Out of School, Communicate With World!

Seongdong Youth Center, Alternative School For Youth, "Tong(通.桶)"

In Seongdong-gu, what's the number of youth who quit school? Every year in this area, 179 middle and high school students leave school. Where these young people would go after dropping out of school? For them, Tong, an alternative school for youth was first opened in Seongdong Youth Center.

 

We introduce 'Tong' school

Seoul YWCA youth alternative school is called Tong. The word Tong has two meanings. One is understanding(通) and the other is holding(桶). Thus, Tong means that they will hold world while communicating with it. The school is an alternative one providing emotional and learning support for youth, aged between 16 to 23. The students at Tong want to find their way without giving up study, even if they quitted school. Tong school began in May, and the first class is scheduled by 31th December. The school consists of 6 students, 1 teacher, and 5 volunteer teachers. The number of teens interested in attending the school and wanting to consult their career, is steadily increasing

There is a special thing at Tong school

Tong school offers classes from Monday through Friday, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm as other ordinary schools do. But, it focus more on discovering individual student's talent rather than providing regular classes. In addition to classes for GED preparation, the school provides a wide range of support from emotional cultivation to career development such as crafts class, working-out project, career counseling, and volunteer work. Rather than imprison student in the framework set by adult generation, the school are asking students to develop decision-making abilities and to be more responsible through the student council meeting. Sun Young Park, the school's social worker says, "Students felt a sense of accomplishment and confidence as they produce something with patience during craft classes. Recently they felt the enjoyment of direct experience, making wall-clock and food. In the future, the school will add band and drama activities for healthy stress management and career exploration.

Making the color of our own

One of the goals that the school want to achieve is to get rid of the bias that teens have against friends who graduated school. Most students in Tong school have been hurt in relationship with peers and have not received attention from family members at a proper time. However, they have their true colors as the one student is bright and lively, the second quiet, the third positive, the fourth athletic, and the fifth is good at painting. One day, during break time, they went out for a while and came back holding a cat that have roamed around. Some students were very surprised and stepped on a chair to yell, the others played with a cat while taking pictures. These reactions were not different from those of middle or high school students about the same age. Maybe Tong school would be the good model of school community where teens really want to attend as it accepted the warm heart of teens to feed and get along with the cat which they met by accident on the street. The dreams of all students in Tong school are the followings; getting to know themselves and searching the thing that they really do well and truly want to do. In the future, please give a lot of attention and love to the Tong school in which we will make harmony with many friends in the whole range of personality.

 

Please contact Seongdong Youth Center to get a detailed consultation about Tong(an alternative school) and to make application

You can join to support the students attending Tong by donating money.

Bank account for donation Woori Bank 1005-001-193922 Seongdong Youth Center

Contact 2236- 2678~9 l www.sungdongyc.or.kr