Journey to the West
Fund Raising Dinner
From Chairperson's Desk
SOAR Committees
FUND RAISING DINNER: A Look at the Big and the Small
The Annual Fund-raising Dinner, organized as always by the dedicated couple, Leong and Margaret Tan, now occupies a regular place in the SOAR fund raising efforts. As usual, it was another great success. This year the dinner was held at Empress of China restaurant in San Francisco on May 16. About four hundred guests attended the dinner. Each guest paid $60. This goes a long way in funding the growth in the number of SOAR scholars, from 266 in 1996, 629 in 1997, 846 in 1998, to a targeted 1200 this year. It should be added that this growth has been accompanied by a corresponding increase of volunteer efforts, so that SOAR still does not have to divert member donations for administrative or clerical work.
At the dinner, Larry Lee — the president of SOAR — spoke to the guests. He singled out the need to strengthen the mentor program, an area where more volunteers are badly needed. By corresponding with the SOAR scholars at least twice a year, a mentor offers both encouragement and guidance to the scholar in her/his charge. Aside from gaining a young friend, he/she also plays a critical role in steering the SOAR program through the feedback he/she supplies to scholarship renewal assessment.
The keynote speech at the dinner was given by Professor Tu Weiming, Director of Harvard Yanching Institute. He chose the subject, "Chinese Civilization, History and Education." In the last hundred and fifty years, he noted, Chinese history was a tale of humiliation. With the economic development accomplished in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and now Mainland China itself, Chinese were no longer "pieces of fish flesh for the carving knives" wielded by foreign powers. As a stronger China reemerges, it is also the time to move beyond chauvinism and to reconnect China with her deep historical roots. We need to remember how Chinese civilization was founded on the respect for wisdom, approached through learning, and on the centrality of interpersonal relationships.
Professor Tu turned to the recent deterioration of Sino-American relationship as an example. In the short run, the alleged spying of Chinese scientists, illegal political contributions, and the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Serbia, all had a negative impact on the relationship. Under such circumstances, SOAR is a shining example of good will. >From Professor Tu's remarks, it is easy to put what SOAR is doing in a historical perspective. SOAR gives the rural youth an opportunity for learning, and SOAR is built on person to person relationships. Education promotes self confidence. Learning widens horizons. In this way SOAR is well rooted in ancient wisdom and in turn it contributes to the grass root revival of Chinese civilization. A stronger, richer China should also be a wiser China.
On the lighter side. the diners were entertained by the singing of Wong qi-yun and Wong Ying. Larry Lee led the Karaoke singing, raising $12,000. Doris Chiu pledged $15,000 to inaugurate the program for teacher improvement. The assembled guests left the dinner in high spirits with renewed dedication.
The Journey to the West undertaken by the six of us (Shirley and Jerry Chen, Faith Chao, Siu Fong Huang, Banky Mo and Christina Pai) was motivated by our desire to answer the following questions:
• Have we awarded scholarships to deserving students?
• Did the scholarship winners receive the money we sent them?
• Should we improve or expand our program, in order to increase its effectiveness? If so, what do we have to do?
We believe we have reached reassuring answers to these questions. The journey was a success!
(Editor's Note: Following are edited excerpts from a diary kept by Siu during the journey. Due to space limitations, only her report of the first few days are given here. More excerpts will appear in the next issue of the Newsletter.)
June 11. We arrived in Beijing and went to the SOAR Field Office. This new office was set up in a room offered by Hou bang-wei, an engineer/consultant from Taiwan. He also assigned two of his young assistants, both versatile in computer operations, to input the files of the 1,200 SOAR Scholars on a computer in the field office. As a result, now it will be possible to update and coordinate the student files in Beijing with the student files kept by our Bay Area volunteer, Mr. Mo, by e-mail. This simplifies the tedious process of coordinating candidate applications and award notifications. Mr. Hou, like all of us in the SOAR family, expressed his pleasure of having the opportunity to join the crusade to help disadvantaged youth in rural China.
