BOOK DONATION PROGRAM FOR RURAL SECONDARY SCHOOLS

The Yale Club of Beijing has sponsored a book donation program for rural secondary schools for 4 years.  The program is a community service and academic exchange activity of the Yale Club of Beijing that builds upon the 170-year history of academic exchanges between Yale and China.

Through this program, each rural school receives a small library of new English-language or bilingual Chinese-English books, purchased for the school in Beijing by the Yale Club of Beijing. The books are chosen by each school to best meet the needs of its own students. Our budget guidelines are 1,500 RMB per school. This year, with discounts from a 2,000-title book list from the Foreign Language Bookstore on Wangfujing Street, Beijing, the donation has grown from 20-30 books per school to over 100 books for each school library.   

The program has donated a total over 3,000 new books to secondary schools in China.

This year marks the 5th year of the book donation program. At the request of Chinese rural schools and town governments, the program has expanded to offer opportunities for English practice with native English-language speakers along with book donations.  In July 2006, Yale students, faculty, and alumni began traveling to rural schools across China to donate books and to assist students with practicing English.   As of November 2007, over 85 Yale Club of Beijing volunteers had traveled to 20 schools in 10 Chinese provinces, carrying donations of over 2,000 books.   Volunteers traveling to rural schools have included 29 Yale undergraduate students, 7 Yale professors and adminstrators, 11 Yale alumni, 22 “friends of Yale” in Beijing, and 4 local coordinators.   In addition, beginning Spring 2007 the program benefited from the special contributions of 14 Peking University volunteers (1 professor, 13 students) from the PKU-Yale Undergraduate program.  The program’s volunteers have traveled to schools in Anhui, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Shanxi, and Yunnan provinces.

What books do rural Chinese schools request?

                        -  Complete and bilingual unabridged editions of classics (e.g. Shakespeare, Hemingway, Plato, Lu Xun, Mark Twain, etc.)

                        -  Complete and unabridged English-language collections of short stories, myths, and fables, with Chinese annotations of 

                           key words

                        -  Abridged English readers at graded reading levels, some with CD audio

                        -  History, science, and sports books

                        -  DVD film classics with bilingual scripts

                        -  Dictionaries and encyclopedias 

                    We have also been asked to bring: Audiovisual equipment and anti-virus software.

Addressing a current need of China’s rural educational systems

In many countries, including China, the resources of rural educational systems are much poorer than their urban counterparts.  The Yale Club of Beijing’s book donation program is designed to address only a small number of the current needs of China’s rural education system, but these needs are very real and important ones. English instruction is now mandatory in all secondary schools in China, but many rural schools lack English-language books in their libraries for use by either teachers or students.  Many rural English teachers and students have never heard English spoken by native-English speakers.  Foreign language bookstores do not exist outside of the major metropolises in China.  

Offering an opportunity for educational exchange and community service for Yale students and affiliates in China

The Club’s book donation program also responds to the needs of the growing Yale student community in China.    Most international educational programs in China are based in metropolitan centers and offer limited opportunities for interactions with China’s rural majority of 700-900 million citizens.   The Yale Club of Beijing’s book donation program involves rural educational systems across diverse regions and provinces, allowing Yale students in China to learn more about the vast rural sector of this country as part of their educational experience.

Community service is also a core activity of leadership training.  Although there are many NGO’s and charities operating in China, it may be difficult for students involved in short-term stays in China to make meaningful contributions to these ongoing programs.  The Yale Club of Beijing book donation / English practice trips to rural secondary schools are designed for these students. Trips are usually held over 3-day weekends and can be scheduled in advance.

In addition to Yale students, Yale alumni and “friends of Yale” in the Beijing area who are native English language speakers have been welcomed as volunteers.  Diversity among the volunteers enhances the value of the experience for the schools and the volunteers.

