Journey to the West
A Mentor's Memoirs
Events: Past and Future
From Chairperson's Desk
SOAR Committees
Importance of Scholarships
SOAR and I
PART TWO
(Editor's Note: The August 1999 issue of this Newsletter carried the first part of a story reporting the visit by six SOAR members to meet the SOAR scholars in China. The following narrative from Siu Fong Huang's diary continues the story. A final installment will appear in the next issue of the Newsletter.
June 17. Today our host took us to the Heavenly Lake, a lake reminding me of Lake Tahoe. On the way back we stopped to visit a small school, where sixty students learn from two teachers. The SOAR scholar, Men-er, is a member of Wei-wu-er Tribe. She is the top student in the school. Her teacher took us to visit her home. Her father has some mental problem and is disabled. The farming chores are carried out by her mother and her second sister. The teacher treats the family like er own relatives. She had persuaded Men-er's oldest sister to attend a normal school with the expectation of returning to the village and becoming another teacher.
June 18. In the morning we left by plane from Urumchi. For five days we had been guided from morning to night by our host, who marched up and down the alleys everywhere with us in search of the schools and the homes of the SOAR scholars. He has in truth joined the SOAR family, and readily agreed to guide us again when we return for a future visit to South Xinjiang.
The plane took us to Kunming, Yunnan. At the airport we were met by our local coordinator, Professor Yang, a teacher at the Ethnic College. It turns out that his former students are now holding key positions in many places that we expect to visit, so that we get a gratifying feeling that in his hands we will be treated as a part of the family!
June 19. We flew from Kunming to Dali. Professor Yang's uncle met us and suggested an elaborate sight seeing itinerary that would show off the many sights that Dali has to offer. We politely told him that we would rather visit the SOAR scholars. We were then taken to meet Chang. He received one of our first scholarships in 1996, when he just began to attend a junior middle school in a town 150 kilometers away. Now he is a student at the Dali Engineering School, enrolled in classes such as Word 97, AutoCad, and Mechanical Drafting! Shirley is the mentor of Chang — along with 24 other youngsters that she somehow finds time to mentor. It was a delightful meeting, especially when Chang turned out to be quite animated and outgoing.
We then went to Dali Normal School to meet another SOAR scholar, Ma-Ai-jung. He appeared to be uncomfortable talking to us. In all likelihood he probably had not done well academically. It is not easy for a village graduate to enter Dali Normal School, and, once he or she gets in, the competitive pressure is fierce. Ma said that he enjoys writing and is fond of children, but has trouble in his science subjects. He wished to teach in primary school. I think he will turn out to be a good teacher; perhaps he can just leave the science instruction to other teachers?
June 20. We drove from Dali towards Li-jiang. The scenery along the way was outstanding. We stopped to visit Dung-ling First Middle School. It is a large school with more than 1,000 students coming from 16 surrounding towns and villages. Unfortunately the school does not appear to be well run and we got nowhere talking to the principal. We decided to visit a trouble SOAR scholar, Chiao, at his home in the countryside. The home is very primitive, without even a table. The mosquito net was sewn together from old plastic bags, and the family only have yams for food. His mother was out working in the field. His stepfather sat around, his empty eyes gazing at us. We felt awful. Of course we cannot meddle with his family problems, but we fear that the man would be a big hurdle in Chiao's future. All we can do — and Faith did it — was to encourage Chiao to persevere. We were left to mull over his parting words, that "roads are paved by people."
Many volunteers work for the Finance Committee. Margaret Tan, Leong Tan and David Wu enter the donation checks in the foundation data base. Siu Fong Huang deposits the money in the bank and transmits it to China for scholarship dispersion. Albert Tso keeps track of the local operational expenses. The account information is compiled by Angela Cheng. (We still need a volunteer auditor to double check the accounts.)
