Recently, a group of Year 10 students and faculty from YCIS’s Century Park Campus travelled to China’s Anhui province to visit a ‘Seeds of Hope’ sSchool. Located in a small rural village and surrounded by rice fields, the YCIS students had the opportunity to interact with the young children attending the school. Together they played sports, prascticed a co-ordinated dance, worked on an art project, and conversed using the language skills the YCIS students have built in class, and more. After returning to Shanghai, the students reflected on the trip, sharing their thoughts about the meaningful experience, as follows:

James: “I really enjoyed helping the kids paint, and teaming up with them to experience the joy of making a huge mess, which is familiar to me, but previously alien to them. This experience of sharing is what I enjoyed most, and was the highlight of the trip.”

Sean: “I really loved meeting the little kids and becoming friends. I danced with them and we really bonded since the kids loved dancing. It excited them to see us so involved, too.”

Leonardo: “I loved seeing the children smile and be happy because I felt like I had made a difference in their lives.”

Lorenzo: “My favourite part about visiting the school was teaching the kids how to dance. They really enjoyed themselves and their smiles and laughs made my day. One encounter that I will always remember from this trip was when a student, which whom I had taught the day before, came up to me and said ‘thank you,’, and he gave me a high five.”

Emily: “Through the trip, I learnted that the only way to get through to someone is to let them get through to you first, and I also learnted to cherish the education that I have.”

Nadine: “The joy on the children's faces when they got to use paint was inspiring and very contagious.”

YCIS hopes eventually to support this school to either help build a play structure, or a new building for classrooms. In the short term, YCIS also contributed to the school’s stationery supply, as the helpful Century Park Campus students carried in many boxes of rulers, coloured pencils, and more from Shanghai.

Throughout the school year, YCIS takes several student trips to Seeds of Hope supported sSchools. To learn more about the Seeds of Hope charity at YCIS, click here.