June 12. We began our field visits with another long flight, from Beijing to Urumchi. We had planned to visit 64 students in 24 schools. On the plane Faith gave each of us a set of student files along with the responsibility to make background preparation for our interviews. We discovered immediately that a number of the students in Xinjiang were "minorities" and their names were strings of characters whose connotations were total mysteries. (This led to some embarrassing missteps. Only later did we learn that they had no surnames and their "given names" were taken from the names of both of their parents.)
At our arrival in Urumchi we were met by our local agent, Donchi Liu, who had spent several days on trains from Hunan to Xinjiang. His knowledge of the inner subtleties in the operation of Chinese rural schools was invaluable to us. In the evening we went to a dinner arranged by the local Educational Commission and had an opportunity to talk to administrators and teachers. They were eager to learn more about education in the U.S. They gave us their e-mail addresses in the hope that some of the SOAR members with expertise in education would engage in exchanges with them. (If you are interested, please call Siu for further information.)
June 13. A Sunday. We did fourteen hours of sightseeing in rural areas.
June 14. We got up early and drove for three and half hours to a school for minorities. Liu, the academic dean, had included the administration of SOAR scholarship awards in his busy schedule. He told us that the SOAR program was widely known to the people on the street. As an example, stimulated by the story, the town policemen had spontaneously voted to deduct 10 Yuan a month from their own paychecks each month to build up a fund towards poverty relief.
The interview with SOAR scholars began on a painful note. One of the students, Li-er-ni-sa, cried incessantly when we began talking. I could only hold her hands and try vainly to calm her down. Soon we found out the probable reason. We went to her home. She lived with her hunchbacked and heavily wrinkled grandmother and two other sisters. The youngest sister attended the same school. The middle sister, disheveled and apparently retarded, stayed at home to do house work. There was no wage-earner in the family; all of them relied on welfare payments. The harsh life had clearly overwhelmed her.
We asked the principal of the school to assess the SOAR program. He began with an account of the exemption granted by the government to villagers and to minorities from the general one-child-per-family policy. The large number of children strained official resources and led to a deficit in the education budget in the area. He believed that SOAR could help to alleviate the situation if it selectively filled the gap by targeting poor but gifted youths from single-child families.
June 15. We visited the Fifth Middle School. The principal was proud of the 50 computers in the school and the computer-literacy of the young students. These computers were purchased with the money (280,000 Yuan) raised from a work study program, supplemented by loans. This type of program was common in the middle schools that we visited. In this school the students were sent out on schedule to harvest crops for a beer plant, and turned their earnings to the school. The school also ran a profit-making printing plant to increase its incomes.
In contrast to its modern computers, the latrines at the schools were remnants of an ancient age. Not only was the interior of the latrines unsightly, but the foul smell permeated the air of all the school buildings and playgrounds. This was undoubtedly a constant distraction, and a potential health hazard. Perhaps the school administrators were rated only on the academic performance of the students, so that they had little incentive to improve their living conditions. If only on humanitarian grounds, this is an obvious area where the "outsiders" may step in to fill another gap.
In the afternoon we moved on and visited two village middle schools. These schools were crudely put together. Even their principals and teachers had simple demeanors. The SOAR scholars in these schools stood out. We were particularly impressed by a cheerful girl who spoke good English. Her teachers praised her highly and we could feel their pride of having her as a student. We visited her home. The economic condition of her family had improved considerably in recent years, and they now owned seven cows. This was an example of how youngsters might flourish as China became richer. The higher income freed her from persistent demands and threats; at the same time it also filled her with greater hope for a brighter future.
June 16. We visited another minority school in the morning. Here we felt that we were almost in a foreign country, like Turkey. The vice principal did not comprehend any Chinese. We were received by the academic dean, whose speech we were only able to catch in bits. There were 1600 students in this school, including several SOAR scholars. The scholarship money (680 Yuan) for each SOAR scholar was held by the class teacher, who showed us the careful accounts she kept. There were itemized entries for tuition, supplies, uniforms, living expenses, and current balances. We could not have asked for more.
We talked to one of the SOAR scholars. Her father worked as a laborer in Urumuchi. She was able to go home to visit her sick Mother — a bus ride of two days — only during the Summer and the Winter vacations. She said that she wanted to become a doctor, so that some day she could cure her mother. We were interested to hear that her mother was living with her brother, who was not as good a student as she and was therefore left at home with the mother. Was this reversal of the customary sexual role attributable to her minority origin, or to the modernization tide now lapping even the far hinterland of China?
