 One, two, three, one, two, go! A musical program in Oakland, California gives children of Chinese-American families a safe place to spend their free time. Sherilyn Chu says the program is for students who might have nothing else to do after school ends for the day. A lot of our students are what you call latchkey children where the parents worked long hours in restaurants. Two of the students are not Chinese. Alejandro Chavez and Tyler Thompson. Neither Alejandro nor Tyler speaks Chinese. But they have become important players in the program's orchestra. She says she saw something special in them. Music for all students should be fun, but it is a discipline. You have to practice, and both of them were willing to do that. Tyler Thompson attended a school near his mother's workplace in Oakland's Chinatown neighborhood. There, he learned songs in Chinese from Ms. Chu. One day he said to me, oh, my mother comes home from work very tired, and I would sing her the song she would teach me, and I'm able to make her feel better. And I said, you know, what a nice kid. Ms. Chu discovered that Tyler Thompson could sing Chinese opera. It was a challenge to me at first. Tyler says it was also hard for some of his Chinese friends to understand why he wanted to sing Chinese opera. I didn't see any problem with it, but they did. And I know it would probably be the same vice versa if I heard one Asian kid singing some really old-school R&B songs. I would just be like, you know, what do you know about that? Alejandro Chavez has also done well in the program since Ms. Chu discovered him 10 years ago. Alejandro plays an ancient instrument called the shang. Just being able to say I play an instrument from ancient China. It's, you know, I have history in my hands. Alejandro says being part of the orchestra has opened his mind. Well, it's taught me not to be, you know, Latinos here, you know, white people here, you know. So I'm mixed together, it's like that. And it's really changed my life, really. Because if I weren't here, where would I be? Ms. Chu says she hopes all her students will learn to better understand not just the music, but each other. She also hopes that children will remember everything they have learned after they leave the orchestra. I'm Christopher Cruz.