SILICON VALLEY YOUTH

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Nov 16th, 2023

Ravenswood Math Fair Volunteering

On November 16th, 2023, Silicon Valley Youth (SVY) volunteered at the Ravenswood school district math fair to support its community academic engagement. Manning a math puzzle-drawing table, co-president Anping Zhu helped dozens of elementary students, middle school students, and even parents find joy in completing drawing puzzles. As part of SVY’s mission to improve education across the Bay Area, this experience was vital for both the success of the math fair and the organization’s understanding of community needs.

This opportunity was organized by local middle school teacher and activist Mrs. Harriette Huang, who has been an SVY partner for two years. Asked about the impact the math fair had on the school’s community at large, Mrs. Huang said that “we, as teachers and the school, were shocked by how much students and parents enjoyed the game night together. The gym was packed for the whole two hours, and many of them asked when the next event would be as they left. Even weeks after the event, students were still referring back to the game night about the math they learned. The event would not happen without SVY’s encouragement, partnership and sponsorship.”

We are enthusiastic about continuing to partner with the Ravenswood school district in future efforts, and see them as a crucial partner in growing awareness for educational equity in the Bay Area.

Sep 9th, 2023

Fall '23 Start of Semester Social and inaugural SVY Grant

Last week, Silicon Valley Youth launched the Fall '23 semester with a Start of Semester Social, bringing together our teaching staff. We reconnected with familiar faces, forged new friendships, and, for some, met face-to-face for the very first time. The event provided an invaluable opportunity for our teaching team to exchange ideas, share their teaching experiences, and get to know one another better.

In addition to fostering community among our staff, we were thrilled to introduce our new initiative, the SVY Grant program. This program is designed to support student-led projects with an educational focus, aimed at positively impacting our community. During the social, we had the privilege of presenting the inaugural SVY Grant to high school junior Benjamin Liu. This grant will provide crucial funding for a public art mural project that works with special needs students.

We are excited about the potential of the SVY Grant program and look forward to empowering more youth leaders as they embark on educational endeavors that benefit our community.

July 5th, 2023

Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute Donation

On July 5th, 2023, Silicon Valley Youth (SVY) donated $5000 to the Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute (APALI) to support its Civic Leadership Program. The donation helped create their program that guides community leaders and activists in becoming more visionary, socially-conscious, caring, connected, strategic, empowered, and effective. As part of SVY’s mission to improve education across the Bay Area, this donation will help education in the Bay Area, in particular the community and state college system.

One week prior to the donation, SVY co-president Anping Zhu attended APALI’s fundraising gala and met various important leaders of the Asian American community in the Bay Area, including founder and executive director Michael Chang as well as California State Assemblyman Evan Low. Both expressed gratitude for SVY’s impactful support towards civic engagement and youth education.

We are enthusiastic about continuing to partner with APALI in future efforts, and see them as a crucial partner in growing awareness for educational equity in the Bay Area.

March 13th, 2022

LeyVa Middle School Rockets Delivery

On March 13 Silicon Valley Youth (SVY) made a donation of nearly $2000 worth of model rocket kits to LeyVa Middle School teacher Brian Conrad’s 8th grade science class. The 200+ model rockets will allow every 8th grader in the school to build and launch their own model rockets, a culmination of a year of exploration in physics and astronomy. The donation was a part of SVY's ongoing dedication to supporting underprivileged schools in the Bay Area.

Three SVY representatives—co-president Annli Zhu, EVP of Academics Anping Zhu, and EVP of Marketing Aiden Ye—personally delivered the kits to the classroom and spent time with the students. The SVY members answered students’ questions about high school life, STEM subjects, and more.

SVY's donation will not only provide LeyVa Middle School students with the opportunity to learn about rocketry but also inspire and encourage their interests in STEM subjects. Finally, the SVY representatives discussed and are looking forward to future cooperation with the school in enhancing their students’ educational experiences.

Fall 2022

SVY launches two new East Palo Alto initiatives

Starting in the fall of 2022, Silicon Valley Youth has created new school-year enrichment programs for students in East Palo Alto.

SVY’s contributions to East Palo Alto date back to 2016 and have included donations toward arts programs in school, support for writing contests, anti-bullying campaigns, iPads for students’ distance learning during the pandemic, scholarships, and much more.

