Please do not use them for summer camps. Fraud. they first make you pay $50 for registration for a camp they don't offer and link you to another provider. Either you do your camp or not, just to enquire and using their website they rip off $50.. Unheard off.. fraud. be ware. read more

I had been a quite involved parent to Olive's regular seasonal debate program from September 2011 through May 2012. It started with a school flyer, an information session with Stephan Brooks the coach. The rest is a NorCal championship after a year of hard work and fierce tournaments, from middle school tournaments to high school invitationals held at colleges including Berkeley and Stanford. The success of a student in the debate program depends on personal motivation, passion, dedication and hard work. Equally - if not more - importantly, it takes a coach with full dedication, energy, hardworking, qualification and ability to inspire and motivate students to be the best they can be. I regard highly of Stephan Brooks with these qualities as I observed during the past school year. Kids have had great fun as well as learning a lot from his teaching and coaching. Besides the debate and speech program, they also offer other enrichment programs for academics and youth leaderships, including building houses in Mexico. I highly recommend Olive Children Foundation and its programs. read more

I enrolled both my 6-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son there since last year, because I truly believe the teachers - Ms. Sheela, Ms. Cherryl, Ms. Sri, and other beloved teachers - and the director - Ms. Joni Jen - love and care of my children more than I do. My children look forward to going to Olive every day because they can't wait to have fun learning and playing with their teachers and children. What I love about Olive the most is Ms. Joni's philosophy, dedication, and passion about fostering her students - regardless how old they are - into tomorrow's leaders. Not only will my children become thoughtful thinkers/scientists/engineers/doctors because of Olive's STEM education but also will be compassionate, kind leaders, which will not be replaced by AI or machine learning in the future. I am so, so grateful my friend introduced us to Ms. Joni and her Olive Schools, because I am so confident that my children will be more successful than my husband, a computer engineer PhD, and me. read more

Five stars to the speech & debate program at Olive and to instructors Brooks and Leal! They are graduates from the Logan debate program, one of the top-ranked in the country. Stephan Brooks is a passionate, committed coach and gives 110%. He is good at spotting talent, is fair, and pushes kids to work hard. My son joined the program in middle school and was soon participating in varsity-level events, thanks to this duo. The speech & debate program helps kids develop a strong sense of self, the ability to structure work, conduct research, and get up-to-date on current affairs. Make sure it fits your budget (check beforehand) and if it does, it's worth every penny! read more

Sucks! Went there for a bit, but after stephen left, everything dropped. they have sucky people that work there and their camp suck. Also the owner - Joni - deleted all bad reviews on yelp so I'm 99% sure this will be down soon. (deserves 0 stars, but 1 is the minimum) read more

I went to Olive Children for a year for debate, and I had a great experience there. But they recently fired the old speech and debate staff, and that's why I'm writing this review. They were amazing coaches and everything, too. I'm extremely mad at Olive for this... read more

It is not worth to pay so much money to have your child to have little improvement. The lady in the office said that the tuition fee was tax deductible to get us into the program, but there is no prove that the tuition would be tax deductible. read more

My kid is enrolled at Olive Foundation for the summer camp. We are extremely happy that we finally got our kid to a place where her time is well utilized, she learns a lot and comes back home happy. In the past years, we tried a number of summer camps and I thought they were just not worth it. One key factor at Olive's is Joni- the Director. The dedication with which she runs this institute is unparalleled. It is for her efforts that this is a place is what it is today. Thanks Joni- for taking care of our kids and providing them with excellent education. There must be some misunderstanding on part of the reviewer who didn't give good rating. Yelp doesn't allow me to give 7 Stars, or else I would have ! read more

Started off as a good idea to help students improve debate skills. Now too expensive and Not really a Not for profit. Most people can easily calculate when the tournament payments required by Olive of participants are several multiples of the fees that are requested by tournament organizers. Mostly Poor management and miscommunication plus lack of any customer service skills of the owner/manager. This is echoed by multiple ex-parents associated with Olive over the past 2-3 years. read more

