After months of preparations, working with many partners and stakeholders, the Churchill Road Elementary School (CRS) in McLean, Virginia started a school go club and had their first club meeting after school on April 20. The club is sponsored, with a Classroom Starter Set, by the American Go Foundation (AGF) and the school PTA. “AGA president Gurujeet Khalsa and the National Go Center also provided a lot of material support to the club,” says Bin Duan, the club’s parent sponsor. The club
sign up had reached the 14-member limit in less than a week; club participants include students from kindergarten to sixth grade.
School librarian Ms. Ashely agreed to be the go club’s school staff sponsor, and the first club meeting was held in the school library. Richard Duan (AGA 3D), a 6th grader in the home elementary school who came up with the idea of the club, serves as the mentor and coach for the club; he taught the kids a few basic go rules in the first club meeting and coaching fellow students. “All the children are very engaged in teaching and in the games they played during the first club meeting,” reports Bin Duan. “They seem to have had a lot of fun!”