<ong>Team Tibet
The ACT Center has over 35 ongoing programs that have been active in the community for a number of years. But did you know that ACT does more than keep its own programs running? We are also enthusiastic about supporting the initiatives of individuals seeking to make a real difference in the community. If you are participating in a community service initiative in Northfield, the Twin Cities or even abroad, the ACT Center can be a resource for you! ACT has a supply of CSA-sponsored funding to support special volunteer initiatives that go beyond the operation of our regular programs. In addition, we can help provide transportation through Carleton’s campus vehicles. Tenzin Nordon (’11) and Tenzin Noryang (’10) have been collaborating with ACT this year to maintain their own volunteer program. Their volunteer program demonstrates how a few simple resources from ACT can help student initiatives flourish.
The Team Tibet organization at Carleton College and St. Olaf college started The Lâmtön Mentorship and Tutor Program in September 2008. Lâmtön means “guidance” in Tibetan. The program’s goal is to provide career guidance and academic support to high school Tibetan students and encourage them to pursue higher education.
There are currently thirty high school students committed to the program who come for the weekly tutoring at the Tibetan community center in Minneapolis and who are in regular touch with their mentors. Carleton and St.Olaf College Lâmtön tutors travel up to Minneapolis every other Friday to help the Tibetan high school students with homework, projects and college application and offer academic advice or discuss high school/college experiences. This year, we have collaborated with Hamline University, University of Minnesota and the Tibetan American Foundation in Minneapolis to execute weekly tutoring sessions.
In addition to building a mentor-mentee relationship with college students and high school students and providing academic support, the session has been great platform for cultural exchange.
Tenzin Nordon, a board member for the Lâmtön program said, “Lâmtön is like a small version of Admissions Possible. The program helped me a lot during my college application. Through Lâmtön, we hope to reach out to the Tibetans students to pursue higher education, making most of them the first generation going to college.” Through the program, group campus visits in the surrounding colleges in Minnesota for the students have been made possible.
ACT has supported the program and has made it possible to have more volunteers from Carleton visit Minneapolis on a bi-weekly basis. We leave from Sayles at 5:00 p.m. and arrive back on campus around 9:00 p.m. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Volunteer Coordinator Tenzin Noryang at [email protected].
If you have a volunteer initiative that ACT could help you with, come to the ACT Center and tell us! We are enthusiastic about seeing Carleton students out in the community, no matter where their volunteer efforts take them. Think outside the box, figure out where your passions lie, come to the ACT Center and we will make it happen!