This past fall semester, in collaboration with math teacher Harriette Huang from Cesar Chavez Ravenswood Middle School in the Ravenswood City School District, SVY has initiated projects such as teaching math through fantasy football and hosting weekend reading classes.

SVY Co-president Justin Gu said the organization primarily aims to make learning accessible and enjoyable for East Palo Alto students.

“Right now, our main goal at Silicon Valley Youth is to help the students develop their love for learning,” Justin said. “We hope to show them that learning is fun and accessible and not just limited to the classroom.”

To achieve this mission, Justin and Executive Vice President of Operations Cayden Gu have led an in-class program on Wednesdays that uses sports as a bridge between students and math. They have been working closely with Ms. Huang to set up the program in her seventh-grade advanced math class.

Justin said that when he first met the students, he noticed some of them having trouble focusing on math due to a disconnect with the subject.

“A main area of need for the students was showing students why math is relevant in the world around them,” Justin said. “The concepts were often hard to grasp because of how abstract they were."

Justin also said he quickly discovered that many students were enthusiastic about sports, which inspired his idea of teaching through sports examples.

“Sports had sparked my own interest in math when I was growing up, so I hoped to bring my experiences to the students,” Justin said. “I saw that as a way I could reach and encourage them.”

Justin added that he tailors sports-inspired activities to align with the curriculum and concepts that students are studying throughout the rest of the week.

“Recently, the students have been learning averages, so I created some word problems centered around passing yards in football, which they were pretty excited about,” Justin said. “I also created a fantasy football league for the class as a way to add a little fun competition for the students.”

Ms. Huang said she previously had difficulties in connecting with her students, but the sports and fantasy football examples have yielded high student engagement.

“Students are excited,” Ms. Huang said. “The sports video clips are fantastic, and the math problems designed let kids see how math can help them to do what they want to do. This is authentic, math becomes a handy tool for them.”

However, Ms. Huang added that her students’ unfamiliarity with English also impacts the way they engage in her classroom.

“Our kids have language barriers, and they usually don't want to speak out,” Ms. Huang said. “They worry about their pronunciation, and they worry about their grammar. They worry that when they speak English, they'll get teased by peers.”

These language barriers inspired SVY Co-president Annli Zhu and Executive Vice President of Academics Anping Zhu to initiate weekend reading classes. In these sessions, they and other volunteers lead breakout rooms to guide individual students or pairs of students through books.

“We discovered that a crucial bottleneck to many students' learning abilities was limited reading skills,” Annli said. “Therefore, we coordinated with Ms. Huang to find students interested in practicing reading and organized the weekend reading sessions.”

Ms. Huang said she has seen students improve in her classroom after participating in the reading sessions.

“With our reading program, the kids read out loud and talk about the books, so I can definitely see their speaking is much better,” Ms. Huang said. “They’re willing to share during class (and) ask questions, and (their) interaction is much better than at the beginning of the year.”

For the reading program, SVY has also donated funds to help purchase books for the students, such as the Percy Jackson series and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Ms. Huang said these book donations have helped her discover a broader scope of possibilities for ways to help her students.

“I think the (money donated primarily builds) confidence for me, so now I know what I can do for the kids,” Ms. Huang said. “I'm going to ask kids what kind of books they want to read. We are probably going to go shopping on Amazon together, so they can pick and choose the books they want and we are going to have it, so that's amazing.”

This semester, SVY aims to develop these reading sessions into a larger Reading Buddies program. Ms. Huang said she believes the Reading Buddies program will have the potential to help students starting from a younger age.

“I see that big potential because I want it to go to the elementary school once we establish it,” Ms. Huang said. “If they start reading in first grade, second grade, and then by middle school their reading is at the grade level, their whole learning is different. That's going to be amazing. That's going to be huge.”

Annli said SVY aims to build on the success of these programs to continue finding new ways to help these students, broadening these efforts so more SVY staff members can become involved.

“The various programs we pioneered at EPA this semester not only helped many students, but also taught us how to best support them going forward,” Annli said. “Next semester, I hope that we can enlist more SVY teachers to participate in these programs with Ravenswood.”

Ultimately, Ms. Huang said these SVY programs have been important for students to become exposed to more opportunities around them, which she hopes will help students draw out their potential.

