President's Message
Progress Report
Events
Abstracts of Student Letters
SOAR's First Year: A Good Beginning
The major accomplishment of SOAR during its first year of operation is to provide the opportunity and resources for 262 rural youngsters in China to continue their education. In their letters to the mentors, all of the scholarship recipients declare their appreciation for the help they have received and emphasize their determination to repay their grants by working hard and by serving their community in the future. We reprint excerpts from some of these letters on page 3 of this letter.
The diligent efforts by the SOAR volunteers to raise additional funds and to expand the scope of SOAR operation have mide it possible to double the number of scholarships that SOAR will award for the next year. Half of these are financed by the initial endowment and membership renewals, and half by the proceeds of a highly successful fund raising dinner and additional gifts from donors. But there are some disappointments. I had hoped to raise some money from charitable foundations in the United States. Most of these foundations do not give grants to finance activities in foreign countries. I submitted applications to a carefully compiled list of nearly 30 foundations that make international awards. Up to now the results have all been negative though we are still waiting to hear from a few of the foundations.
The distressing experience with fund raising from the foundations during this first year has taught us yet again the importance of guanxi or contact in fund raising. Would you please identify any potential donor you know and pass the information to Margret and Leong Tan, the co-chairs of the fundraising committee, so as to build a broader financial base for SOAR? There are many Americans, CHinese Americans, and Chinese companies - large or small, industrial or commercial - that have not yet been approached which might be interested in suporting SOAR's activities. Success, however, depends on appropriate referrals - can you help?
Looking ahead, a number of SOAR volunteers, including Faith Chao and Youzhi Ma, our hardworking co-chairs of the Program Committee, plan to go to China this September. They will visit a number of SOAR scholarship recipients, taking films and pictures. Their observations will strengthen the application solicitation and evaluation processes. The audio-visual records are expected to provide a rich base for a presentation package to reach potential donors in the future.
The progress achieved by SOAR is above all the fruit of the hard work by SOAR volunteers, led by Siu Fong Huang, the chair and the principal benefactor; Faith Chao, Youzhi Ma and the scholarship application evaluators who help them; Irene Sun Fong, the meticulous preparer of balance sheets, income statements and budget projections; and Marget and Leong Tan, the driving force behind fund rasing. Special thanks also go to T.Y.Lin, S.S.Chern, S.C.S.B. (Cultural and Educational Foundation of Taiwan) and Sweetheart Florist for their generous donations. We are also grateful to Jo-Anne Rosen for her contribution of desk top publishing for this newsletter.
In my column in the last newsletter, I portrayed SOAR's activities as lighting a candle in a dark hall. The lights are now flickering. Let us safeguard them so they will brighten the eay to educatin, accomplishment and service for increasing numbers of scholarship recipients.
T.Y.Shen
In the year 1996-1997 SOAR awarded scholarships to 262 students in the People's Republic of China. The checks were made out to both teachers and students, so that the money goes to the student rather than being diverted by the family for general living expenses. All but 4 of the students have acknowledged the receipts of their funds.
All the scholarship recipients have been assigned mentors and in most cases there has been an active correspondence between the students and their mentors. The SOAR Foundation supplies both the students and their mentors with stamped and addressed envelopes. In those cases where mentors do not read or write Chinese, letters are translated into the appropriate language before being sent. Unfortunately there were some instances of letters going astray, and some cases where envelopes arrived empty, with the contents lost in the mail. Despite these glitches, mentoring provides many students with needed guidance. The mentors also report to the SOAR Foundation about the progress of their students, providing important information on the contribution of the scholarship program. With the larger number of scholarships planned for the 1997-1998 school year , more mentors will be needed. The mentors' commitment is to write four letters a year to the scholarship recipient.
This year 1040 application forms were distributed through the network of 100 teachers who had received awards from the Zheng Education Foundation in Hong Kong for their outstanding performance. SOAR has received 719 completed applications to date. The Program Committee under the leadership of Faith Chao and Youzhi Ma has recruited 16 academics from UC Berkeley, Golden State University, UC Davis, Chico State University an Fresno State University, to evaluate these applications. The first round evaluation has already been completed and the second round is now under way. The quality of the applicants appear to be even higher than those of the last year, probably due to the initial screening by the teachers in China.
Based on the available resources, a total of 500 scholarships - about 250 of which are renewals of scholarship to those current reripients who have made normal progess, and about 250 new scholarships - will be awarded. The value of each scholarship has been raised to US$85. At the end of summer the winners will be notified and funds will be disbursed.
