Students transform village lives

University students bring education and innovation to rural communities, linking personal growth with Guangdong's revitalization project.

In the heart of northern Guangdong's Ruyuan Yao autonomous county — known as the "hometown of the Guoshan Yao", one of the most picturesque branches of the Yao ethnic group — 20-year-old Deng Haowen discovered more than scenic mountains and clear skies.

Beneath the county's natural beauty lie long-standing development challenges. In education alone, there are only 12 primary schools across 2,299 square kilometers, leaving many children, especially those left behind by migrant parents, with limited guidance.

"During the holidays, a lot of them have nothing to do and can become overly dependent on the internet," Deng said.

Recognizing this shortage of educational resources, Deng, a journalism major at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (GDUFS), has spent the past two summers running volunteer classes for local children.

His team designed courses that combine traditional culture with practical skills, from calligraphy and paper-cutting to mental health education and patriotic history lessons. Drawing on GDUFS' strengths in linguistics, they also introduced students to foreign languages such as English, Japanese, and Thai.

Deng is one of many GDUFS students participating in the "Double Hundred Action", an initiative under Guangdong's "Hundred, Thousand, and Ten Thousand Project", which aims to foster high-quality development across 100 counties, 1,000 towns, and 10,000 villages.

GDUFS began its involvement in August 2023 by signing an agreement with Ruyuan to provide targeted support.

Since then, the university has sent service teams to assess grassroots needs and implement projects in six areas: cultural tourism, rural afforestation, legal education, agricultural e-commerce, environmental improvement, and volunteer classrooms.

This year alone, more than 500 volunteers, organized into 31 teams, have carried out over 40 activities across the county, bringing youthful energy and innovative ideas to rural development.