“To be honest with you, I think East Palo Alto kids are just as smart as anywhere else,” Ms. Huang said. “The only reason that they are behind is because they don't know, they don't see. That's the only reason I think that stops them from getting better opportunities, and working with SVY, they are connected with the world around them.”

January 8th, 2023

SVY Team-Bonding Event

On Sunday, Jan. 8, Silicon Valley Youth held its first in-person meetup since the pandemic at Homestead Bowl. Over forty SVY teachers, teaching assistants, and parents attended, with teachers and teaching assistants splitting into four groups to bowl in friendly competition. Afterwards, attendees enjoyed lunch together. It was a great chance for the SVY staff members to finally meet each other in person. Overall, reuniting the amazing SVY community after so long was a major success, and we look forward to hosting more gatherings in the future.

March 13th, 2022

Dr. Glenn Writing Competition

In order to acknowledge and thank our veterans' service, Silicon Valley Youth's Humanity Department partnered with the California and Maryland Chapters of the Students Partner with Veterans (SPV) Club to host a presentation with Dr. Tom Glenn, a former Vietnam War spy, linguist, and author of more than 17 books (as of March 2022). Over 60 students listened intently to his background, experiences, and stories, and later participated in a writing competition inspired by Dr. Glenn's renowned book, Last of the Annamese. All submissions were reviewed by SVY Humanity Department teachers and award winning writers, who, along with Dr. Glenn himself, provided constructive feedback to each participant. After careful consideration, here are our winners:

Creative Writing (4-5):

  1. Snehin Dasgupta
  2. Sophia Xu
  3. Ada Wang

Creative Writing (6-8):

  1. Andrew Wang
  2. Nicole Lui
  3. Sherry Ahmad

Essay:

  1. Vincent Vo
  2. Snehin Shankar Dasgupta
  3. Elizabeth Qiu

February 2nd, 2022

Science and Me Competition

In the month of January, SVY hosted a Science and Me competition where students from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade could submit short videos of themselves explaining or showing their knowledge and experiences with science. Out of the many submissions, winners were chosen by their fluent storytelling, clear presentation of scientific concepts, and overall passion and creativity.

For K-8, our top three winners were:
1. Rainbow Plastic Science Experiment by Raymond Feng
2. Orbital Mechanics by Samuel Chen
Tie 3. Creating a Vacuum Using a Candle by Megan Kellogg
Tie 3. Stop motion and water boiling experiment to show how rain forms by Tianxiang Li

For 9-12, our top three winners were:
1. Physics and Music by Ethan Kellogg
2. The Science Behind Cookie Making by Zoe Ng
3. Physics of Field Hockey by Stanley Wan

January 15th, 2022

SVY Middle School Panel Event

Before every semester, SVY hosts a panel event for all the students in our community, and this time, we focused on the transition into middle school life. We had Alison Yang, Minh Do, Sonia Swamy, and Aiden Ye, four very experienced high school students, discuss changes in middle school including study habits, psychological developments, lifestyle changes, and more. After, they opened up the floor to Q&A where they answered any questions the audience may have had. At the end, attendees were even able to view short 5 minute demo classes offered at SVY in order to promote the organization and our upcoming semester. The event was incredibly successful, garnering over 100+ attendees, and we only hope to build and expand our panel events in the future!

November 11th, 2021

SVY Sacred Heart Volunteering

On Veterans Day, SVY teachers volunteered at Sacred Heart Community Service, an organization that addresses poverty and provides essential services to those in need. Volunteers worked hard packing and distributing food. It was both a meaningful community service event and a great team bonding experience!

September 12th, 2021

Great News!

As an educational non-profit organization, Silicon Valley Youth has continuously achieved outstanding results during the COVID-19 period and through fierce competition among many educational institutions. With its eminent reputation, quality of education, and the efforts of an enthusiastic team of parents and teachers, SVY has grossed a large amount of enrollment reaching over three hundred enrollees. This is a year over year growth of 23%. We are so proud of every single teacher, parent, student, and volunteer that has contributed to this exuberant growth. Go SVY!

August 28th, 2021

SVY "Planning for the Middle and High School Year" Panel Event

As the new semester starts, freshmen and sophomores in high school are faced with many questions. There are so many clubs, which ones are suitable for me? So many competitions, how can I get involved? High school is super busy, how can I efficiently manage my time? Also, for middle schoolers who are curious about high school life and classes, they are also preparing for the upcoming year.

