Please Help A Chinese Rural Student!
Love Across the Coast is a student organization founded in 2007 at Mount Holyoke College. Driven by the vision that all Chinese students should have access to a quality education, LAC members work to promote education equality in rural China through volunteer and scholarship programs.
In 2010, LAC launched the annual summer camp, aiming to provide underprivileged teenagers with a non-traditional learning experience. Over the past three years, the camp has brought more than 50 volunteers to Sichuan, Yunnan and Hunan. Around 300 students have benefited from a variety of courses and team projects designed and led by volunteers.
The camp encourages students to explore the fun of learning and it cultivates many important skills that are missing in conventional Chinese education system, such as teamwork skills and interpersonal skills. One key theme of the summer camp is to develop students' critical thinking abilities, so they can start to see things from multiple angles, and to see more possibilities in their lives.
The biggest challenge we're facing now is funding our summer camp. Love Across the Coast is a student run organization and all the fundings for the camps come from private donors. While we are making progress in fundraising, it is still challenging to raise funds because of a delicate situation: our org is based within Mount Holyoke community, but the camps are in China. People in South Hadley, MA, know our school well but they are less emotionally attached to those Chinese teenagers than people in China could possibly be; on the other hand, neither our organization nor our college is influential enough for us to receive donation from corporations or individuals in China. Because of this, it is hard to promote our cause to potential donors.
All of donation will go directly to room, board and supplies for the camp. As little as 15 dollars can support a student to participate in the summer camp and enjoy this extraordinary learning experience. With 50 dollars, you can bring an excellent and devoted volunteer to the students. If you share the same love and vision with us, please join us to make it happen!
For more information and updates visit us at: loveacrossthecoast.wix.com/loveacrossthecoast