My son following with Joni's program when he was7 years old, today he is 11 years old, we live in Pinole Ca which is 50 miles from Fremont City, every summer I brought my son to Oliver Children program because I see the results. My Son is GATE student and also won Spelling Bee reward, On the first year Summer of 2008 he learned speech, after 4 weeks training, he can stand up in the crowd, it's not easy for 7 years boy, because he can better express his idea, his writing skill get much better, before the summer my Son still in ESL program, after Summer, the 2d grade teacher told me, he is amazed by his writing, the writting is about vacation to Hawaii, he has never been in Hawaii, he just dreamed about that, he did all the reserch from internet, and wrote about his vication at Hawaii, the teacher asked me all the questions about that vication, I told teach, he made up we have never been there. I know why my son can write so good, because he used his speech skills. On Summer of 2009, My Son Lerned about Young Leadership, Honestly the class taughter them how to have better E.Q, I remember one class is about how to do anger control, My son also taught me and my husband, if you are Angery, first you need leave crowd, 2d you need to admit it , if you still angary, you my find a tree then you can angery to the tree, this call Tree theropy for Anger control, the method once you are very angery you need a place to express, if you said bad words to a person, even you forget, people still remember, however the tree method will not have side efforts, after you express the anger, you need to think about how to improve next time, the class taught them to appreciate what they have and if some bad thing happened stil piecefully take it. Another important activity is Lemonad sale, I am from Shanghai I always think Lemonda sale just a small kids activity, untill one day my Son told me " If life give you a lemond, turn to Lemonade" This is a activity which a group kids bring suger, Lemond, Lemond juice and made Lemonade sale in front of Mission Burger. The money they made is donate for the Africa Country for kids to buy soccer. During the process my son lean the team work, how to process, how to marketing, how to do better sales. I did know the lemondae sales have big impact for my son, until 6 month late, my Son had been invited by UC Berkeley for a math contest, when we on the way home, near UC Campus, there is 6 years old girl with her father together sale lemonade , my son asked her why you want to sale lemonade, she replied she want to save money to Disney, we bought 2 cups lemonade, one for me and one for my son, my son told me Mom we sale Lemonade because we want to help others, that's why $0.75.cup lemonade, somepeople want to pay for $5 to support us, he said we made better lemonade than her, however we need to support her, because it's not easy process for a little girl, you know until today, if there is a street lemonade sales by kid, my son always support their business, I know for his life and he will not forget, I am happy my son is a kind person, this is what the world need. On Summer of 2010, The young leadership program volunteer at Fremont homeless shuttle and senior center. The group kids volunteer at Homeless shuttle to serve lunch for the kids, the night my son did service, on the Dinner tabel, he told me and my husband said to us" Mom and Daddy thank you very much to being responsible, I love you" during the time the group kids performance at one of the top natioanl senior home, I see all the kids are very happy, they make all the senior had a happy day. After he took the debate class, my son told me he learned everthing has two sides, usually if my son want to do something he always had more than 10 reasons to convince us, I was very confused, I am very happy my son learned debate skill, on another hands we need to find reasons to say no to him if we do not agree what he request to do, it's not easy for us who do not have professonl debate training. Why I support this program, because this program offer similar program which Standford offer, their price is much higher, the program teach my son to have purpose on his life, to be resposible, to help others who need support, in Fremont most parents are very care about SAT score, think about for SAT writting, if you do not have clear subject, you do not have strong idea to support your subject it will not come out good writing, as we know most good college they will interview, if the kids do not understand what their call for life, how can they let the college to believe those kids can make better USA tomorrow, can make better world. Why I want to share my comments, we follow this program for 4 years already, my son still in program this year, I know the program made my son different with other students, I hope other kids can get same benift from this program. read more

I am a student at the Olive Children Foundation, starting from September 2011. Before I started debate then, I was skeptical about the whole idea, not thinking that I could come to like debate. Well, since then, I've attended 8 different tournaments. Because of the Olive program, both speech and debate, I've improved my speaking, organization, and research skills. The coach, Mr. Stephan Brooks, is an extremely qualified coach, not only being skilled in debate but also being willing to interact with the students, a skill which is often underestimated. I am sure that students will continue to do well because of the Olive Children Foundation. read more

Our kid went here for summer camp. They have dedicated teachers and staff. From a reluctant writer my kid fell in love with writing. Thanks Sarah! Each morning, she is enthusiastic about going there and learning something new. She is already looking forward to next summers when she could be back at the camp. Also, Joni is the most wonderful person. She listens and understand your and your kids needs very well. read more

Stephan Brooks/Leal were awesome. I spent a year with them in debate, and a bit in speech, and they were great. I can't believe Joni would just fire them like that. I am not going to rejoin Olive ever again. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY HERE. I think Joni has gone crazy to fire such great coaches. read more

Wow. Am i disappointed. I was a student here for almost one year. I was about to join the summer camp, when the owner, Joni Jen, fired its entire staff. You read correctly folks. The staff that led Olive to many titles and had made it the largest middle school forensics program in the nation was just cut. With just a few days before the start of the camp, Joni hired some what qualified instructors including some college students. She named acclaimed former Logan High coach Mr. Tommie Lindsey as the "adviser" but he is away and will not even make an appearance until two weeks into the camp. I pondered whether to cancel the camp completely or to try it out. While I wanted to try just one class and make a decision to quit or not, Joni made me take at least two days of the camp before making a decision and said that I should try out different instructors. When I registered, I was promised to be with the returning students class. However, after hearing the news that the legendary coaches Stephan Brooks and Steven Leal had been fired, many former students had quit. As a result, I had to be paired with beginner speech and debate students with no previous experience, and had to learn the basics again from square one. My specialty between speech and debate was Public Forum debate, and I thought perhaps the Public Forum instructor listed on the instructor sheet could be decent. However, she did not even show up, and the speech instructors who had no previous debate experience had to teach the debate class. They even had to ask me about debate procedures. Speech was not much better and I had to work with overly energetic elementary students, even though I am an incoming freshman. The speech class's level was set extremely low because of the younger students and I had to participate in activities such as Tongue Twisters, that supposedly help with speech development. After a horrible experience with the first day, I decided to ask Joni for a refund, which she had promised. However, at that point, she said that a $150 cancellation fee applied since I had signed up for two sessions and had taken one class. I was so shocked but the $150 was better than a waste of more time so I agreed. The former instructors will be setting up a new place in Fremont in the fall. DO NOT JOIN THIS PROGRAM. IT WILL BE MONEY WASTED. YOU WILL REGRET IT. read more

i was not very pleased with tutoring services. it looks like they are missing the passion for students growth and academics , looks like more focused on opening more places. my advice to them is to prepare tutoring curriculum for students and plan daily activities on that basis. read more