SVY hosted a High School Advice panel event where several experienced high school juniors and seniors discussed topics including high school study habits, clubs and extracurriculars, time management, and much more and also answered various questions in an open Q&A!

May 22nd, 2021

SVY Team-Based Math Competition

Silicon Valley Youth will be hosting a team math competition on 6/12. Click here for details.

February 18th, 2021

SVY 2020-2021 Impact Report

The Silicon Valley Youth 2020-2021 Impact Report has been released! Check it out here!

December 20th, 2020

Ravenswood District Holiday Gift Card Donation

SVY donated $10,000 in gift cards to support the Ravenswood Foundation in providing a Christmas present to every single student in the Ravenswood district! We managed to cover all of the students in two grade levels, and allowed Ravenswood to commit to providing gifts for all students!

Click here to see a letter of acknowledgement from the Ravenswood District Superindendent!

May 26th, 2020

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center's Mask Donation Ceremony

We have been continuing our efforts in helping the community stay safe. As mentioned before, we have made donations of bought surgical masks as well as homemade ones to different people. But recently, the executive team attended the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center's mask donation celebration where in total, we donated 5,000 surgical masks and 200 homemade, reusable ones to them. Together with the contributions and donations of the Shin Shin Educational Foundation, our donations amounted to over a whopping 25,000 personal protective equipment. As a community, our combined efforts are sure to put an end to this battle against COVID-19.

Click here for videos of this event.

April, 2020

Silicon Valley Youth Actions Against COVID-19

The current COVID-19 pandemic marks a time that will go down in history as an unprecedented threat affecting people globally. As the urgency rises, people all around the world are banding together to be able to fight off and overcome the virus. A leader in the Bay Area, SVY is leading and coordinating this effort within the community by supporting others, donating supplies, and holding a fundraiser.

SVY is making a donation of over 8,000 effective face masks for the seniors in our community because COVID-19 is exponentially more threatening for the elderly and those who are immunocompromised. Thus, it is our mission to be able to provide for those in most immediate danger.

On top of this, SVY has continued to promote education through free online courses offered to students all around the community. The classes include, Current Events, Discrete Math, AMC8 Math, Book Club, USACO, Economics, and Coronavirus and Immunity class. It has been incredible for us to be able to interact and bond with the people around us even while sheltering in place.

Finally, outside of the quarantine, SVY has donated $10,000 to the Ravenswood School District towards iPads. This will allow the students to be able to obtain more opportunities through technology for learning and education. We are helping those who are less fortunate in our community to be able to lead a life full of success by providing them with various tools and opportunities.


Shortages in masks and other personal protective equipment take an extra toll on elders amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the recommendation from CDC of wearing mask in public, the seniors have difficulty sourcing masks in stores.

The Bay Area Community Mask Project is initialized by Silicon Valley Youth to help our community fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. We are making reusable masks for those who are in need the most. Our goal is to make 1,200 masks by mid-May.


SVY has been teaching various online courses to students, in order to continue to promote learning and education even when away from school. Currently, we host eight classes ranging from Economics to Current Events, and it has been an honor being able to teach students and bond with them even when we are social distancing. These online courses have allowed us to stay connected and be able to continue helping students learn new things each day!


SVY has donated $10,000 to the Ravenswood School District towards iPads. This will allow the students to be able to obtain more opportunities through technology for learning and education. We are helping those who are less fortunate in our community to be able to lead a life full of success by providing them with various tools and opportunities.

Donate to Bay Area Community Mask Project Donate Clothes for Mask Sewing

August, 2019

Silicon Valley Youth Leadership Panel

SVY sponsored a leadership conference ($5500) for middle school and elementary school leaders in collaboration with FMSD, and also sent 8 teachers: Oliver, Leo, Anouk, Arthur, Max, Ansh, Cindy, and Sean. In the morning the teachers gave around 160 students from 22 schools various workshops for leadership; in the afternoon, they met with students to help draft a timeline of events and activities the leadership team would plan. The students then pitched their ideas to their principals and discussed the details.

June 13th, 2019

Ravenswood Middle School Writing Contest

Silicon Valley Youth donated $5500+ to sponsor this year's writing contest.We supplied 17 first place prizes of AirPods, 17 second place prizes of $50 gift cards, 17 third place prizes of $25 gift cards, as well as 4 grand prizes of Chromebooks, 5 SVY representatives attended the awards ceremony, held during a school assembly and presented the awards to winning students.

