It all started with a suitcase of picture books.

The children actively participated in the weekly Skype lessons and that July, four students from Wannie’s class flew across the globe to Xiaolin, a small community located in the mountains of Kaohsiung in Taiwan. They designed and hosted a summer camp for the children. This experience was, in the childrens’ own words, life-changing. It caught the attention of local news, TV, and Wannie and her students were invited to present at international conferences. But there was yet a name for the Skype lessons and the camp, so the kids and the volunteer teachers simply called it, “the Project.”

In the summer of 2010, Dr. Wannie Wang’s Intro to Education class in New York sent a suitcase full of children’s books overseas to Xiaolin Elementary School, located in rural mountains in Taiwan. The class heard that a year had passed since Typhoon Morakot destroyed the school and its small village, and the children still were struggling. The deadliest tropical storm to impact Taiwan in recorded history wiped out their homes and took the lives of many of their families and friends, including the school’s English teacher. The class decided, with the storybooks and some technology, that they would teach the children English.

As our team and organization grew, we evolved from “the Project” to "Project LET’S Go!” with a commitment to making an active change in our local communities. Since our first collaboration with Xiaolin Elementary, we have reached out to more rural schools including those by the ocean in the far eastern regions of Taiwan. With the help of our supportive partners, international and local volunteers, and dedicated team here at PLG, we have successfully hosted more than 11 years of camps through our summer programs. Along the way, we have scaled up to include two semester programs, one featuring a STEAM-based curriculum (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), and the other featuring a video podcast with student-generated content.