Based on preliminary figures, in 1999 the total receipt from donations and fund raising events is expected to be in the neighborhood of $240,000, compared to $184,923 in 1998. $144,000 was awarded as scholarships. Administrative expense totaled $25,783. Program expenses (payments to Chinese agents, coordinators, teachers, and costs of student newsletters) was $13,000. The remainder ($57,217), mostly representing money prepaid by sponsors for continuing scholarships in future years, has been added to the reserve.
The major source of support for SOAR comes from individual sponsors. Most of them have committed themselves to continue their contribution for at least six years, the time span required for a SOAR scholar to complete middle school. At present we have around 350 sponsors; together they support 1200 SOAR scholars. Each year 90% of the sponsors renew their contribution — to them we say, thank you!
We wish to acknowledge the exceptional and continuous generosity of several major donors. Winston H. Chen, President of the Paramatis Foundation (San Jose), donated $20,000. Pao Hua Buddhist Foundation (San Jose) contributed $8,500. Jonathan Zhongshi Du of Sacramento pledged $51,000 over the next three years for 100 scholarships to senior middle school students. Grace Woo of Edison, New Jersey offers to co-sponsor 70 senior middle school students, adding to the 40 junior middle school students whom she is already sponsoring. Ching Ho Yao of Seattle is co-sponsoring 50 and Ellen Li of Moraga is co-sponsoring 30 senior middle students. These are timely contributions since the senior middle school students need a larger sum of money.
The past year has been a good year for the mentor program. We have exceeded 90% coverage: only 70 of the 1200 SOAR scholars are now without mentors. Three cheers to the excellent Outreach initiative to recruit the volunteers!!! Now we have core groups of mentors in New Hampshire, Texas, south Bay, Fremont, Rossmoor and Berkeley. Mimicking SHU-HWA (the Chinese name of our foundation), the mentor tree is becoming full; now the tree just has to grow further to envelop the four hundred more SOAR scholars we are expecting this Fall.
Our mentors hail from different backgrounds and bring with them different experiences. We have homemakers, doctors, engineers, teachers, scientists, artists, writers, nurses, managers, CEOs, clerks, cooks, retirees and young students. They put their time and their heart into this rewarding task.
On March 5th the annual mentor workshop will be held at Fremont Public Library. We shall share all the joys and, yes, all the tears from our exchanges with the SOAR scholars. There will be a preparatory meeting for the Mentor Committee members and area coordinators on February 12. Any ideas to enrich our agenda?n
The first SOAR scholarships were awarded in 1996 to 266 youngsters. In China the six years of middle school education are divided equally into three years of junior middle school and three years of senior middle school. !999 is the year that our first scholarship recipients are completing the junior middle schools. From the statements in their applications, many of them are forced by family economic considerations to enter vocational schools. Even this is difficult for them, because the vocational schools are located in larger cities. Using the information provided by the applicants, Faith Chao of the SOAR program committee had calculated that, adding room and board to tuition, the cost burden to the student generally will exceed 1000 RMB an year. To meet these costs the SOAR scholarships for senior middle school students and for vocational school students have to be raised to US $170 an year, while the scholarship for junior middle school students will remain at US $85. In addition, SOAR is adding 50 new scholarships earmarked for vocational school students in one of the poorest regions in Gui Zhou, in the hope that the skills they acquire will help local development.
The continuing students are the fortunate ones. To quote a letter from a former SOAR scholar: "I thank the uncles and aunts of SOAR for the renewal of my SOAR scholarship. Unfortunately my family is very poor. Three years ago my father already wanted me to stay home to help him with the farm chores; it is only the SOAR Scholarship that swayed him, letting me attend the junior middle school. Now I am afraid that I am not destined to continue my education. But I will never forget your help and I will strive to be a good person and serve the society." I only regret that we are unable to help his whole family and can merely stand on the sideline and grieve over the termination of his education. I trust, however, that these school leavers have acquired more self respect and more confidence in themselves from their schooling. The SOAR mentors will not stop their correspondence with them and encourage them to continue with their learning.