Our next visit was to the Twenty-first Middle School. Here we — as unannounced visitors — unexpectedly ran into a stone wall. After much persuasion by Liu, the school authority finally produced the SOAR scholar we looked for. Surprise! the scholar announced that he wanted to give up the SOAR Scholarship! He said that he had been depressed, his grades had been falling, and he did not feel that he deserved to be a SOAR Scholar. Besides, he had a brother who was now able to support him in school. Behind all this, I perceived that the designation of SOAR scholar brought with it huge pressure from envious peers. I therefore agreed with him on his resignation, while assuring him that happiness and health were matters of first priority. He must not be obsessed with grades.
At four o'clock I began an unforgettable afternoon. The principal of the village school we visited was a local person, who grew up in the village, acquired higher education away from home, and then returned to the village to teach. He knew the family backgrounds of his students like the back of his palm. After some chatting we visited the yellow mud home of a SOAR scholar, Ma Li. The house is set against a background of several white birches. Above was a blue sky crisscrossed by puffy white clouds, an idyllic scene. Ma Li lost her father, but obviously she was getting doting love from her grandparents. Standing next to the snow white prayer cloth on the ground, she shyly recited some poems for us. Her red cheek matched the red scarf worn by the "Three Goodness" students. Shangri-la?
To promote rural education in China, SOAR Foundation should offer scholarships to needy students, subsidies for teacher training, and grants to improve hygiene in schools.
The mission of the SOAR Foundation is to promote education in areas of China where students and would-be students face insurmountable odds. In the past four years, SOAR has helped more than twelve hundred rural children, enabling them to enroll in middle schools. The extraordinary growth of the SOAR program is a testimony to the generous donations by members, hard work of volunteers, and conscientious cooperation by the agents and the teachers in China. As we approach the new millennium, all of us who have a hand in the enterprise are justifiably gratified. At the same time, our experience has unearthed new challenges.
This past June, seven SOAR volunteers — including several chairs of SOAR operation committees and myself — went to Xinjiang and Yunnan, where SOAR has been active. We planned to evaluate the program by direct site visits. In all we went to 24 middle schools and primary schools and interviewed 64 SOAR scholarship recipients and candidates. It was apparent to us that, aside from the direct help from the money the SOAR scholars received, the awards raised the aspirations of the other students in their schools. The designation of SOAR Scholar was a badge of honor, an aura reminding the whole student body that one of them had been chosen by an overseas group, an ocean away, as one of the best!
We also saw another side of the coin. During the visit, we came to appreciate ever more deeply that the promotion of education had additional facets beyond the mere enrollment of promising students. In addition to getting the money to pay for their expenses, the SOAR scholars needed sound academic foundation from prior schooling. The rural primary school graduates selected to receive SOAR scholarships were usually the best students in their classes. When they moved on to the middle schools in towns and cities, some of them were able to compete successfully with the students from non-rural background. Others — perhaps as many as half of the SOAR scholars — fell to the lower ranks in their classes. They were taught by rural school teachers who had not been properly trained, and the handicap was difficult to overcome. The pressure on them was especially heavy because they were the center of attention. Unless they did well, their envious classmates would begin to question the legitimacy of their scholarships. To avoid such pressure, the SOAR scholars needed more than money; they also had to have better preparation before they delved into a more demanding curriculum.n
This column will be continued in the next issue.
Siu Fong Huang
Jonathan: the following was text left out of Siu's article that could appear on website.
Some of the students sponsored by SOAR Foundation had indicated to us their desire to receive teacher's training in the future and then return to their villages to teach. In time this will raise the standard of rural schools. The continued support of SOAR scholars if they wish to attend the teachers' colleges is therefore worth consideration.
A complementary and more immediate remedy is to sponsor current rural school teachers to participate in the summer remedial training sessions in teachers colleges. At present neither the rural schools nor their teachers have the resources to avail themselves of such opportunities. A program to subsidize the rural teachers so that they can attend a Summer school — costing around $250 for each sponsored teacher — will be invaluable.
