the soft-landing project
The Soft-Landing Project is a student-led initiative dedicated to making the transition into the American education system less challenging for immigrant children and their parents.
As a student-led foundation, we are an informal source of information. As such, we will be linking other helpful sites and organizations for more formal topics of discussions, such as the college application process and tutoring services for standardized testing, as well as information on Miami-Dade County Public Schools
On the other hand, this website also serves as a blog outlining the different experiences of immigrant students who have had to integrate themselves into the American school system.
This website is available in Spanish: https://sites.google.com/view/thesoftlandingproject-spanish/inicio
Este sitio web esta disponible en Español: https://sites.google.com/view/thesoftlandingproject-spanish/inicio
This website will soon be published in French.
For any questions, please scroll down to our "Contact Us" section.
Mission Statement
The Soft-Landing Project was brought to fruition as an idea in May of 2022. It branched out of the frustration of not being able to fully understand the college application process due to being an immigrant. While part of this project is focused on college prep and applications, the main goal of this website is to make immigrant teenagers, children, and even parents feel more seen and understood throughout the intricacies of a country that is not their own. Being a student-led initative, we can only serve as an informal source of information. However, we have made sure to include worthwile information in our "Helpful Resources" section.
A more detailed story of how this project came to fruition will be featured in the "Blog" section of the wesbite, written by the founder and creator of the project, Cynthia Chao. In this section, you will also be able to find different blogs written by students who come from a multitude of different backgrounds. Ranging from students who are immigrants to students who have never left the country, our blogs serve as an outlet for students to share how their experiences might have been different due to their diverse backgrounds and circumstances.
Overall, our mission is to facilitate the transition into a new environment as much as possible.
Meet the founder
Hello! My name is Cynthia Chao and I moved to the United States about seven years ago. I am currently a senior in high school and I'm navigating the college admissions process. I come from a hispanic family who knew very little about the American school system when we first moved here. With the help of some family members and friends, my transition into the American school system was somewhat facilitated for me and my sister. However, I am also aware that those same family members and friends had to navigate the intricacies of the school system alone when they first moved to the States. As such, I decided to start a project dedicated to help newly-arrived families navigate the American school system.