Some children are even less fortunate. When I visited Gui Zhou in September, I found many girls never went beyond the fourth grade in the primary schools. Their parents want them to stay home to do household chores, and in most cases they are also unable to pay the RMB100 "miscellaneous fees" charged by the schools. Six years ago a foundation in New York sent a donation of US $3000, which had helped 50 young girls to complete the primary schools in that area. If there is another US $1000, another 50 girls could have a chance to finish the fifth and the sixth grades. They would then be able to join the other girls, who read books, recite poems and write letters for their parents. How a little wind may stir up the whole landscape!
— Siu Fong Huang
Address Need or Reward Merit?
Travelers to rural China are always overwhelmed by the misery they see. What can SOAR do, with its limited resources, that will make the greatest contribution? At the Board meeting on December 17, 1999, a task force was nominated to examine new program options and to analyze their organizational requisites. This is fertile ground for debate. Among the issues that need consideration is the establishment of a consistent set of criteria for the selection and implementation of programs.
There is a long-standing concern with the apparent conflict between need and merit. When scholarship applications are being considered, should the awards go to students who are hungry and spend long hours waiting on disabled parents, or to students marked by exemplary conduct, diligence and earning good grades? Or, in a different setting, should financial assistance go to a school because it is a model school or because it is dilapidated?
Sometimes the conflict is finessed when a student or a school happens to earn high marks on all accounts. Other times there are alternative sources of support, such as state scholarships for meritorious students, that leave only need as a residual to be addressed. If these fail, some arbitrary construct of trade off or balance is often relied on. Points are allotted for each of the criteria and a sum may be calculated for the final selection.
If we take a broader and a long run perspective, as is appropriate in program design, the apparent conflict between need and merit largely dissolves. My basic idea is that merit should really be measured in its promise to address societal needs in the long run. This is precisely what SOAR is doing. SOAR targets the most promising rural children in China in its award of scholarships. These children may not stand up well academically against their counterparts grown up in the cities. But they are among the most promising students in their rural villages, and without the help from SOAR they will not be able to go to middle schools in towns. There is a good chance that they will return to their villages after their schooling, and once they return they fill a void in bridging the village to the outside world. In time, by serving the village they complete the path from the reward for individual merit to the relief of societal need.
Four major points are illustrated by this idealized scenario. First, selection of scholarship recipients based on merit makes sense because many studies have shown that in the rural villages of China a principal bottleneck is educated manpower. The bottleneck is removed by educating the most capable and most public-minded youngsters in the village rather than youngsters with the poorest background. They are more likely to perform the tasks necessary for community development in the future. Second, the scholarships are necessary because no alternative resources are available at present. Third, in the long run the satisfaction of societal needs — the needs of a large number of families in a village — are more momentous than the satisfaction of needs of a single individual or a single family. Finally, the rural villages in the border regions of China are pockets of extreme poverty. Economists rank human needs from those that are necessities for survival to luxuries. Highest priority is assigned to the satisfaction of the most urgent needs . Dollars are better spent on the vital needs than on luxuries. A focus on the villages of deepest poverty is therefore appropriate.
In this light, Siu Fong Huang and the other founders of SOAR should be congratulated for their insightful targeting. At the same time, as time goes on, the award of scholarships to middle school children needs to be supplemented by some new programs to complete the path from merit to need. The graduated SOAR scholars should be given incentives to return to their villages and engage in productive or educational work that benefits their fellow villagers. They should be given the opportunities to attend vocational schools and teacher training schools, and when they complete all schooling, they—as well as other graduates — should be given grants to go and serve in the villages. This path from merit to need, with the appropriate provisos, represents a standard against which new programs may be weighed.
— T. Y. Shen
A little more than two years ago, while looking at the photographs of rural Chinese children mounted neatly in shiny frames and symmetrically arranged across the whitewashed walls of a second story room, I decided to become a mentor for the Soar Foundation. The room was in the Soar Foundation office in San Francisco. The Chinese children smiling out from behind the mounted glass were future Soar Scholarship recipients. That day I chose the age and gender of my mentee — a twelve year old boy, Liu Bao-tsang, from the Hobei Province in Chai's Village.
