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SEVENTH-GRADER ON QUEST FOR GO CREDIT

Will Hamilton, a 7th grader at Crane School in, Montecito, CA, scored big with go this year.  Students were assigned a Quests Explorations Discoveries (QED) project,  which is an "opportunity to explore an interest, embrace a challenge, make a 'quest' into a new area of interest, or work toward a personal goal," according to the school's website. Will contacted Ed Lee of the Santa Barbara Go club, who agreed to act as his mentor, and the two met weekly for five months.  "Early on, like many others who first discovered Hikaru no Go, Will was very enthusiastic," reports Lee, "Then, little by little, like many other teenagers before him, he found out for himself that go is deep and the journey is very long and that it takes tremendous hard work to improve."  Hamilton persevered though, and continued his studies. "I explained to Will that studying go in many ways is like studying a musical instrument  or a foreign language: just as a 3-hour intense Spanish lesson once every Sunday is not as good as a daily 30-minute class from Monday to Saturday, a little bit of go every day is better than cramming all on Saturday," Lee said.  Crane School held a ceremony for all the QED students to share their projects on June 1, and Hamilton and Lee scored an extra bonus by bringing Jennie Shen 2P along.  Shen wrote about the project on her blog,  it is in Chinese, but can be translated roughly by going here. - Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor;  Photo by Ed Lee (l-r):  Jennie Shen, Will's parents, Will Hamilton, Ed Lee