Poor student works at construction site before college math course

Zhao Jun, 18, has earned 2,000 yuan ($290) in the past 25 days working as a day laborer at a construction site in Cili county, Hunan province, to help pay his tuition fee at Nanjing University of Science and Technology, where he has been admitted by the Mathematics Department.

His father, ill with lymph cancer, has been bedridden for six years, and his mother makes just 800 yuan a month working at a shoe factory in their hometown.

“It’s really hot, so that my clothes are never dry because of sweat,” he told the Morning Herald, a local newspaper. “My arms and hands smell so sour after a day’s work, but I don’t think it’s tiring.

“I’m willing to work. I want to help my family, which has been totally dependent on my mom since my father got ill. My dad is still taking lots of medicine. Luckily, his condition is not getting worse.”

Zhao said he plans to do some part-time work while at college to help support his family.