June 6th, 2019

Ravenswood Middle School Afterschool Math Class Donation

Silicon Valley Youth donated $225 worth of prizes to award students in the Ravenswood Middle School afterschool math class. Each student received a gift card for completing the course.

April 9th, 2019

Franklin McKinney School District Board Meeting

SVY donated $4000 to College Connection Academy’s music program and presented the check at the Franklin McKinney School District Board Meeting on April 9th. The money will go towards purchasing new instruments and sheet music for the music class.

December 15th, 2018

Ravenswood City School District 2018 Holiday Party

SVY was invited to the RCSD Holiday Party, and volunteered at the event. Eric and Sam escorted families around, helping with gift distribution and raffling. The gift cards donated on December 13th were part of the raffle, and gifts included toys, blankets, cosmetics, bikes, and much more.

December 13th, 2018

Gift Cards for the Homeless

At the December board meeting of the Ravenswood City School District board, SVY representatives presented $5000 worth of gift cards to support homeless families in the district. The gift cards would be raffled out at the Ravenswood School District Holiday Party, and distributed to families in need throughout the next week. You can find more of our service here.

November 15th, 2018

$10,000 Check for Ravenswood Middle School Music Program

At a November board meeting of the Ravenswood City School District board, SVY presented a check for $10,000 that will go towards the Ravenswood Middle School music program. The money will go towards repairing instruments and supporting the RMS music teacher. SVY was also commended by the RCSD board for their dedication to service. Many SVY teachers and officers attended the event!

October 25th, 2018

Sylvandale Middle School Anti-Bullying Contest Judging & Awards Ceremony

SVY sponsored the Sylvandale Middle School Anti-Bullying Contest, donating over $3500 in prizes, and participated in the judging process. From an initial pool, 21 submissions were selected to undergo a second round of judging by SVY volunteers, and after much review and deliberation, 10 projects were selected as part of the top 10 and awarded Beats Solo 3 headphones, and a grand prize winner was awarded an iPad Mini. More information and the winning submission can be found on SMS's website.

October 17th, 2018

Ravenswood City School District State of the District Address

Silicon Valley Youth was invited to attend RCSD's State of the District event alongside local philanthropists, politicians and school adminstrators. The event was hosted at the newly remodeled Ronald McNair School.
Pictured from left to right: Arthur Ji, Jeffrey Tian, Tashia Frankwurth, Dr. Gloria Hernandez-Goff, John Morgridge, Brandon Fu, Sam Yang..

September 9th, 2018

Silicon Valley Youth Fall 2018 Classes Have Begun!

A new wave of classes has begun at SVY for the fall semester. We have 24 classes at 6 locations offering a variety of STEM and Humanities classes, including Public Speaking & Debate, AMC8, Java, Website Design, and more! Check our all of our classes here.

September 4th, 2018

Sylvandale Middle School Anti-Bullying Contest Opened!

Silicon Valley Youth is beginning a partnership with the Franklin-McKinney School District in San Jose, starting by sponsoring a Anti-Bullying PSA contest at Sylvandale Middle School. Students submit a creative piece and a write up that answers the prompt: "What does it look like to be an upstander?" 3 SVY officers will be part of the final panel of judges that selects the winner!.

August 18th, 2018

SVY End-of-Summer Party & College Talk!

We had an end-of-summer party to celebrate 3 years of dedicated service and teaching. Afterwards, our wonderful founders Benjamin and Bryan Owens delivered a talk on college life at Harvard and Yale.

June 6th, 2018

2018 Ravenswood Middle School Writing Contest Awards Ceremony

10 SVY Representatives attended the RMS Writing Contest awards ceremony, held during a school assembly. We donated $3000 worth of awards, presented the awards to the students, and took photos with them.

May 31st, 2018

Ravenswood Middle School After-School Math Class Donation

A few SVY officers and teachers went to Ravenswood Middle School to present gift cards (and an iPad) to students in the after-school Algebra program. The students worked hard the whole semester, and were excited when they received their certificates and awards! See more of our work here.

