Being Helped, Helping Oneself and Helping Others—Experience Sharing by Outstanding Subsidized Students.

The Experience Sharing Salon by Outstanding Subsidized Students hosted by Student Affairs Department of the Party Committee (Student Financial Aid Management Center) and organized by the School of Civil Engineering (SCE), was successfully held on May 8, 2021 at x4351, to cultivate students’ awareness and abilities of “helping people to help themselves”. In this activity, four outstanding students were invited to share their experiences who had something in common: they were supported and cared by others, and they have been working hard to improve themselves, meanwhile help others and contribute to the society in some aspects.

At 19:30, the activity officially began with the experience sharing of the four students. The first speaker was Yang Wenchong, a member of the 21st postgraduate supporting education group of SWJTU. He had won a number of scholarships including National Encouragement Scholarship, the 2019 “The Stars of Self-improvement of Chinese College Students” Scholarship, and the first and second prize of school comprehensive scholarship many times. Yang first introduced his stories of growth. His hometown, one of the three regions and three states of the country—the deeply poverty-stricken areas at the national level, was a remote place with harsh environment and blocked traffic. Yang said that when he was very young, his father kept telling him that he should work hard which he didn’t understand why at that time. It was until the first year of his junior high school that his sister did not have a chance to go to high school. At that time, some people persuaded his parents to let his sister go to work or marry somebody early, but his parents finally decided to borrow money and supported her to further study in a technical secondary school. Unfortunately, when Yang finished the high school entrance examination with excellent grades, he had to give up a top high school due to family reasons and went back to study in the small county only for the exemption of three-year tuition. So in such a school where fewer than 20 students can have an opportunity to enter a key university each year, he never thought that he could be the 1/20. However, it was not until the summer of 2013 that he came into contact with graduate volunteers from China University of Geosciences, and an idea came to his mind, “I will get out of the mountains.” In university, he balanced study and part-time job, and won scholarships several times, always seizing every opportunity to improve himself. In September 2018, he signed up for the 21st postgraduate volunteer teachers of SWJTU and finally became a member of the group after strict selections. In the process of volunteer teaching, he found that some children in the great learning environment still was not motivated for learning. Once, he also thought about what is the meaning of volunteer teaching? Only providing some materials for children? No, definitely not! After realizing that, he aimed to develop children's self-confidence and enthusiasm for learning step by step. One day, a child said that he’ d like to be a teacher like Yang, then Yang understood that he had successfully ignited the children's enthusiasm for learning and their hope for the future. Looking back on his teaching life, Yang thought it was a short but wonderful experience. In the end, Yang finished his speech with his wish for “Keeping the Passion and Going for the Dream”, and all students were deeply touched by his story.

The second speaker is Hu Tianfeng who had won the National Scholarship, the National Encouragement Scholarship, and the first prize of Sichuan Province in the National College Student Advertising Art Competition. Besides, she has participated in various voluntary activities such as the Fifth National Nature Forum and the Ninth Public Governance Youth Forum. Hu said that her parents always believe that knowledge is of paramount importance and learning was the best way to go out to see the world, so she has always been working hard. Unfortunately, her father and grandmother fell ill when she was in her third year of high school, then her family had to borrow money for treatment. At that time, the double pressure of family and school made her extremely stressed. “But I told myself that whether it is joy or sadness, it is a journey for me,” she said. Therefore, she finished the college entrance examination under that tremendous pressure. However, here came the second trouble: the huge amount of the tuition for university put heavy burden on the family. Fortunately, she received funding from the Xiamen Education Foundation, which allowed her to go to university. Hu said that she would do part-time jobs during her spare time and vacations to reduce the burden on her family. As for study, she said that learning is still the priority of her university life. Indeed, part-time jobs did not affect her studies, and she earns a double degree in economics despite busy schedules. She told the audience, “when you feel tired, you might as well give yourself a psychological hint that whether it is joy or sadness, life will go on and the journey is beneficial.” She added, “the best reward is not only the grades, but also commitment. We should also serve our communities and contribute to the society.” Keeping this idea in mind, she joined the Youth Volunteer Association, and participated in various voluntary activities, repaying the society with her own strength.

The third speaker was Li Bobo, who was the president of the PPT Association of SWJTU and won the provincial second prize of the “Internet Plus” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and so on. Actually, regarding his own growth experience, Li said that many things were accidental. He started to learn PPT and photography by chance, and later he became very interested in them and made up his mind to learn them well. He said, “Chances favor the prepared minds. Thus, if we work hard, we will be rewarded.” Nevertheless, the process of hard work had always been boring. He searched a lot of resources to self-study PPT. “Learning is a repetitive process. To me, the sense of achievements is of great important. I would share the achievements with others which encourage me to continue learning. This is indeed a virtuous circle.” His efforts finally paid off. The first pot of gold he earned by PPT was 500 RMB. Since the founding of the PPT design studio “Bugong Demonstration” in April 2020, he had created PPT for the government organizations including Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department, and well-known enterprises such as State Grid, Baidu, Oppo; the accumulated value amounted to more than 100,000 RMB a year. When it came to the experience of voluntary teaching, he said that he organized and led a voluntary teaching group to the impoverished mountain area of Tongwei County, Gansu Province in 2018. No pain no gain. He gained a lot during the process of voluntary teaching, cooperating with excellent partners to help the children in learning, which made him feel the power of sharing and love. “It would be delighted if this world can be a little bit different because of my efforts”, he said. He ended his speech with this sentence, which left a deep impression on the audience.

The last speaker was Gao Ruiling. She had won the National Encouragement Scholarship twice, and was awarded the honorary titles of SWJTU “Merit Student”, “Outstanding Student Cadres”, and “Star of Asiration” of the School of Transportation and Logistics, SWJTU, etc. Gao first told a story that happened four years ago. She was in the third year of high school at that time, and she had fallen into confusion and upset as the result of the failure of the college entrance examination. However, she did not give up and chose to go back to school. In the end, she was successfully admitted to Southwest Jiaotong University a year later. “I am not a particularly smart person, but I believe that diligence can make up for one's weakness,” she said. She told the students that efforts and persistence are the most useful and effective ways to success. She participated in various competitions during her university time, seizing every opportunity to improve herself. She said that in the process of preparing for a competition, she joined more than ten training sessions with the team members, and wrote more than 250,000 words of passages and notes. The road to success is long and full of ups and downs. Only continuous efforts to overcome one difficulty after another, no rush for success, accumulate bit by bit, will surely help us overcome the difficulties and harvest a lot. In addition to her academic success, she has also won many awards in the cultural and sports competitions. Gao was also a warm-hearted person. She had served as a teaching assistant in the course of Operational Search, an assistant in the Office Affairs Center of the STL, and an assistant in the Department of Urban Rail Electrical Engineering. Besides, she also participated in the collection of used books in the public welfare library and did her best to help others. “I thank everyone in my life, who helped me or whom I helped.” In the end, she also told the students to let the past go. What we should do is to keep our feet on the ground and fight for the future.

The last session was the discussion after the four stories. The students put forward their questions, and the four speakers answered all kinds of questions in detail patiently. Some students reflected that they had learned a lot, and some of them even had the idea of helping children in mountain areas through voluntary teaching. At the end of the activity, the four speakers and other participants took a group photo. At 21:13, this activity came to an end successfully.