The dinner held on Sunday, May 4th, in the banquet hall of the Empress of China - generally acknowledged to be one of the leading Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area - was the most significant SOAR sponsored event in the past six months. Leong Tan, one of the organizers of this event, has contributed the following report of the event:
"A wonderful meal was served at cost. The evening's program began with a lively and informative speech by a member of our distinguished advisory board, Professor T.Y.Lin. His speech, 'Outlook on the Future of China,'stressed education as the key to success for the development of China. This appropriately underscored the role of the SOAR Foundation to increase educational opportunities to rural youths, enabling them to become the leaders in the development of their communities.
"Following the keynote address, Faith Chao and Youzhi Ma offered a detailed description of the SOAR program. Rounding out the evening was a rendition of Chinese folk songs by two well known Bay Area vocalists, Benjamin and Elsie Hsieh. Their songs were stirring, nostalgic, evoking in many a memory of their childhood. Accompanying them at the piano was Ms. Valerie Liu.
"To most of us who were involved in the planning of this fund-raising dinner, this day will be long remembered. Merely three weeks before the event, there were serious doubts in our minds whether the dinner would become a reality, much less a success. Sales of tickets were slow and the image of an empty dinning hall haunted us. But, then, when the evening began, throngs of guests filed in and filled all the tables! There were almost 300 attendees at the dinner. Their contributions were sufficient to underwrite more than 150 scholarships. Furthermore, every one in the dinning hall appeared to have enjoyed all aspects of the evening: the food, the presentation and the entertainment."
Accordingly, accolades to Siu Fong Huang, Margret and Leong Tan, Faith Chao and Youzhi Ma and all the volunteer helpers and attendees for a successful evening!
Siu Fong Huang, the chairperson of SOAR, continues to conduct a number of art events at the Gallery of the Rim, 333 Third Street in San Francisco. aside from their direct contridbution in furthering the appreciation of Chinese culture in the Bay Area, these occasions benefit SOAR directly by providing an opportunity to publicize the SOAR Foundation. In addition, Siu is donating all the proceeds to SOAR. Please come to these events and bring your friends!
The first of these events in 1997 is the "SOAR Foundation First Annual Calligraphy Contest," organized by the SOAR Foundation and sponsored by the Chinese Arts Association and the Asia Society of Arts Association and the Asia Society of Arts of America. The contestants compete in different sections. The winner of the children's section is Huang Na Na from Jiangsu Province in China, a prodigious eight-year old. The winner of the youth section is Zhen Zong Chen. The winner of the adult section is Fu-bo Lee. The winners of the non-Chinese section are Michael Rosenthal, Elizabeth Bronson and Mary Sanders, a graphic designer. All the winning works will be on display from July 10 to July 25 at the Gallery. An award ceremony will be held at 2pm on July 12. Excerpts from the works by Huang Na Na and Mary Sanders are reproduced on this page.
Additional events are also scheduled in the second half of the year. In
August, with the collaboratio
The activities sponsored by SOAR were reported in many newspapers over
the course of the year. Stories on the fund raising dinner appeared in The World Journal
on April 25 and in The Contra Costa Sun on April 16. Professor Lin's speech at the dinner
was reported in The World Journal on May 5th. There was also a half page story on SOAR in
the Sing Tao Daily on June 1st.
In the interviews by reporters, some searching questions were asked.
For example, "China is so large, what is the use of helping just two hundred some children?" Faith Chao
answered, that for each of these two hundred plus kids, the help is one hundred percent. The sixty
dollars awared to each of them changed his or her life. To this answer one might also add that,
when the students grow up the education may enable them to lead the development of their villages,
thus a multiplying factor of one hundred or two hundred should be applied. Besides, SOAR is targeting
the areas which have not been touched by the current economic growth centered near the coast. There
are no alternatives to the SOAR Foundation for funding to enable these rural students to complete
their middle school education.
The SOAR Foundation also received additional public notice through the
World Wide Web. An announcement of the SOAR website was made to thirty-eight Listserv groups. Of these,
twelve permitted distribution of the announcement, reaching their 14,977 subscribers. The website
for Wei Ming Magazine also added a SOAR link to its home page and offered to publish a short
article on SOAR in an upcoming issue.
From SOAR Scholarship Recipients...
"I received the five hundred yuan you sent me. I thank you very much. In China there are
millions of good students from poor families, many of them must leave their schools to farm at home
or find a laboring job. I would have the same fate; but your help has enabled me to continue the
pleasure of sitting in a bright classroom as a student. To me you have not just sent me five hundred
yuan, but also your enthusiasm, your expectation. I now count in my mind the SOAR Foundation as My second family.
"I have just entered the first year class in the middle school. There are many
new subjects, and the tasks of studying are becoming heavier. However, I would not loosen my grip,
because I always remember that it is the SOAR Foundation that has given me the opportunity to continue my schooling.
If I do not work hard, I would be forsaking not only SOAR Foundation, but also my conscience. The road ahead of me,
I know, is long, and the hurdles will multiply; but I will keep faith and continue my drive."
