Summer of Service

Here is another essay written by one of our students. Feel (great name!) is a young university student from Jishou, and she is one of the better students in the Tiger Group (second best level, taught by Chris, Ashley, and Lisa). The students were told to write about their hometowns, and here is Feel's essay.

"In my eyes, my hometown isn't a beautiful city. It isn't worthy to be seen.
The city is around by many mountains so that we can't keep in touch with other modern society. Maybe it is the reason why my hometown is poor than others. On the other hand, as it is, my hometown keep a lot of precious things, such as Tujia Miao own characteristics and habits.
Even though my hometown will be better and better in the future because of me, because of us."

Feel's essay hints at feelings common among many of our students. The first is sense of dislike for Jishou. Many of the students regard Jishou as "unworthy"- underdeveloped, polluted, and ugly. One student even said that she thought the foreign teachers were "crazy" for having our English program in Jishou. "Why not Beijing, or Shanghai, or another beautiful city."

The second feeling I see in Feel's essay is one of empowerment. Even though Jishou is dirty and dilapidated, Feel believes that it will be better in the future because of her and her classmates. Many of our students are both ambitious and idealistic, and they want to use what they've learned to improve their hometown and underdeveloped countryside. There is a certain youthful idealism that emanates from our students, and I hope that we can return someday and see all they've accomplished.

Thanks for your interest in our program!

Ahh... only two more weeks.

- Rory