Many people are able to draw on their heritage and culture as a source of pride.

But for 8-year-old Christina Boothe, her native understanding of Chinese culture might have been limited to only her Mulan coloring books.

That is, until Yue “Hannah” Xu, a junior from Princeton, New Jersey majoring in graphic design, stepped into her life.

As part of the University’s Asian Children Mentoring Program, Xu is one of about 20 students working with families who have adopted children of Asian descent.

“For the majority of the children, their adopted parents are not of the same race,” said Dorothy Boothe, Christina’s mother and founder of the program. “There may be some issues they face about their identities, and the parents don’t have the heritage to address them.”

Boothe was inspired to establish the program in Athens after participating in a similar group in Atlanta.

Families that participate in the program specify the type of mentors they want and how often they want their children to interact with them. The choices vary from weekly to monthly contact.

For the student mentors, it is an opportunity for them to share their culture with children who didn’t have a chance to experience it.

“I want to help the children because they are lost as it is,” said Michelle Chua, a junior from Duluth and the vice president of the program. “Because they are adopted, they don’t know that much about themselves.”

According to government statistics, American families adopted nearly 21,000 orphans from other countries in 2006. Approximately 9,000 of those adoptions were from Asian countries.

Boothe adopted Christina from China in 1999, a process that took nearly two years to complete.

“We promised the Chinese government to teach her about her heritage in our letter of intent,” she said. “Unfortunately, I don’t have that heritage in the family.”

Consequently, Boothe turns to students such as Xu to help educate Christina on her ethnic culture.

“For any child, it’s good to have older people to look up to, just to have someone of the same heritage to interact with,” Boothe said.

Xu, who attends the same church as the Boothes, often goes to dinner with the family and plays with Christina at program events.

“Every time her mom brings her to church, I try to teach her Chinese,” Xu said.

Though many of the children participating in the program are too young to fully understand their cultural situations, Boothe hopes to prevent future identity issues.

“Not all children wrestle with identity issues, but many do. I hope this program helps those children embrace who they are,” Boothe said.

For Boothe, it seems as if Christina already is starting to embrace such aspects of her identity.

“One night, she came home after learning about the pledge of allegiance,” Boothe said. “She went into her room and took the Chinese and U.S. flags that were in her room. She waved both and said ‘I was born in China, but I am an American.’”