Giving students a sense of possibility

Xue grew up in a family of migrant workers in Shanghai and went to a primary school in the city. But she also spent part of her middle school years back in her home village in Chongqing, Southwest China.

The sharp contrast between the Shanghai-based school and the village school made her fully realize the difference between urban and rural areas.

"In the village school, a classroom with only one electric fan was packed with more than 80 students," she recalls.

Later, as a first-generation college student from a low-income family, she says it was hard for her to catch up with her peers from well-off families.

Unlike students from these families, for example, Xue says, she had to do several part-time jobs to cover tuition fees for English debate training courses, as well as for travel and accommodation when their debate team attends competitions in other cities or countries.

Although she is proud of herself and her achievements, sometimes she would inevitably feel inferior and frustrated due to her tight budget.

Things changed for the better after she applied for the project.

More opportunities

Apart from the mentorship program, Xue can also have access to a career development curriculum available online, listen to inspiring speeches delivered by well-established figures and attend forums that are regularly held to gather Chinese and foreign students together to discuss certain topics.

She says that her communication skills have been greatly improved and that she's no longer afraid of conducting face-to-face discussions with key players.

"I'm considerably motivated by the many outstanding and hardworking volunteers I met at China Youth of Tomorrow, who are also from low-income families," says Xue. "They can embrace a glittering career and help others, and I'm convinced I can follow their path."

The organization also helps these students to select and apply for their ideal foreign universities.

On Feb 17, an email brought Zhang Yingxin, a 22-year-old senior at Northeast Electric Power University, the good news that she had successfully applied for the postgraduate program in multidisciplinary gender studies at the University of Cambridge.

Domestic violence had been part of her upbringing. It spurred her to focus on gender studies in the hope of liberating rural Chinese women's minds and reducing the number of domestic violence victims.

Raised in a farming family in a poverty-stricken village of Shandong province, Zhang and her elder sister saw firsthand how dreadful domestic violence can be.

After she got to university and talked with her peers about it, their astonished faces made her realize just how outrageous the abuse was. She started to reflect on her past. The idea of pursuing feminism-related studies and defending rural women's rights in the future was then well and truly seeded.

Last June, she turned to the nonprofit's volunteers for advice. A graduate from University of Cambridge recommended that she apply for the master's course of multidisciplinary gender studies there and guided her in preparing the necessary application materials.

"The volunteer gave me many useful suggestions, such as how to write a more logical research proposal and how to highlight my strengths in a personal statement," she says.

Recently, the organization also helped Zhang win over the scholarship from China Scholarship Council to ensure that she could go for further study in London without financial worries.

"It's so touching that all volunteers from the organization are willing to help me without asking for any reward," she says. "I hope one day I can also help others in some way or another like they do.

"I believe we can contribute to society to make an impact that matters."