Wong Li-li, #6 Middle School, (Wong Li-li sent a receipt from her school. She had to pay 130 yuan for tuition, 50 yuan for miscellaneous fees,
10 yuan for physical examination, 20 yuan for stationary supply, 38 yuan for health insurance, 10 yuan
for bicycle parking, 5 yuan for class fee, and 2 yuan for payment receipt: a total of 265 yuan.)
"I am really grateful for your help. Just as I was battling the financial difficulties,
you have extended to me your helping hand, warmth and love. When I received the postal draft, I shuddered,
I looked, looked, and my vision became clouded, how sweet are my tears! I handed the draft to my
mother with my trembling hands, and my mother, also crying, told me immediately, 'my child, these
poeple (from the SOAR Foundation) have treated you so nicely, you must study hard, and do not forsake
the love they have for you.' I crying so hard I could only nod my head.
"...you know, when the town of Li-Jiang was shaken by the earthquake, the
town was in ruins...when I heard the cries of victims lying under the collapsed houses, I immediately
suggested to the school authorities that I should organze a rescue team...because of the work we
did, the school gave me a trophy and many honors. But I have been worrying, because I was not at all
sure I would continue my schooling in the senior middle school. I might have been forced to leave
all my beloved fellow students, how sorry would I have been...I must thank you again."
He Yi-yung, Li-Jiang #8 Middle School,
"I have received the five hundred yuan you sent me. To tell you the truth, I have never seen
so much money. I could only cry, and my father was unable to sleep. I have not believed that there
are such nice poeple, who want to help me...In my last final examinations I was first in the class again,
but I am not bowing to pride...I shall redouble my efforts, study hard and become a really useful person
in the society, and add a shingle to the enterprise of national development. When I grow up, I will surely
become a person who will help others."
Zhou Xiao-chin, Dai City, The Second Annual Meeting of the SOAR Foundation will be held at the Asilomar Conference Center,
Pacific Grove, California. The meeting will start in the afternoon of August 16 and continue through noon on
August 17. All members and volunteers are invited to attend. If you need accommodations, please calll Bob Roll
415-883-1528.
The chairperson of SOAR Foundation is Ms. Siu Fong Huang. She is supported by an Advisory Committee
and a newly formed Overseas Advisory Board. The day to day operations are carried out by nine committees.
Ther chairs are also members of the Board of Directors, which meets every two or three months to discuss
the progress of the committees in discharging the delegated tasks.
All of the advisory board members and officials of the foundation can be
reached via the SOAR Foundation office at 333 Third Street, San Francisco, CA94107. The telephone number
is 415-495-8559. The fax number is 415-543-2778. There is also a web sute on line: URL: http://www3.mediacity.com/~soar
The volunteer SOAR officials are elected to their positions on one year, renewable terms.
Some of the officials have expressed their desire to resign or to move on to a different position. At the general
meeting in the coming August, Ms. Siu will nominate the officials for the coming year. The nominations
will be discussed and voted on by the members.
I just returned from three weeks in the People's Republic of China, having enjoyed delightful
stays in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqin and Wuhan. Everywhere there are signs of modernization
and a new affluence. In Shanghai a world class opera house is nearing completion and plans are being laid
for a new international airport. In Beijing the areas around the Great Hall of the People have been enhanced.
In Chengdu construction cranes dot the sky. In Chongqin streams of Chinese arrive from provinces near and far
to embark upon Yangtze River cruises and Wuhan sports new superhighways, or "carriageways" as they
prefer to call them. Yet it is plain that China's rising affluence has not extended to all. There are too
many children engaged in begging, too many girls being drawn into prostitution, and too many members
of China's population on the move in the quest of employment.
Throughout China I heard talk of the need for enhanced educational opportunity for
the disadvantaged to allow all of China's youth to share in the nation's promising future.
In recognation of this need, in each city I visited there was talk of Project Hope, which with offices in
all of China's major cities, endeavors to expend educational opportunity for disadvantaged youth. Thus
I was interested in comparing the work of SOAR Foundation with the program of Project Hope. The first conspicuous
difference is that Project Hope is a government institution and, hence, is administered by politicians.
The second conspicuous difference is that Project Hope has a strong urban bias with limited rural reach.
Finally, Project Hope works through institutionsrather than with individual students. As a result it has
no means of knowing how much is lost in the bureaucratic maize. It is plain that the SOAR Foundation fills
a role that Project Hope cannot. My visit to China reinforces my faith in the mission of the SOAR Foundation
and my pride in what it is accomplishing.
John Macmeeken
Publicity!
Abstracts of Letters
Toulitun, Inner Mongolia
Lijiang, Yunnan Province
Shanxi
Forthcoming General Membership Meeting
Organizational Notes
Some Reflections