Another pressing issue is student hygiene. It is widely acknowledged in China that education should follow the cardinal principles of nurturing Virtue, Knowledge and Health. All three, complementary and interdependent, are indispensable for personal fulfillment. During our visit, we were particularly struck by the absence of water in the schools. As a result, both teachers and students were unable to clean themselves. Moreover, without water, school latrines could not be properly washed. Classrooms were therefore perpetually shrouded in foul smell, not to mention the potential for looming epidemics. At a cost of around $1200, water supply using wells and a serviceable septic system can be installed. There is no doubt, for the health of the students and their teachers, such installations should receive a high priority.
We discussed these issues with the Chinese educators, and found them in full agreement with us. Despite their meager income, some of them immediately volunteered to raise funds among themselves for such pursuits. Knowing that our members and volunteers have always been keen to further the SOAR mission, I submit that we heighten our aspiration in the new millennium, expanding our program to encompass the support of teacher training and hygiene improvement. Members, if they wish, may earmark their donations for one or the other of the programs. I know there is a limit to what we can do and we cannot lose ourselves in the vast sea of human suffering and human needs. But every candle we light brightens a new corner, and bestows joy to another person.
Purpose: The mentors' work is mainly writing letters to the sponsored students on behalf of SOAR foundation as a follow-up to the scholarship program. In doing so, more importantly, mentors are providing personal care and inspiration to the students. In Chinese we describe this kind of work as a small narrow stream running quietly.
How We Work: Every years in March the mentors will get together to discuss and share their work experience. The Committee consists of six volunteers in charge of planning and outreach. There are several core groups located at South Bay/San Jose, Contra Costa/Rosmoor, North Bay/Berkeley, San Francisco, East Bay/Fremont, Peninsula/Palo Alto and far away in New Hampshire, Dallas, Texas, and Los Angeles. In each group there are coordinators who work as peers to the local mentors. So far, we have three hundred mentors writing letters to seven hundred students. We will need more mentors this summer after the new students receive awards.Final Note: In June, 1999 we visited more than forty students in Xingjiang and Yunnan. We witnessed the fact that the honor of being a SOAR scholarship recipients has made significant impact on the students. SOAR is more than just financial support to them. Our trip is described elsewhere in this newsletter as "A Journey to the West."
The SOAR Foundation currently has 283 members whose dues pay for administrative expenses. (The "800 members" mentioned in the February, 1999 SOAR Newsletter was an invadvertent misquote; that number includes other supporters, such as sponsors, mentors, and volunteers, who may or may not choose to be members.) While the great majority of our membes are from California, we also have members from different states as well as overseas.
In order to bring our mission to the attention of potential new members, we feel it is important to have media exposure of our foundation at intervals. Channel 66 granted our foundation a month of free public announcements on its programs. And press releases by the Soar Foundation of its activities, such as the annual exhibition of students' biographies at the Cupertino Library Community Room, have been published in various Chinese language newspapers over the years. Staff membes are always on hand at the exhibition to answer questions and to register new members.
Since the last issue of the SOAR Newsletter in February 1999, the only major fund-raising event that has taken place is SOAR's Annual Fund-Raising Dinner on May 16, 1999. The dinner yielded a net profit of $36,112.16, approximately equal to the amount raised from last year's function, which was considered highly successful.
Recruitment of sponsors who pledge to support their students for at least six years (the time span required of our students to complete a high school education) is a continuous project. We are pleased to report that the response to our drive, which began in September 1997, has been most gratifying. To date, we have raised enough pledged funds to guarantee financial support for all our scholarship recipients of the last three years (846 students) to complete their education! Closely related to this, we are also happy to report that 90% of our sponsors have honored their pledges made a year ago — a most encouraging figure! The amount of each scholarship award remains at $85.00.