Ongoing activities

OCT 1-7, 2007 Guizhou - 4 junior middle schools in Miao-ethnic communities in Qiandong Miao-Dong Autonomous Prefecture

NOV 2-4, 2007 Hebei - a junior middle school in a farming community near the Bohai Gulf

NOV 23-25, 2007 Henan – English practice in a village school of a central China farming community that is a high cancer-risk area. Books were donated in 2006

DEC 22, 2007 - JAN 6, 2008 Qinghai and Tibet

                         -  Qinghai Normal University Tibetan English teacher’s training program (Xining)

                         -  Qinghai Huangnan Nationalities Teacher’s School Tibetan English teacher training program

                         -  Yushu, Qinghai, a nomadic community on Qinghai-Tibet plateau

                         -  Lhasa, Tibet, middle school

                    MARCH 2008 Gansu – 2 rural secondary schools in the Loess Plateau region that is the site of a Yale alum’s environmental water conservation project

APRIL 2008 Qinghai - 3 consolidated primary-secondary schools in rural Tibetan ethnic communities in the Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Region.

MAY 2008 Xinjiang - 2 rural junior middle schools in Uygur-ethnic communities near Hotan & Kashi that are high risk cancer areas

JUNE 2008 Inner Mongolia - English practice in a rural school where books were donated in 2006-7

JULY 2009 Qinghai - Qumale Nationalities Middle School

Current needs from Yale alumni and friends

We welcome alumni and friends to donate English-bilingual libraries to rural secondary schools by making direct funding contributions to the Yale Club of Beijing’s book program.  The cost of each library is 1500 RMB.  Purchases of Yale Club polo shirts (100 RMB ea) and Yale USB flash drives (150 RMB, 256MB) also support book purchases for this program.  All donated funds are used solely for book purchases without any administrative or program overhead fees, and we make every effort to use all donated funds for gifts of bilingual libraries to rural schools within the same academic school year.  If you wish to make a contribution, please contact the Coordinator, Dr. Gwen Zahner, at her email address: gwen_zahner@yahoo.com.

We also welcome volunteers to travel to rural secondary schools to assist in English practice activities. To keep informed about upcoming trips, please register with the Yale Club of Beijing’s website.  Current openings for volunteers are listed on attachments found on the bottom left corner of this web-page.

Recognition of special contributions to the Book Program in 2006-2008

Book Fund Donors (500 RMB or more)

¨    Benjamin K Cheng

¨    Prof. Katerina Clark

¨    Prof. Ray Han

¨    Prof. Pierre Landry

¨    The Melcher-Ruwart Family

¨    Rita M. Rack

¨    Christopher Ruggles

¨    David Topolewski

¨    XYZ Gallery / CHENG Guoqin

¨    Chat Ko / XYZ Gallery Benefit

¨    Personal contributions from staff at the China Daily newspaper

¨    Books from McMillan (UK)

In addition, special assistance has been provided by:

¨    Ms. WU Yanping

¨    Mr. JIANG Yong 

¨    Ms. Cate CUI

¨    Ms. LU Airong

¨    Mr. YANG Zhi

¨    Mr. LIU Hong Kai

¨    Dr. FAN Yaguang

¨    Dr. REN Jiansong

¨    Dr. XU Yueping

¨    Staff of the Honghe Prefecture 3rd People’s Hospital, Yunnan

¨    Staff of the Foreign Language Bookstore. Wangfujing St, Beijing

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR THE YALE CLUB OF BEIJING BOOK PROGRAM

Yale Club Book Program Coordinator 2006-2009: 

Dr. Gwen  ZAHNER (Yale University PhD  ’83, Epidemiology)

Mobile: [Beijing] 135 2078 4222

Email: gwen_zahner@yahoo.com

Fax: [010] 6771 3648

Dr. Zahner’s mailing address

1) Chinese

北京朝阳区潘家园南里17号

中国医学科学院肿瘤研究所肿瘤医院流行病室

邮政编码100021，邮箱2258

乔友林主任转 Dr. Gwen ZAHNER 

Tel: [86 10] 8778 8489

2) English

Dr. Gwen ZAHNER

Dept. of Cancer Epidemiology

Cancer Institute / Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences

17 South Panjiayuan Lane, P.O. Box 2258

Beijing 100021, PR China.

Tel: [86 10] 8778 8489