“Give them an opportunity to see a different world”

Bin Wu is a 10-time Citizen Teacher for Citizen Schools California, participating in Tech Challenge and several other Apprenticeships over the last five years. Though her background of growing up in China is quite different from the students she serves or the campuses she’s on, she believes deeply in exposing people to something different.

Bin also works with First Robotics, where parents are supportive and spend time after school or on weekends building robots with their kids. The program and teams are well funded and students are usually self-motivated.

In contrast, the students at Citizen Schools campuses typically come from low-income communities, which just makes the extra involvement and encouragement all the more meaningful. She’s had students come to her company to visit and see her work environment, where the exposure “always brings in new development in a person’s life,” said Bin. For many of these students they’ve never been in an office environment before. She thinks more opportunity and more exposure makes people more accepting of different things, different people and different opinions.

Not only has her time with Citizen Schools benefitted all the students she’s worked with, but on a personal note, the experience has helped her professionally. She realized, “I’m more patient, more willing to listen to people—that’s very important.”