Dreams Corps International is a non-profit organization that gives Chinese students a chance to experience life in rural China — and the only collegiate chapter in the United States happens to be right here on Grounds. Last summer, three University students volunteered in communities in the provinces of Henan and Hunan.
University chapter founder James Liao, current chair Maylon Zhao and Ivy Li spent a month in these communities building libraries and teaching young students.
“We were not only physically building [the library], we had to educate them what a library is,” said Li, a third-year Commerce student.
Dream Corps builds libraries that function as public spaces within the community, a place for children and adults alike. Zhao, a third-year College student, said a major part of their work was convincing parents that reading a wide range of books would not only improve their children’s grades, but their futures, too.
“Many parents do not understand why a school would need a library when they have teachers and textbooks,” Zhao said.
The University chapter focuses on education in rural areas of China where many childrens’ parents are migrant workers in cities. Children are often left with their grandparents to begin working on family farms at a young age. Zhao grew up in a Chinese city, and before Dream Corps, she said she never realized the challenges of life in rural China.
“We feel responsible for the kids back in China because of our heritage,” Zhao said. “Studying here makes you realize how important education is for everyone. We see that the University provides equal opportunity for everyone here, and we feel like it’s not enough back in China.”
Liao, a second-year Engineering student, founded the chapter in summer 2006. Having lived in the United States for the past 13 years, Liao wanted to return to China but did not know with whom to stay or where to go. He researched volunteer programs and found Dream Corps.
Liao and five other volunteers spent a month in Henan. Their purpose was to motivate students and teachers to learn and to correct the assumption that textbooks were the only way to teach. They introduced a broader range of subjects that were previously ignored, such as art and music. Zhao said she was amazed that the school where she worked in Hunan did not even have crayons.
The volunteers plan one big event each weekend, ranging from sports carnivals to musicals. Zhao said every student she worked with had great potential and said that by the end of the program, the Chinese students had come to believe it themselves.
“I thought we were going there for the libraries, but we did so much more,” Li said. “How do you build sustainable relationships with the local governments? We had to meet the people, we had to go into [students’] homes and meet their grandparents.”
The local governments seemed to be very interested, Li said, attending the students’ final performance and even inviting other local governments to watch. She added, however, that working with the governments and local authorities was the most complicated part of the program. This is because Dream Corps must work with several levels of administrators — national government and education ministers all the way down to local administrators.
“I feel like as long as the governments understand what we are doing, they are proud of us and want to help,” Li said, adding that the government is aware of the problem and wants to help develop education — it just does not know how. Government officials are usually happy to work with Dream Corps because the organization provides human resources and books, she said.
The work does not stop at the end of the summer. Sustaining and building upon the established relationship is very important, which is why Dream Corps returns to the same sites every year. Even after all their work the first summer, “the locals don’t believe in you, and this is very reasonable, we are the outsiders,” Li said. “All they saw was a group of very energetic college students that did cool stuff with kids.”
The first year the library did not even stay open after the volunteers left.
“The village chief kept it closed to keep the books safe,” Liao said. “I was stunned.”
As site director, Liao has returned to Henan for the past three summers and watched the project evolve. The second year showed marked improvement, and Liao said this was because of the established relationship he had with the locals and because the volunteers now knew that they needed to work more closely with the school.
“Teachers had been intimidated by us — that was a huge mistake,” Liao said. While volunteers continued to organize fun activities for the children, they also worked with the principal.
They also learned they needed to properly explain why they had come, because the locals did not understand the ideas of volunteering or social service. Every other foreigner who came to the area brought money, yet Dream Corps brought people.
After the second trip, the library once again did not remain open after the summer. But because of a phone call Liao made two months before the third summer, the school principal reopened the library. Liao said establishing a personal relationship put pressure on local residents to keep their promise.
“The phone call taught me you have to keep in contact, you can’t just leave for 11 months,” Liao said. He now calls every other month, and as of now the library remains open.
This is also thanks to the new permanent librarian, three-fourths of whose salary Dream Corps pays; the local government adds the other quarter. She is younger and more innovative than the other teachers, Liao said, and knows best what the locals will like.
Liao said this third summer at Henan was the most significant in terms of progress. The volunteers worked to motivate individual teachers and to improve the quality of resources available. The library was remodeled with fans and lights, and the idea of borrowing books was introduced. Liao said this was also the summer when villagers finally realized how strongly Dream Corps believes in their ideas and could make them happen.
At the University, the chapter is currently focusing on raising awareness and planning a fundraising event. Third-year Engineering student Betty Chen, a Dream Corps member, said the chapter needs to spend its time on Grounds building community awareness and support for the organization. The organization’s best supporter on Grounds, Liao said, is Economics Prof. Bruce Reynolds, who has offered personal support and has helped the chapter apply for research and project grants.
Volunteers must pay their own way to China, usually about $2,000 per person in airfare, and they are reimbursed for that expenditure once they arrive in China. The volunteers live together in a room provided by the local government and eat meals prepared by locals. Liao, Li and Zhao said they all hope to return in summer 2009.
“It’s making my dream come true,” Liao said. “In Henan there are stars everywhere, but here we don’t look up enough to say ‘Wow, that’s a beautiful thing.’”
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