I had decided to become a mentor because I supported what the Soar Foundation does. I was also intrigued by the idea of communicating with a twelve-year old Chinese boy; a far cry from any of my own established social contacts. I have never regretted my decision. Since then I have learned many things from Bao-tsang's letters to me, not the least among them that I am lucky to be where I am.
Bao-tsang was born on March 29, 1984 in Chai's village . He lives on a farm with his mother, sister, and father. His father is physically disabled — back injury due to many years of repetitive strain from laboring on the farm — and is unable to do any manual labor. The farm work is left to Bao-tsang, his sister, and his mother. The family's livelihood is solely dependent on the success of the farm. I remember one letter I received from Bao-tsang last year. He wrote of hard times on the farm; the weather was bad, so the crops were doing poorly, and frost-bite had affected many of the fellow students he shared his dormitory room with. Yet at the same time he added that "the food in the school is getting better."
The unfailing optimism in the face of major adversity is one of Bao-tsang's most endearing qualities. Even in those letters that were filled with descriptions of hard times, sickness in the family and foul weather, he had always included some positive comments. As I sit here at my nice computer, in my heated house, looking out the window at the rainy, cloudy sky, from which I am insulated and protected, I can not help but marvel at his ability to remain so remarkably hopeful and happy. From such thoughts I am led to appreciate how the Soar Foundation is bringing some cause for happiness to those who are so much less fortunate than I am.
Over the past two years I have received seven letters from Bao-tsang. I feel I have come to know him well even though he is so far away and so removed from my own existence. Through these letters I have been able to see his continuous progress in learning and in achieving the goals he has set for himself. In his initial biography that he provided to the Soar Foundation, Bao-tsang stated that he "has always followed the directions of his parents and teachers," and that he worked hard not only for himself but also to help his schoolmates. He "would like for all of us to do our best." I can see from his letters that he is keeping to his words. He well deserves the support by SOAR.
Like Bao-tsang, I too am a student — at a different level, in a different country, and in an altogether different position. Yet despite the contrast I have come to appreciate that education and knowledge are universally precious commodities that should be nurtured, cherished and preserved whenever possible. But perhaps most importantly of all, I have also learned from him that almost anything is possible where there is a will and a way.
— Pamela Shen
I am delighted that, in this issue of SOAR Newsletter, we are carrying messages from a SOAR member (Chang Yen-sheng) and a SOAR mentor (Pamela Shen). Please do not hesitate to join them and send me pieces on your ideas and reflections. They will be included in future issues of the newsletter. My address is: T. Y. Shen, 107 Estates Drive, Orinda, Ca. 94563. My fax number is (925) 254-1027. Do it now!
June: SOAR volunteers visited scholarship recipients in China
July: Program Committee finalized the list of new and continuing scholarship recipients for the coming year
August: South Bay Chapter held a Student Essay Exhibition in Cupertino.
September: SOAR Board Chairperson, Siu Fong Huang, visited Gui Zhou to review the progress of the SOAR program there
November: (a) Volunteer and Talent recruitment meeting in Pleasant Hill; (b) Volunteer and Talent recruitment meeting in Cupertino
December: Volunteer and Talent recruitment meeting in Fremont
March 5 (2-5 pm): Members' General Meeting, at Fremont Main Library. Election of officers for the coming year
(Note: All members are eligible to vote. If you are not a member yet, join us!)
April 22 (5-9 pm): Annual Fund Raising Dinner, at Empress of China Restaurant in San Francisco
(Note: For dinner tickets please call Patricia Chao at 650-852-9128. For donation of auction items please call Julia Tung at (650) 725-3439)
May 12-June 3: SOAR volunteer visit to China. Itineraries include Gan Shu (Dong-huang), Szechaun (Cheng-du, Da-zhu, Meng-yang) and Hunan.