May 19th, 2018

Spring 2018 End of Semester Meeting

SVY had it's Spring 2018 end of semester meeting. We passed out certificates, introduced our officer team, had our photoshoot, and talked about opportunities to work with RCSD students. Congratulations on another successful semester!

May 17th, 2018

RCSD Arts and Music Showcase

Sam and Brandon were invited to, and attended the Ravenswood City School District Middle School Arts and Music showcase. Students' art pieces were on display in a gallery, and students played in the rock bands, jazz bands, and orchestra ensembles.

April 21st, 2018

2018-2019 Officer Team

Co-presidents Sam and Brandon have selected a new officer team for the 2018-2019 school year. We had an officer meeting, where we introduced some new policies, and discussed ideas for advancing the organization. See our full officer team here.

January 20, 2018

Spring 2018 Courses Open for Registration!

In addition to courses like Website Design, Java, and Public Speaking, we are opening many new courses including Chess, Bridge, USACO Bronze, and 3D Design! We welcome you to join us for another exciting year of learning. Click here to see our classes this semester.

December 21th, 2017

Gift Cards for the Homeless

Today, Sam, Brandon and SVY representatives went to the District Office during a school board meeting to donate $5000 worth of gift cards to homeless families in East Palo Alto. You can find out more about our service here.

December 9th, 2017

End of Semester Meeting

SVY had our end of semester meeting. We went over ways to improve class engagement, as well as some plans for moving forward into the spring. We recognized our teachers for holding another successful semester of classes.

September 9th, 2017

SVY at the Fall Festival

SVY teachers and officers set up a booth at this year's annual Cupertino Fall Festival, to promote SVY's classes and recruit prospective teachers and TAs. You can find our classes here.

August 16, 2017

Fall 2017 Courses Open for Registration!

Click here to see our classes this semester. We opened many new classes, including speech, game design, iOS app development, and more! We welcome you to join us for another exciting year of learning!

August 16, 2017

Foreign Language Learning Seminar

Bryan Owens gave a presentation on foreign language learning to 3000 attendees in we-chat groups. He gave tips on how to learn French, German, Chinese, Latin, and also on English Spelling Bee.

August 12, 2017

High School Experience Seminar

Bryan Owens and Benjamin Owens invited three friends who are also Gunn recent graduates to give a talk on their high school experience and college applications. The speakers will attend Harvard (2), Yale, Brown, and Berkeley in the fall. Over 200 students and parents attended this seminar and the talk was very successful.

Here is the list of questions asked and answered:

  1. How did you prioritize your activities throughout the years?
  2. How did you decide what would be the focus of your college applications?
  3. When do you recommend taking standardized tests?
  4. What is one experience you feel like is a must before leaving high school? What is something you wish you had done? +1
  5. How to join, benefit, and contribute to clubs?
  6. What you wish you had known better when you were in 9th grade ? 10th grade?
  7. What activities do you suggest during summer time?
  8. what is the best strategy or best practices if you don't like the teacher?
  9. Ways to reduce student stress before test?
  10. How to make kids interested in reading? How to make your reading better quality if all you read in 9th grade is adventure?
  11. How did you control yourself from spending too much time on video games and nonschool related fiction book reading?
  12. Did you know what you wanted to be when you were in 9th grade?
  13. How do you get involved with clubs and such if you are not super outgoing or confident in the subject?
  14. What suggestions to those high school students who don't decide majors that will be chosen when applying for college since they have no clear ideas about what they will do in the future?

You can view the seminar here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=gPqIuBawqyk

August 11, 2017

SVY Meeting

SVY had our pre-semester meeting, led by co-presidents Sam Yang and Brandon Fu. We discussed teaching strategies, advertising classes, and company policy. We look forward to a successful semester, anticipating opening over 20 classes with more than 35 teachers and TAs.

July 14, 2017

Sino-US Education Forum in 2017

Benjamin Owens and Bryan Owens were invited as keynote speakers to give a speech in the Sino-US Education Forum. Over 1000 principals and education experts from around China listened to their talk.

July 7, 2017

Teaching English for Free in China

Bryan Owens and Benjamin Owens each taught English to a class of 30 high school students in Haimen, China. It is a free class which lasted three weeks, every day. Bryan taught critical reading. Benjamin taught grammar. Students in Haimen never had a chance to listen to authentic spoken English, rarely had the opportunity to speak English either. So this is a very high quality and special class for them.

