On the evening of March 27, the National Youth Leadership Forum was held at the Keli Building, XMU. It is part of the Teach For China Project themed as “Teach and Meet Thyself”. Mr. Liu Zepeng, Chairman of the project, delivered a speech, sharing his experience of devoting himself to the voluntary teaching activities and social development, and exploring how young people in China shoulder social responsibilities and thus improve their leadership quality through participation in the non-profit services in this vicissitudinous and pluralistic society of today.

XMU has always championed the idea of “Placing national interest above all and putting personal development first”, guiding and advising its graduates to “step up on the big stage and play big roles”, encouraging them to take roots in the local communities of China and do their part in the construction of the latter. It’s also hoped that by pitching in to relieve poverty through education the graduates are able to strengthen their willpower, hone their essential skills, sharpen their competitive edge, and gather their strength to fly high and venture afar to blaze a new trail in this rapidly evolving new era.

Chairman Liu noted at the forum that there has been an unequal distribution of educational resources in rural and urban China. The inadequate competence of rural teachers remains a major cause for concern in particular. The Teach For China Project aims to redress the imbalance of educational resources so that children from rural areas could also enjoy access to quality education, and have more opportunities and choices for a better future.

Since the establishment of the Project, a non-profit educational program, in 2008, there have been 16 XMU graduates who have worked as voluntary teachers, delivering over 11200 class-hours in total. These XMUers have brought quality education to around 1000 rural kids by putting students first, believing nothing is impossible and prizing modesty and esprit de corps. Miss Li Xuwei, a graduate of 2016 from the XMU School of Economics signed up for the Project and worked as a teacher in the remote mountain area for two years. She also brought to the forum a speech entitled “Me and my story”, sharing her unforgettable life’s moments of being a volunteer teacher with her schoolmates of XMU.

Edited by：Zong Yuchen and Li Yujie

Source: http://news.xmu.edu.cn/22/2d/c1552a270893/page.htm