He pushed a blue, round LEGO piece in place, closed the instruction manual, and stood up to examine the masterpiece he had completed in the span of two classes. Jeffrey had just built his first LEGO candy dispenser at our inaugural FCSN Job Training Program.

 

Before the start of summer 2017, auntie Sherry was talking to me about an idea she had where older FCSN students could utilize second-hand or donated LEGO pieces to run businesses to support themselves. After brainstorming several sessions together, my brother and I started making plans and preparing necessary skills that were needed to realize this dream.

 

We then held trial classes during last summer where the students washed, cleaned, and dried boxes of purchased or donated used LEGO pieces. Then they sorted the pieces into labelled categories, and used these cleaned LEGO pieces to make candy dispensers––our first product that my brother and I designed. The trial summer program was well received by the students and parents. So we continued during the school year, and the showcased ones at the Gala are made completely by FCSN students.

 

This program would not be successful without the sincere feedback and support from all the parents of participating families. Watching these young adults eagerly scrub the LEGO pieces, use the salad spinner to dry, and find the next piece on the instruction manual, we felt so proud to watch them mesmerized in their tasks and doing such careful work.

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~Vivian and Andrew Chiang~