Scholarship Fund Panel

Tonight I got another insight into true financial poverty. I interviewed students whose family's annual income is about what I make in one month. Granted, they don't have to go back to America where the cost of living is so much higher, but they do have very real medical issues and very real tuition bills. A year at Sias costs 14,000RMB. That price does not include housing, food, transportation, books, clothing and other supplies. Students borrow money from relatives; others take out loans; and some just manage to pay for tuition while working multiple jobs and going to school full time. They do all this with the hope of making a better life for themselves and being able to take care of their families.

Something else became really clear to me tonight: the Chinese want boys because boys take care of the parents. If you have only girls, they will leave to live with their husbands and take care of his parents. But if you have a son, he will stay and bring his wife into your house and take care of you when you are too old to take care of yourself. So many students talked about aging parents, more specifically fathers, who were taking care of the ailing grandparents. They feel a keen sense of responsibility to repay any debt to their family and anyone else who has helped them along the way.

One young man suffered from a type of dwarfism (he was 20 but looked 14), and another lost his mother to cancer last week. Some smiled cheerfully as they expressed the hope they had for the future despite their obvious difficulties. And others looked like they were about to cry as they shared the challenges they have faced and continue to suffer through. You can't help but reflect a little on your own position in life and see how rich you are and yet how poor you are at the same time. And you look at these students who are grabbing at every opportunity to change their situation, even at a somewhat mediocre 3,000RMB one-time scholarship, and you are humbled.