Newcomer Club

The Newcomer Club is an intensive program that supports a newcomer youths’ social, emotional, and family relationships while unpacking what it means to live in America. NCC collaborates with six San Francisco public high schools: Galileo, Lincoln, Marshall, Mission, San Francisco International, and Washington. Group meetings are conducted in Mandarin and Cantonese to instill a sense of belonging.

The meetings are intentionally created to be a safe space to discuss self-care, stress management, and language skills that are essential to youths’ wellbeing. Youth also get a chance to learn about cultural differences as well as challenge negative ethnic and gender stereotypes while keeping pride in their own culture with events such as karaoke contests, Lunar New Year Parade, and Autumn Moon Festival. NCC challenges youth with extracurricular experiences in order to expand their perspective and worldview as well as understand coexisting with other diverse cultures.

Leadership is a key theme in NCC and the program promotes youth empowerment and fosters leadership skills in youths. NCC’s peer leaders dedicate themselves for the entire school year and take charge of organizing, communicating, and planning amongst their peers.