Four students from Arcadia and San Marino were awarded trophies by “The 500 Club” for learning new vocabulary at the Club’s 26th anniversary awards ceremony. 19 students, parents and supporters enjoyed the picnic and ceremony at Eisenhower Park in Arcadia.
In 1993, private tutor Sara Smith wanted to encourage her students to actively search out and master new words. She conceived of “The 500 Club” as an incentive to make learning new vocabulary fun. In the past 26 years, students have earned hundreds of trophies for memorizing new vocabulary at 500 word intervals.
This year four students earned membership into The 500 Club by mastering their first 500 words. They are George Zhou (12) and Leon Guo (12) of Arcadia, and Yuyu Kurimoto (12) and her sister Riri Kurimoto (7) of San Marino.
The highest ever record of 6500 words learned in the 500 Club was set in 2015 by Marina Hashimoto of San Marino, who achieved it in only 30 months. The previous astounding record of 5500 words – reached in 2004 – was held for 11 years by Mio Kohara of Arcadia. Kohara later graduated from Tokyo University in Japa.Hasimoto will graduate this year from the same university. Previous trophy winners have attended Tokyo, Keio, and ICU Universities in Japan, among others, as well as Chapman University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Tutor Sara Smith, sponsor of The 500 Club, is pleased with the stellar accomplishments of her students.
