What they say

"The one-year experience was short, but what it taught me was profound. It was from the experience that I realized the importance of combining personal values with the values of society."

Wu Maoqian, entrepreneur, head of the USTC volunteers team from 2011-2012

"There are too many things that the children have never seen but are enormously interested in. What we young volunteers do is bring the outside world to them and inspire them to learn more through their own efforts."

Liu Xuan, USTC volunteer who currently teaches at the No 3 Middle School in Haiyuan county

"When I was teaching from 2006 to 2007 at the No 3 Middle School in Haiyuan, only a small number of them could get into college because of poor education conditions and also their difficult financial status."

Xu Yan, volunteer teacher in Ningxia from 2006 to 2007

The volunteers like Xu Yan have opened a window through which we see the world. It was the young volunteers who brought us vigor and vitality."

Wang Mei, college student and former rural student benefiting from the USTC volunteer program

"It was the volunteers that made me think that being a teacher is glorious, so I choose to study in education when I entered into a local college nine years ago and realized my dream in 2010."

Ma Jing, English teacher in Zhongwei, Ningxia, and former rural student benefiting from the USTC volunteer program

(China Daily European Weekly 12/04/2015 page23)