July 5, 2017

Free Education Seminar in China

Bryan Owens and Benjamin Owens brought 5 other college students from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton to Haimen, China on July 5, 2017. They gave 7 talks on How to Learn More Effectively, Extra-Curriculum in US, Learning Outside Class, The Crucial Lessons That I Learned From Sports, US College Application Process…

Most of the presentations were done in Chinese. Around 2500 high school students listened to their talk. The audiences were crazy about them. After the talks, they went on stage to ask for autographs and their contact information.

June 18, 2017

Writing Contest Award Ceremony at East Palo Alto

10 SVY representives attended the Ravenswood City School District AVID Writing contest awards ceremony today. The ceremony was held during the school board meeting, and SVY co-presidents Sam Yang and Brandon Fu presented the awards to students, while other SVY teachers and officers shook winners' hands, and sorted the gifts.

May 26, 2017

SVY End of Semester Meeting

Silicon Valley Youth held its teachers' end of semester meeting. As always, SVY teachers spent hours to go over the classes, sharing good tips and discussing problems. We also handed certificates to all our teachers and TAs, congratulating everyone on a successful semester. Bryan Owens and Benjamin Owens passed the leadership to Brandon Fu and Samuel Yang (the new co-presidents) and officers of SVY.

May 23, 2017

Plan Writing Contest Award Night

Bryan Owens, Benjamin Owens, Brandon Fu, and Samuel Yang met with Mr. Douglas Garriss (Grades 6-8 ELA/AVID/ELD Coordinator) at Ravenswood City School District today. They discussed details of the award ceremony for the Spring Writing Contest. The prizes include 3 iPads (grand prize), 18 Beats headphones (gold prize), 18 $50 gift cards (silver prize), 18 $25 gift cards (bronze prize). In total 59 middle students will win a prize.

March 18, 2017

SVY Mid Semester Meeting

SVY teachers held a mid-semester meeting to discuss this semester's classes and plan for next year.

February 1, 2017

2017 Spring Essay Writing Contest is open!

All the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students in Ravenswood City Schools will participate in this contest. It will be a writing unit in their curriculum taught by English teachers. There are a total of 1000 participants.

January 21, 2017

Spring 2017 Semester Launched

We successfully launched our spring 2017 semester! This year, we offered more classes covering a wider range of topics than ever before. We opened 13 classes on Business, Current Events & Public Speaking, English Grammar, U.S. History, World History, Advanced Math, Java, Website Design Level 1, Website Design Level 2 and TaiChi.

January 17, 2017

Spring 2017 Courses Open for Registration!

Click here to see our classes this semester. We welcome you to join us for another exciting year of learning!

January 7, 2017

Tai Chi

Our first 2017 class, Tai Chi (Chinese Martial Art), started today!

This course is taught by Winnie Zhao, a junior at Gunn High School. As a member of the US team, she won two gold medals and one silver medal in the Second Tai Chi World Championship in Warsaw, Poland.

She teaches 24 simplified Tai Chi styles.

More information.



December 17, 2016

SVY End of Semester Meeting + Party

SVY teachers held an end of year meeting to discuss the past semester's classes and plan for next year. We also held a potluck, and congratulated our teachers on a successful semester.

December 8, 2016

AVID Writing Contest

The winners of the AVID Writing Contest were commended by Dr. Hernandez, the superintendent, Board of Trustees, and Silicon Valley Youth, in East Palo Alto. More here.


Download the presentation here:

December 3, 2016

End of Fall Classes

Our fall classes successfully ended today. Thank you to our teachers and students for an exciting year of learning!

November 13, 2016

Educational Seminar

Our Web Design/Java teacher Andrew Zhou gave a seminar to a live audience and to many parents and students who listened online from around the world.

November 4, 2016

Palo Alto Weekly Reported on Bryan Owens, Benjamin Owens, and Silicon Valley Youth. The title is “Nonprofit offers classes, raises funds for Ravenswood schools”.

Palo Alto Online later reported on November 5, 2016: http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2016/11/05/nonprofit-offers-classes-raises-funds-for-ravenswood-schools

One small correction: we began to charge a small enrollment fee in January 2016, not January 2015.

October 20, 2016

Congressional Commendation

Surprise! Benjamin Owens and Bryan Owens received an encouraging letter from the Congress of the United States! We are so honored! Thank you, Congresswoman Ms. Jackie Speier!

