Ellen Chen
Inspire Change Through Art, Literature, and Science
Origami Outreach
On behalf of Origami Club, I, along with my club members, offer origami class to underprivileged community - Don Bosco Community Center. We aim to teach skills to fold various models of origami such as animals, flowers, toys, modular, and many more models. The class helps to develop spatial perception, logical and sequential thinking in math, geometry, and problem solving. At the end of the session, we may participate in some origami contests. We offer at weekly basis starting 1/2023. There are 15 kids (age 9+) in the class.
Drawing Class Teacher
I offer drawing class in Southern Connecticut Chinese school since 1/2022. Two students I mentored won CT State Fish Art Contest (grade 4-6, grade 7-9) in 2023. My drawing class is designed for student ages 9+ with some drawing technical skills. From this course, I will teach each student to understand drawing compositions, utilize concepts of highlights, proportions, shadows, and stroke techniques. With 2 years teaching experience, I have successfully helped student build a solid drawing foundation, self-confidence, and explore creative abilities using pencil sketching. Materials needed: Sketch book, pencil HB, 2B, and 4B, mono erasers. At the end of this semester, students are able to submit artwork to participate art competition. Class size is 10 students to ensure the qualify of teaching . Register for spring 2024 is open.
Origami Club Founder and President
Origami Club is a registered club in OrigamiUSA in 2022. I create a club environment where students will be able to bond through the art of origami, and participate in competitions, such as OrigamiUSA. Our club teaches and creates various origami models and we plan to create a single modular piece that will be made up of many different pieces that are each made by the members of our club. We have raised money for trips to origami festivals, such as OrigamiUSA festival, or the OrigamiMIT festival. Current members are ~50 students in upper school.
Join us every Friday @OrigamiRCDS
Charity Art Exhibition Executives
President of Charity Exhibition, 2023
Director of Chamber Music, 2022
in 2023, I serve as a president for the 13th Charity Art Exhibition from July-August. I lead a team with ~50 students' participation. I am responsible for planning the agenda, organizing fund-raising events, inviting keynote speakers, recruiting designers and artists, designing the flyer and poster board, and supervising the entire exhibition activities with 200+ guests participation. I raised $10,000 for Don Bosco Community Center to build an art enrichment program. The art center media report,
the school report, and the Don Bosco report.
In 2022, I assembled a chamber music program of 8 musicians. I designed, planned, organized the program, and also performed as 1st violinist in Sharron Art Center Charity Art Exhibition. This is the first time of Sharron Art Center to host a chamber music program led and performed by students. My program successfully helped Art Exhibition raise over $7,000 for Norwich Chinese Christian Church (NCCC) “Love Offering for Under-served Youth Group”. (My poster design received a scholastic gold key award in 2023). The art center media report.
Artist for "Beyond the Diagnosis"
I have been actively involved in the non-profit organization ‘Beyond the Diagnosis.’ I focus on bringing together art and science in order to inspire research for treatments of rare and neglected genetic disorders. Recently, I painted a child with chromosome 8p deletion, a rare genetic disorder that affects the appearance and development. I hope that my paintings would inspire others to see the beauty in diversity and to support those who live with these conditions.
Designer for Mount Sinai Health System
I designed a series of logos for the Mount Sinai Genetics Outreach (MSGO) clinic, a new outpatient clinic that evaluates patients with suspected rare genetic conditions and offers them prompt and timely genetic tests to shorten the diagnosis odyssey. The logo is created for the Pediatric department of Mount Sinai Health System, one of the largest clinics in the country dedicated to understanding, preventing, treating, and curing genetic diseases and birth defects. My logo has been used on flyers, as well as physician education and patient recruitment leaflets.