Photo From Katelyn And Dharma’S WebsiteGirl Scouts Katelyn Vi, left, and Dharma Stuart flank Google’s Emily Scheele, who helped the girls set up a website to teach Chinese.

Dharma Stuart of Los Altos Hills started out with a unique project idea for earning her Girl Scout Silver Award. She ended up with a website that provides help for anyone wanting to learn the Chinese language.

The 13-year-old, in her eighth year at the Stanford Chinese School, created 10 bilingual videos with the help of her best friend, Katelyn Vi. They wrote, produced and published the videos and have been making presentations to schools, day care centers and fellow Girl Scouts.

Dharma, who has been working on the project for the past two years, said learning Chinese has spurred an appreciation of the country’s culture, history and place in the world economy.

“China is a very popular country,” she said.

The website – sites.google.com/site/katelyndharmasilveraward – features English/Chinese translations of basic words, from types of food to parts of the human body. It also features a pdf option for those wanting to copy the characters or take notes.

“We wanted to educate and empower children,” Dharma and Katelyn wrote on their website. “Since we both love Chinese, we decided to teach the basics of Chinese to America (or anyone who speaks English).”

The site includes a video of the girls issuing an enthusiastic plea to promote their Silver Award project on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” It also features a video endorsement from Vanessa Chambe, Michigan’s Miss Oakland County Outstanding Teen, who promoted the website on her Facebook page.

Dharma and Katelyn credited Emily Scheele, internal mobility specialist at Google Inc., and Tiffany Strickland, director of The Tech Challenge at The Tech Museum, with technical help and guidance.

“I feel happy about it,” said Dharma of the project. “I feel very relaxed now that the site’s fully functional.”

The girls, due to receive their Silver Awards Sunday, plan to travel to China next summer.

Dharma is the daughter of Tru Love and Stephen Stuart of Los Altos Hills. Katelyn is the daughter of Jamie and Ken Vi of Palo Alto.

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