Yale Day of Service May 15, 2010

Be a Part of Something Big!

Join thousands of Yale alumni around the world and give back to your local community on May 15, 2010

The tradition of service is rooted in Yale's past - but perhaps it is more relevant today than ever. We know you want to give back, not only to Yale, but also to your community. So, get together with your family and friends and join us on Saturday, May 15, 2010, for what promises to be a milestone day for Yale, as we collectively embody Yale's great tradition of service to others.

The Yale Club of Beijing has a number of exciting plans for this day. Yale Club members will participate in a variety of service projects in Beijing and other locations throughout China and then come together in the evening for a celebratory event.

How You Can Help

We need group leaders! If you regularly volunteer for an organization in Beijing and/or are keen to lead a group on this momentous day, set up a volunteer project for May 16. This can be as simple as setting up an appointment to do your regular volunteer work and agreeing to bring along a small group of additional Yale volunteers who want to join in, or it can be an entirely new project or special event.

Send an email to Sarah Fellows with details of your project (location, hours, number of volunteers you can accommodate) and we will help connect you to other volunteers who want to join you.

Want to join an existing project?

Please contact Sarah Fellows to register. Be sure to include your name, contact information (email and phone number) and the name of the project you would like to join.

Current Yale Club of Beijing Projects

1) Book Program: Yaocun No.1 Middle School Annual English Practice Trip (May 7-9) - PROJECT FULL

As part of the Yale Club of Beijing's planned activities for Yale Day of Service, the Club’s Book Program has made arrangements for a group of volunteers to travel by train together to rural Linxian county in Henan Province, where they will participate in English-language practice activities with students and teachers at the Yaocun No 1 Middle School.  This trip will take place on May 7-9, the weekend before Yale’s Day of Service, and volunteers traveling to Henan may also elect to participate in the Club’s community service activities in Beijing on May 15.

Linxian County is located the north-west corner of China’s Henan province, about one hour from the industrial center of Anyang. The local village we will visit is a typical central-China community that farms cabbage and grain (primarily wheat and corn).  Nearby the village are mountains that are the site of a famous “mass-works” project known as the Red Flag canal that brought water to this district during a period of severe drought and famine in 1959-1961.

Linxian is a high-risk cancer area. A 20-year US National Cancer Institute (NCI) longitudinal cancer screening and prevention program has been undertaken collaboratively with the Cancer Institute - Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CICAMS) in Beijing and the local Linxian health authorities. This health program is an historic Sino-US collaboration that dates back to the Nixon-Kissinger visit. Volunteers will be housed at the research field station and will have an opportunity to learn more about this historic Sino-US medical collaboration first-hand in a lunchtime tour of the field station’s research facilities.

This community service trip will be our Club’s fourth annual visit to Yaocun No 1 Middle School in central Henan Province.  Previously we have made book donations to the school library. The focus of this year’s trip will be on interacting with students and teachers and offering opportunities to practice English.  In addition to activities at the school, we are arranging for Yaocun Middle School students to lead volunteers on a walk through their village and to teach volunteers how to make dumplings for the Saturday evening meal. Volunteers will have the option staying in a rural student’s home for one night.

In addition, after finishing our English-practice activities, volunteers will be able to visit to the 3,300 year-old ruins of the Shang Dynasty capital at Yin ("Yin Xu"), site of the Oracle Bones that are the origins of the Chinese Language.  In 2006 the Yin Xu was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Transportation and lodging will be arranged by the Yale Club of Beijing’s Book Program.  Volunteers are responsible for covering their own round-trip travel and meal expenses, which are estimated to be 309rmb.  Entrance fees for the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Oracle Bones / Shang Dynasty Yin Ruins is an additional 100rmb.