October 18, 2016

East Palo Alto Classes

We had a meeting with Dr. Hernandez, the superintendent of Ravenswood City School District, and her assistant, Ms. Morales-Ellis, to discuss potentially offering free classes in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park next semester. We also talked to Mr. Badwalz from the California Department of Education and the district's after school coordinator Ms. Tana.

October 18, 2016

Palo Alto School District Commendation

Benjamin Owens and Bryan Owens were commended by Dr. McGee, the superintendent of Palo Alto Unified School District, at the District Board Meeting. (Video)

October 10, 2016

President's Volunteer Service Award

Great News! Silicon Valley Youth has been approved as an official certifying organization for the President's Volunteer Service Award.

October 8, 2016

U.S. History Session 2

Our U.S. History class is starting its second session! Read more here.

October 3, 2016

Thank you, Ms. Holly Knapp, for graciously donating $100 to Silicon Valley Youth! Your support and encouragement mean a lot to us! Her message:

The work you do is remarkable and life changing for the students you serve. Super proud of you!

You and your other volunteers are doing a fabulous job!

I work with at-risk teens throughout Santa Clara County and I know how much your work impacts each person you work with. Bravo!

All best, Holly Knapp

September 30, 2016

Palo Alto Daily News has released an article on Silicon Valley Youth! The title is "Young teachers make difference."

September 29, 2016

Silicon Valley Youth, Benjamin Owens, and Bryan Owens are on San Jose Mercury News! ("Gunn brothers teach to raise donations for East Palo Alto schools")

September 22, 2016

Donation for Kiln

We donated $9000 to Ravenswood City School District today! We are very happy that kids in East Palo Alto can have a ceramics class now because of our effort! See all of our service work here.

September 18, 2016

Educational Seminar

Bryan Owens gave a seminar to a live audience and many parents and students who listened online from around the world.

August 19, 2016

Fall Classes

Our fall classes are here! This semester, we will have 12 teachers (including TAs) to teach nine classes! Check out our Fall 2016 classes here.

August 9th, 2016

Volunteer String Teacher for Ravenswood City School District

Bryan and Ben recruited two volunteer string teachers to teach at Ravenswood middle schools, allowing RCSD to finally open up a strings program.

Historically, students who attended Menlo-Atherton High School from East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park were never able to join their high school orchestra because they did not have sufficient experience in string instruments. Ravenswood School District had aquired the violins necessary for an after school music program, but they did not have the funds to support a string teacher.

After a long search by Benjamin for organizations willing to help, on July 22, Sono Strings said they might be able to provide teachers.

Immediately after Dr. Hernandez-Goff came back to work, Bryan and Benjamin met her and Ms. Lorena Morales-Ellis again at the district office. Benjamin then set up a meeting between Ravenswood School District and Sono Strings for the very next day. The meeting was successful. Not only did Sono Strings agree to provide two volunteers, but they also agreed to maintain the string instruments for free, hold benefactor concerts, train the students to put on a holiday concert, and provide extra support. Ravenswood City School District will now be able to offer a string class to its students.

July 14, 2016

New Classes

Teachers from Silicon Valley Youth are promoting our new classes at a volunteer social event.

June 2nd, 2016

Donation to Ronald McNair Academy

Silicon Valley Youth donated a full set of kitchen equipment to furnish their cooking class; soccer balls, volleyballs, and basketballs for their sports department; and a complete curriculum that was much needed.

December 20th, 2015

Children's Christmas Party

SVY helped host the Children’s Christmas Party at Hope’s Corner in Mountain View in December 2015. A hundred kids and families attended this party.

December 14th, 2015

Donation to Ronald McNair Academy

Silicon Valley Youth donated school supplies: pens, pencils, markers, erasers, earphones etc. and holiday gifts: fruit snacks, tangerines etc.

August 2015

Tutoring at Ronald McNair Academy

Ben and Bryan began tutoring students at Ronald McNair Academy in subjects such as math, english, and science.

Early 2014

Service at East Palo Alto YMCA

In the spring of 2014, East Palo Alto YMCA came to the high schools in Palo Alto to recruit volunteers. Benjamin Owens and Bryan Owens answered the call. They worked as greeters, and also helped to organize and run the kids event.