run by the Guang Hua Chinese Cultural Association, a nonprofit organization that promotes the understanding of the Chinese Language and Culture by operating a school, sport, and cultural program on the weekends at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, PA. The Guang Hua school's primary focus is to teach children Chinese, but there are also classes in art, sport, and of course, Wei Qi "Go" in Chinese!)
The Wei Qi class was initially run by Mr. Jian Qing Zheng, who sent out the appeal for teachers through the American Go Association (AGA) in response to the steadily increasing class size. I (Peter N.) responded to his email and assisted for one academic year (fall 2006 - spring 2007) as did another AGA member, Michael Dobbins, who continues teaching today. Mr. Zhang left in 2008, but another AGA member, Craig Brown, then joined on, and together, he and Michael Dobbins are training the next generation of American Go youth players!
I learned about Mr. Zheng's announcement for a Go teacher in October 2006, thanks to my joining an email list called Teachersweb, which is run by Paul Barchilon (2006 American Go Foundation Teacher of the Year) and the AGA. This list caters to those who are interested in teaching Go to children. If you would like to be a part of this nationwide network of Go teachers, you can join the list here.
More information about the the Wei Qi class may be found here. Further information about the Guang Hua Chinese School may be found here.
Any questions? Please email co-organizers Peter Nassar at pnassar@vet.upenn.edu or Matt Bengtson at mattbengtson@earthlink.net. Or call Peter at (215) 898-6271 (weekdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.).
© 2009 Penn Go Society