On November 28th, the result of the 2nd “Color, Way of Love” China Students Education Support Award, directed by the school department of Communist Youth League Central Committee, was announced. The “Young Phoenix Qingming” practice team of Tianjin University (TJU) ranked third among the 100 practice teams of 56 universities in China and won the Silver Award. The story of the practice team, began with the summer holiday in 2015.
Jinfeng Township is located in the northwest corner of Xinhua County, Loudi City, Hunan Province, with beautiful scenery and profound traditional culture. However, the mountainous landform in Jinfeng brings its inconvenient transportation, as a result its natural resources have not been fully exploited and utilized. Most young and middle-aged people choose to go out to work. Therefore, there are many children left-behind in local schools. In the summer of 2015, Yang Fan, a counselor of TJU, get contacted with the government of Jinfeng to express his willingness to support education and help with poverty alleviation in Jinfeng, and the story began from then on.
In 2015, led by Mr. Yang Fan, the practice team composed of party members from the College of Machinery came to Jinfeng for the first time. In addition to 16 excellent courses and more than 10 quality development activities for children, they also brought more than 600 books spontaneously raised. At the same time, they investigated the education situation and the status of left-behind children in Jinfeng Township, laying the foundation for the better completion of the "Jinfeng Treaty" in the future.
In the summer vacation of 2016, 14 students from the College of Management and Economics (CoME) of TJU took over the baton and Chen Lu, a 2014 undergraduate student, played the leading role. The “Phoenix Weaving Dream” Practice Team came to Jinfeng Township once again. Compared with last year, the curriculums and quality development activities were more characteristic, and the books raised by team members were more popular with the children. The practice team also did investigation on the tea industry and the bamboo industry in Jinfeng Township.
In 2017, "Phoenix Weaving Dream" was renamed "Young Phoenix Qingming", and the practice team was led by Ran Chengzhi, one of the undergraduates of CoME. On this occasion, the team members paid more attention to children's psychology. Outside the classroom, they played together, ate together, watched movies together, talked together and went home together. They were together all the time. The practice teams also helped schools perfect the construction of book corners and made documentary films for the left-behind children to attract more social attention.
In 2018, led by Liu Hongjia, another undergraduate of CoME, the "Young Phoenix Qingming" practice team embarked on the journey again. In addition to the constant improvement on courses and book donation, the practice team attached more importance to quality development and the construction of art classroom. The team members worked together to clean, mend, paint and color the dusty empty walls into a sea-themed art classroom, attempting to sow the seeds of dreams.
Measuring the world with footsteps and spreading hope with love, the students of TJU are always on the way!
By: College of Management and Economics
Editors: Qin Mian and Keith Harrington
