By Story by Alan, Translated by Yuan, Shang & Dawn | SOAR Student and Volunteers
Alan is from a small and rural mountainous village in Yunnan Province (about 200 miles from Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan Province), and his ethnicity is Lisu, a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group, which is an official minority group of China. Alan is currently a human resource manager while pursuing a master's degree at Yunnan Agricultural University.
SOAR Foundation supported Alan from middle school in 2006 until his college graduation in 2015, saving him from dropping out of school due to poverty. With the help of SOAR, Alan became the village's first college student, and he graduated from Kunming College with honors. Moreover, Alan is the first individual in his village who was able to leave the mountains and settle down in Kunming, as mentioned previously, the capital city of Yunnan province.
Like many children in the mountains, Alan only completed his primary schooling. A year later, unwilling to settle for mediocrity, Alan determined to get out of the mountains and re-enroll in school. His parents borrowed money from relatives and sold their belongings to pay the tuition fee of 300 RMB (about $44 USD) at the time. After a semester of hard-work, Alan ranked #1 in his class in the biggest exams for the first semester, earning an annual scholarship of 680 RMB ($100 USD) from SOAR in the fall of 2006. Although Alan could further his education after getting his bachelor’s degree in 2015, he chose to work due to financial constraints. In the same year, Alan met Ms. X of SOAR in Kunming, a gentle, educated, and caring person who had donated to Alan and five Yunnan college students until they completed their undergraduate programs. Ms. X encouraged him to pursue his dream. After working for several years, Alan took the National Postgraduate Entrance Examination in December 2021 and was accepted into the master's degree in social work program at Yunnan Agricultural University in 2022.
Alan currently works, lives, and studies in Kunming, where he met his wife and now they have a lovely daughter. He plans to continue studying, working hard, and applying what he has learned to help people who are in need in the future. He hopes that more caring individuals will join the SOAR family in their fights for better opportunities for children in China's rural mountains.
Alan said: "Neither of my parents can read or write. When I told them that I got the scholarship, they were so excited. My mother even asked me, "Where is Beijing?" I thought about it for a long time, and my conclusion was - I must get rid of ignorance and poverty, arm myself with knowledge, and repay society with a grateful heart. My mother taught me to have a grateful heart, to be grateful to those who help me, to have a spirit of devotion and to give back to society."
Editor’s Note:
Mark your calendar!
1. GlobalGiving’s 2022 GivingTuesday campaign is coming! It will last 24 hours, from 00:00:00 EST to 23:59:59 EST on November 29, 2022.
For more information, please refer to T&C. https://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/givingtuesday-2022/terms/
2. SOAR FOUNDATION 27th Annual Conference will be held again online this year.
Agenda:
1. Financial Report for 2022.
2. Advantages and limitations brought by the SOAR Beijing Representative Office.
3. Changes in the student selection and scholarship awarding process.
4. Relationship between exchange rate changes and scholarship amounts.
5. Report on the status of the SOAR Preschool Program.
6. The development of the SOAR Programs.
2022 is a year of change for SOAR, with many new things to report. We invite all of you to join us at our annual conference - we will answer your questions and listen to your feedback on our program implementation.
We are looking forward to seeing you!
Wish you and family a warm and happy Thanksgiving!
Sincerely,
Li Li
President
SOAR FOUNDATION
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