Fund planned for rural Sichuan students

From left: Susan Weld, executive director of Law Asia Leadership at Georgetown University Law Center; Julia Chang Bloch, president of US-China Education Trust; Martin Cargas, senior adviser at McLarty Associates; Corinna Shen, owner of Modern International Enterprises; and Zhou Hui, first secretary of educational affairs from the Chinese embassy, at a press conference announcing the scholarships for Sichuan female students in Washington on Nov 13. Wen Xian / For China Daily

A new scholarship program will help female students from rural regions in Sichuan province, a Chinese-American philanthropist announced recently.

"Compared with China's coastal areas, the quality of education in interior parts of China is far disadvantaged," Julia Chang Bloch, founder and president of the US-China Education Trust (USCET), told China Daily. "So we hope to change the current phenomenon of rural students in China that have been left behind in their access to higher education compared with their urban counterparts.

"Our latest program in Sichuan aims to help Normal University students, especially [those] who are willing to be teachers and stay in rural areas, because they are the future of education in China," said Bloch, who was born in Shandong province, China, and came to the US at age 9. Bloch was also the first US ambassador of Asian origin, serving in that capacity in Nepal from 1989 to 1993.

The US-based organization, founded in 1998, launched the Advisory Council Scholarship Fund at Sichuan Normal University on Nov 13. The fund will help five women undergraduates at the school with a scholarship of $750 a year for four years.

Bloch has helped more than 80 low-income Chinese students from three universities since 2007.

"In 1990s, nearly 30 percent of students in Peking University came from villages, but the figure drops down to less than 10 percent today, let alone the girl students from low-income families," she said.

Bloch said the fund focuses on female students in order to help "balance the inequality for their further study".

The China Opportunity Scholarships (COS) program was launched by USCET with the Maurice "Hank" Greenberg/C.V. Starr Scholarship program at Yunnan University in 2007. That was followed by a second program at the Agricultural University of Hebei in 2011,

It was extended to Shandong University in 2013, and Sichuan Normal University in 2014.

The Advisory Council Scholarship Fund aims to break "the cycle of poverty in China by offering low-income, disadvantaged students from rural China the opportunity to attain a university education", Bloch said.

"USCET seeks to promote China-US relations through a serious of education and exchange programs for next-generation leaders," Bloch said. "It's a small project, but essential just like a drop of water mentioned by President Xi Jinping."

Xi used the ancient Chinese saying of "a pool begins with many drops of water" in reference to China-US relations when he met with US President Obama on Nov 11 in Beijing.

"Education is the core of humanity and the key to success," Bloch said. "I hope through education, we can help more and more young leaders."

Sheng Yang contributed to this story.