TA Program 2026 - 2027
Since 2011
Since 2011, The Hongyun Art Foundation’s TA Program has turned students into leaders — kids who teach, serve their community, and grow into people others can depend on. Now it can also put them on the path to one of the nation's most respected youth honors.
TA Program for 2026 - 2027 school year is open for signups
Jump to the bottom of the page to sign up for the TA program
TA Program FAQ
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TAs do a LOT! TAs work alongside teachers: welcoming students, preparing materials, helping younger kids understand instructions, encouraging those who struggle, and serving as role models. TAs never do artwork for students.
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Current Hongyun Art students in Lime Cloud and above may be eligible for the TA Program. Keep in mind that the program is selective. Students must meet current eligibility requirements and be recommended — we look for responsibility, maturity, communication, reliability, and willingness to help, not just artistic ability.
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It supports TA training, annual TA parties, prizes and goodie bags, individual and team rewards, food for events, community-service activities, and program materials.
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Because other people are depending on the TA. Teachers evaluate attendance, responsibility, engagement, and teamwork — this record also matters when students are considered for TA Director and other special opportunities.
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The Hongyun Art App has a built in Congressional Award tracker that helps TAs stay organized. We automatically log TA sessions as volunteering hours for our TAs. Our app also tracks AP Studio Art hours as personal development hours.
What does my child gain?
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Confidence isn't taught by telling a child to "be confident" — it comes from experience:
I helped someone → someone trusts me → someone needs me → I can do this.
Repeated experiences of being useful and responsible change how students see themselves.
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The program is selective. Students must meet current eligibility requirements and be recommended — we look for responsibility, maturity, communication, reliability, and willingness to help, not just artistic ability.
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The TA program began when Hongyun realized that even students at a very young age has valuable experience and energy to offer other students. She encouraged to learn by teaching and helping others which changed the trajectory and pace of growth in her students. We believe that learning comes not only from teachers but from being teachers ourselves.
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Because other people are depending on the TA. Teachers evaluate attendance, responsibility, engagement, and teamwork — this record also matters when students are considered for TA Director and other special opportunities.
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The Hongyun Art App has a built in Congressional Award tracker that helps TAs stay organized. We automatically log TA sessions as volunteering hours for our TAs. Our app also tracks AP Studio Art hours as personal development hours.
Growing beyond - Leadership & the long run
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Outstanding TAs advance to TA Director based on attendance, maturity, reliability, and leadership ability: training and mentoring new TAs, leading teams, and running community-service activities. Leadership is earned through performance, not age or time in the program.
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Yes — opportunities vary year to year and have included City Earth Day and Fall Festival events, library art classes, senior-center programs, community birthday celebrations, and corporate family events with partners like Yahoo, Google, and Apple.
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Absolutely! Top-performing TAs receive priority consideration for the GEI Program and other limited leadership opportunities. It's not a guarantee, but attendance, maturity, and leadership record give us valuable information when allocating GEI’s limited participant slots.
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Yes — that's the purpose. Former students have gone on to become school and club leaders and attend highly selective universities including Harvard, MIT, Yale, University of Chicago, UPenn, Northwestern, Dartmouth, Princeton, and many more. We don't claim the program causes this, but families consistently tell us the confidence and leadership TA built became part of who their children grew into.
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The Hongyun Art App has a built in Congressional Award tracker that helps TAs stay organized. We automatically log TA sessions as volunteering hours for our TAs. Our app also tracks AP Studio Art hours as personal development hours.
Download the slide deck
NOTE: While our system and app can help track volunteering and class hours, students are responsible for verifying and tracking their own service hours. Hongyun Art Foundation keeps records for TA for classes and camp but does not track hours for special projects or events (such as Earth Day Festival, mural projects, etc.). You are responsible for keeping track of your own hours regardless of activity. If you need us to certify your hours for your school or other organization, please bring in or email us your hours log for us to sign. Please allow 2-3 weeks for processing as we can get very busy at times.
For Hongyun Art to be considered your advisor, you must be enrolled as a current student of Hongyun Art School and signed up as a TA (see below).
Sign up for 2026-2027 TA Program
NOTE: The TA program is only available for students currently enrolled at Hongyun Art. If you are not yet enrolled, please visit hongyunart.com to learn more about our school. We currently do not accept volunteers who are not currently enrolled.
Use the Yellow Donation box below to make your contribution. Please note that the suggest minimum donation is per TA for the one school year.
Congressional Award FAQ
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Established by Congress in 1979, it's a national award for ages 13½–24 recognizing personal goals achieved across four areas: Voluntary Public Service, Personal Development, Physical Fitness, and Expedition/Exploration.
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Yes — Hongyun Art Foundation (a 501c3) can serve as an advisor and validator for qualifying students, and several of our existing programs naturally support the award's categories.
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An advisor has to be a non-relative adult. Mr. Tommy is available to serve in this role for Hongyun Art families.
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Register your child on the Congressional Award's official site congressionalaward.org/register to begin tracking hours.
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CongressionalAward.org is the official information source for all things related to the Congressional Award
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Your best bet is to visit Congressionalaward.org - they have detailed listings of what does and does not qualify.
