By Phoebe Nerone | Co-Founder
Happy Spring Everyone!
This spring, the art program is in full of swing. Across our three locations, 136 girls participate in art classes each week, including 94 ethnic minority girls from two villages. Our two art teachers continue to lead classes with encouragement and enthusiasm, helping create a safe and fun environment for all our students to express themselves freely.
This month, we would like to highlight the inspirational artwork created by our middle and high school girls. The age range for the girls in our middle and high school program is 7 to 18, and each group brings new ideas and perspectives. Since January, our middle and high school girls have been trying out new artistic techniques and mediums, including oil painting, printmaking, portraiture, and still life. Testing new techniques allows each student to explore, experiment, and grow more confident in their abilities and themselves. The progress made by each girl throughout her time in the art program may look easy to see, but their hard work is ongoing and admirable. Their artwork has become more detailed and expressive, depicting their enjoyment of learning new skills and the process. Many of the girls in the program are also working hard with their academic tutors, which adds another important layer to their development.
This spring, we also have two exciting updates to share regarding our art program. Last summer, we launched our first Summer Internship Program for college-age art and art education majors. We welcomed four female students from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts for a one-month teaching internship with Rock-Paper-Scissors. The program went exceptionally well. Our four interns were wonderful with the students, making them feel supported and encouraged while also gaining valuable hands-on teaching experience themselves. They were warmly welcomed by our staff and two art teachers, and together they formed long-lasting bonds. After talking with both students and teachers, it’s clear that the interns were truly cherished, and there is strong enthusiasm for welcoming more in the future. Reflecting on the success of this pilot, we are making this part of our programming for girls, leadership and education, and are currently in the process of recruiting four new interns for summer 2026.
Our second exciting update is that in September, we will take another important step by launching a new year-long Young Women’s Art Teaching Fellowship. This postgraduate position will allow Vietnamese art educators to work full-time with our program, helping us strengthen the future of art education in the communities we work in. The Fellow will receive ongoing mentorship from our experienced teachers, develop their own curricula, and gain practical classroom experience across our three locations, allowing experience within both urban and rural classroom settings.
We are excited to meet this year’s Intern and Fellowship applicants!
Thank you for supporting the girls in our art program,
Phoebe and the Rock-Paper-Scissors Team
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