Great
Lakes Center for Youth Development (GLCYD) has offered a couple of Japanese
Cultural Classes partnering with Peter
White Public Library through the City of Marquette Arts and Culture
Center. The classes were held in January 2008 for elementary school
students and in March 2008 for middle and high school students. The
students learned geography, language, culture, and arts such as origami
and Japanese
calligraphy. Also, the classes went to Temaki & Tea at NMU for their
last sessions and tried some Japanese foods by using their chopsticks.
These classes will be offered again in the winter/spring 2009. Also,
we are planning to provide an art class sometime in the winter or spring.
Tomoko Inoue is the instructor of these classes and is from Japan. She
has lived in Marquette area for about 10 years, and she loves learning
English. The classes are educational but also fun. Students will experience
hands-on activities at every session.
GLCYD
is a non-profit organization which provides technical assistant to non-profits
and youth-serving organizations including fund development, survey development,
evaluation process, board development, media approach, and youth related
workshops. Also, GLCYD tries to support young people in the U.P. to
grow healthy and strong. GLCYD uses the 40
Developmental Assets framework which was
created by the Search Institute to assess the needs of youth. The organization
helps schools administer the 40 Developmental Asset survey every other
year to evaluate students’ needs and presents the results to the public,
so people know which areas we need to work on to increase those assets
in our youth. GLCYD believes that the 40 Developmental Assets is useful
and very important for people to understand and recognize, so we all
use the same language and work together to support our kids and young
people.
One
of the 40 Developmental Assets is Cultural Competence. Cultural Competence
means that young people have knowledge of and comfort with people of
different cultural/racial/ethnic backgrounds. This asset has been evaluated
as one of the lowest assets in young people in our area. It is a very
important asset for young people to have. However, since Marquette and
other counties in the U.P. are rural and not diverse like Detroit, there
are not many cultural opportunities
and it is quite difficult to build the cultural competence in our youth.
It is vital for kids to have this asset since many young people move
out of the U.P. to go to college and/or to work in different parts of
the U.S. or even in the different countries. “It is very interesting
and amazing that there are so many countries and different kinds of
people in the world. There are some similarities and differences in
each culture and country. We don’t have to like everything about every
culture and country, but we need to learn to tolerate and understand
them so that we can respect and appreciate each other,” said Tomoko,
the class leader.
GLCYD
hopes these Japanese Cultural Classes will help your children and you
to be more interested in many different cultures and countries. Please
consider signing up your kids for a Japanese Cultural Class or/and Japanese
Art Class in 2009. “There is no charge for kids and young people to
take any of the Japanese classes. It is
very important to start building their ability to tolerate different
cultures while they are young,” said Tomoko. Watch for a new class schedule
coming up. Please call the Arts and Culture Center, 228-0472, to register
for classes. The Arts and Culture Center offers many different kinds
of great workshops and classes for kids, youth, and adults through out
a year. Don’t miss them! These workshops and classes are good asset-building
opportunities for everybody. Please join us and let’s have fun. We look
forward to hearing from you!
PROGRAMS 
Great
Lakes Center for Youth Development (GLCYD) has offered a couple of Japanese
Cultural Classes partnering with 
Peter
White Public Library through the City of Marquette Arts and Culture
Center. The classes were held in January 2008 for elementary school
students and in March 2008 for middle and high school students. The
students learned geography, language, culture, and arts such as origami
and 
Japanese
calligraphy. Also, the classes went to Temaki & Tea at NMU for their
last sessions and tried some Japanese foods by using their chopsticks.
These classes will be offered again in the winter/spring 2009. Also,
we are planning to provide an art class sometime in the winter or spring.
Tomoko Inoue is the instructor of these classes and is from Japan. She
has lived in Marquette area for about 10 years, and she loves learning
English. The classes are educational but also fun. Students will experience
hands-on activities at every session. 
GLCYD
is a non-profit organization which provides technical assistant to non-profits
and youth-serving organizations including fund development, survey development,
evaluation process, board development, media approach, and youth related
workshops. Also, GLCYD tries to support young people in the U.P. to
grow healthy and strong. GLCYD uses the 
created by the Search Institute to assess the needs of youth. The organization
helps schools administer the 40 Developmental Asset survey every other
year to evaluate students’ needs and presents the results to the public,
so people know which areas we need to work on to increase those assets
in our youth. GLCYD believes that the 40 Developmental Assets is useful
and very important for people to understand and recognize, so we all
use the same language and work together to support our kids and young
people. 
One
of the 40 Developmental Assets is Cultural Competence. Cultural Competence
means that young people have knowledge of and comfort with people of
different cultural/racial/ethnic backgrounds. This asset has been evaluated
as one of the lowest assets in young people in our area. It is a very
important asset for young people to have. However, since Marquette and
other counties in the U.P. are rural and not diverse like Detroit, there
are not many cultural 
opportunities
and it is quite difficult to build the cultural competence in our youth.
It is vital for kids to have this asset since many young people move
out of the U.P. to go to college and/or to work in different parts of
the U.S. or even in the different countries. “It is very interesting
and amazing that there are so many countries and different kinds of
people in the world. There are some similarities and differences in
each culture and country. We don’t have to like everything about every
culture and country, but we need to learn to tolerate and understand
them so that we can respect and appreciate each other,” said Tomoko,
the class leader. 
GLCYD
hopes these Japanese Cultural Classes will help your children and you
to be more interested in many different cultures and countries. Please
consider signing up your kids for a Japanese Cultural Class or/and Japanese
Art Class in 2009. “There is no charge for kids and young people to
take any of the Japanese classes. It is
very important to start building their ability to tolerate different
cultures while they are young,” said Tomoko. Watch for a new class schedule
coming up. Please call the Arts and Culture Center, 228-0472, to register
for classes. The Arts and Culture Center offers many different kinds
of great workshops and classes for kids, youth, and adults through out
a year. Don’t miss them! These workshops and classes are good asset-building
opportunities for everybody. Please join us and let’s have fun. We look
forward to hearing from you!