(Note: For detailed information please contact Yen-sheng Hu at (408) 268-9286.)
The Board has decided to add a new scholarship program for selected vocational school students. The program will start in Fall 2000 in Gui Zhou.
The Board has also voted to amend the by-law of the SOAR Foundation, adding potential programs of teacher training, library enrichment and workshops as a part of its activities.
The Board has set a goal of awarding 1600 scholarships in the year 2000-2001, and 2001 scholarships in 2001.
To meet the needs of these expanded activities, we need MORE VOLUNTEERS. Please sign up by calling the SOAR office, (415) 771-017.
Recent reports on elementary school education in China underscore the importance of the SOAR Foundation's scholarship program. Although nine years of education is theoretically compulsory in China, in many parts of rural China poverty is keeping an increasing number of children out of the classroom. Required fees at state schools have grown dramatically since the central government largely stopped subsidizing primary education a decade ago. Today education is increasingly a luxury item in China's poorest villages, purchased only when resources allow, and far more often available to boys than girls.
In a report on education, a Communist Youth League official in rural Anhui Province noted his county's plight: total revenue of less than $2 million a year to support 408 schools. To pay for the county's 5,000 teachers requires more than $3 million annually, and that does not begin to address costs like classroom supplies and building upkeep. Thus the schools have to assess an ever growing list of "miscellaneous fees," a book fee, an electricity fee, a coal fee, and even a fee to match funds for a World Bank loan. "In the conflict between subsistence and education, subsistence is the priority" — in impoverished villages of Anhui less than 60% of the boys and 50% of the girls attend schools.The dropout rate is also increasing. Farmer's Daily, a nationally circulated newspaper, recently reported that many townships have to pay teachers a sum more than their total revenues. Teachers are thus often being paid late, have to take on second jobs, or leave for other work.For many children the difference between receiving an education and quitting school is the help from the SOAR Foundation. The need is great. The reward in terms of life enrichment is tremendous. Who can possibly doubt the importance of our contributions?n
— John P. Macmeeken
Fallen leaves return to the roots. My parents grew up in Kunming. Unfortunately with political upheavals they were unable to spend their final years there. In 1997, obeying their final instructions and with heavy hearts, my husband and I carried their ashes back to their final resting place at their native home. We then decided to do a little touring; little did we know that a new page in our life would be turned.
In the countryside in Szechuan, we met a little girl, about ten year old, who stood by the road side selling insects woven from straws. They were 50 cents each. I bought several of them, then told her to save the money. She replied, "it's too late!" I am more then 50 years old and still look forwards to the future — how sad that a little child sees only a dead end ahead! Then I remembered something else: it is a week day and the child is not in school!
A cruise boat took us to the Little Three Gorges. The beautiful mountains blended into the mist. Everywhere we stopped we were surrounded by circles of children hawking cheap souvenirs, "hello," "hello"... their clothes soaking wet and their bare feet covered with mud. Wasn't today another weekday, a school day?
I was unable to forget these scenes when I returned to the United States. One day, I opened the World Journal and there was a story about SOAR — how it strove to put the children back to school in Ning-sha and in Gui Zhou. I was excited. I talked to my husband and we decided to be a part of SOAR. Everyone knows that education is the foundation for fulfilled life. What can we do to help the unfortunate? My husband and I decided to contribute some money to build a new primary school in the mountains of Yunnan. We also signed up as SOAR sponsors and mentors.
Now I am more motivated when I go to work, knowing that what I am earning will go in part to the poor children and enable them to get an education. When I return home from work, I sit down and write letters to my new children, telling them how paths in the world are formed by treading feet. My life is now fuller and happier, as I sit back and picture how my new children in the far away land are growing up, happily freed from the shackles of poverty. We all love objects of beauty; what is more beautiful than a child smiling in a new found, sunlit world?
— Chang Yen-sheng
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