The Committee, at this time, wishes to acknowledge Mr. Zhongshi Du of Sacramento, CA; Mr. and Mrs. Ching Ho and Meng Chao Yao of Seattle, WA; and Ms. Ellie Li of Moraga, CA for their sponsorship of 100, 50 and 20 students respectively. With such generous support, SOAR can now feel more confident than ever, in meeting its financial challenges. n
No. of Awards
Province Applications Granted
Hunan 50 7
Hubei 58 19
Yunnan 44 7
Gansu 58 23
Sichuan 53 20
Shanxi 49 16
Jiangsu 49 17
Xinjiang 48 17
Jiangxi 50 24
Neimenggu 46 20
Liaoning 31 5
Henan 39 14
Shaanxi 32 10
Hebei 43 23
Heilongjiang 34 15
Guangxi 28 20
Jilin 28 11
Anhui 29 13
Ningxia 35 21
Qinghai 20 6
Shandong 27 13
Hainan 17 8
Zhejiang 10 1
Fujian 10 3
Tienjin 10 5
Chongqing 10 6
Guizhou 9 6
Beijing 1 0
Totals: 918 340
SOAR Evaluators
Special thanks to the following evaluators:
C. Y. Wang UC Berkeley
Cecile Sun U of Pittsburg
Chuang-Yin Stanford University
Hugo Sun Cal State Fresno
Michelle Yeh UC Davis
Stella Kwoh Contra Costa College
T. T. Moh Purdue University
Tim Xie UC Davis
Xiaojia Ge UC Davis
Young-Mong Wu UC Davis
Yu-Charn Chen San Francisco State U
Yuch-Ning Shieh Purdue University
Left: Student's home in Yunnan
To promote rural education in China, SOAR Foundation should offer scholarships to needy students, subsidies for teacher training, and grants to improve hygiene in schools. The mission of the SOAR Foundation is to promote education in areas of China where students and would-be students face insurmountable odds. In the past four years, SOAR has helped more than twelve hundred rural children, enabling them to enroll in middle schools. The extraordinary growth of the SOAR program is a testimony to the generous donations by members, hard work of volunteers, and conscientious cooperation by the agents and the teachers in China. As we approach the new millennium, all of us who have a hand in the enterprise are justifiably gratified. At the same time, our experience has unearthed new challenges.
This past June, seven SOAR volunteers — including several chairs of SOAR operation committees and myself — went to Xinjiang and Yunnan, where SOAR has been active. We planned to evaluate the program by direct site visits. In all we went to 24 middle schools and primary schools and interviewed 64 SOAR scholarship recipients and candidates. It was apparent to us that, aside from the direct help from the money the SOAR scholars received, the awards raised the aspirations of the other students in their schools. The designation of SOAR Scholar was a badge of honor, an aura reminding the whole student body that one of them had been chosen by an overseas group, an ocean away, as one of the best!
We also saw another side of the coin. During the visit, we came to appreciate ever more deeply that the promotion of education had additional facets beyond the mere enrollment of promising students. In addition to getting the money to pay for their expenses, the SOAR scholars needed sound academic foundation from prior schooling. The rural primary school graduates selected to receive SOAR scholarships were usually the best students in their classes. When they moved on to the middle schools in towns and cities, some of them were able to compete successfully with the students from non-rural background. Others — perhaps as many as half of the SOAR scholars — fell to the lower ranks in their classes. They were taught by rural school teachers who had not been properly trained, and the handicap was difficult to overcome. The pressure on them was especially heavy because they were the center of attention. Unless they did well, their envious classmates would begin to question the legitimacy of their scholarships. To avoid such pressure, the SOAR scholars needed more than money; they also had to have better preparation before they delved into a more demanding curriculum. n This column will be continued in the next issue.
Siu Fong Huang
SOAR is an organization of volunteers and members. Siu Fong Huang, our Chair and CEO, has pointed out that, for our program to be more effective, there are new challenges to meet. We wish to hear from all of you for new ideas and for different views. Realizing how difficult it is for our members to attend our meetings, I propose to add a "letters" section — an open forum — in future issues of SOAR Newsletter. All the readers are welcome to contribute to this section, and where appropriate, I will ask Siu and other committee chairs to respond. Please send your correspondence to me: T. Y. Shen, 107 Estates Drive, Orinda, CA 94563. My fax number is 925-254-1027.
August 28th Recruitment Gathering We need 100 new sponsors and 500 new mentors for the coming year. Come to our recruitment party,10 AM to 5 PM, at the Cupertino Library! There will be 500 student files exhibited at this party.
The 846 applications for renewal of SOAR Scholarships were processed on July 17 and 18. The money for the successful candidates will be mailed out on August 15.