Rural school offers students chance to live their dreams

Liu Qianyi wants to be an engineer. Jiang Ruifang dreams of becoming a writer. Chen Yan hopes to work as a translator.

These 16-year-olds at Huichang Zhulan Demonstration School, which opened in 2007, are better equipped than most rural Chinese students to realize their aspirations.

That’s thanks to their school’s experimental approach that blends basic education with such vocational skills as agricultural science and food processing — the major industries in Jiangxi province’s Huichang county, where roughly one in 10 residents live below the poverty line.

"We’re a pilot school for rural reform," headmaster He Fasheng said. "It’s a new idea for running a school."

Vocational majors include computer sciences, food processing, biomedicine and crop cultivation.

A total of 33 graduates from Zhulan’s vocational school have enrolled in university since 2013, when its first four went on to college.

"Graduates work fields all over China," said the vocational school’s vice principal, Zeng Wenliang. "Some return home."

Currently, 174 teachers instruct 2,428 students from preschool through high school. About 100 adults take vocational classes.

The school is the brainchild of elderly philanthropist Li Yonghai, who provides four-fifths — 40 million yuan ($6.16 million) — of its budget. Most of the rest comes from the government.

Smaller donations also come from enterprises, as well as local farmers who chip in 50 or 100 yuan a time.

A statue near the campus entrance of two hands reaching toward the sky inscribed with the words "full of love beneath heaven" commemorates all who have donated.

"Farmers welcome and support our school," He, the headmaster, said. "We must remember their names and contributions."

Villagers donate because they recognize the importance of agricultural advancements, according to school staffers.