A School is Created

Board President Stevan Harrell, a University of Washington anthropologist, first visited Yangjuan in 1993 with local native Mgebbu Lunzy (Ma Erzi). The two of them then began conducting research together.

In the mid-1990s, Steve introduced Lunzy to Benoit Vermander, who was studying Nuosu religion. After Lunzy and Benoit completed a book project together, Benoit expressed his desire to give something back to the Nuosu community. After discussions with Lunzy and Steve, the decision was made to raise money to found an elementary school in Yangjuan. This goal came to fruition in September 2000 with the founding of the Yangjuan Primary School. Steve, along with Lunzy, CMEF board member Li Xingxing, Bamo Ayi, and Mgebbu Vihly, were original members of the School's Supervisory Committee.

University Students in Yangjuan

Around the time the primary school was being built, Steve was approached by Professor Gretchen Kalonji of the University of Washington College of Engineering about participating in a prospective student exchange with a Chinese University, which would send students from China to the US and from the US to China to work on environmental research projects.

When the first group of students from UW went China in 2002, Steve, along with Professors Tom Hinckley and Dick Olmstead, took a group of UW and Sichuan University Students to Yangjuan to do research on biodiversity, forest ecology, health and nutrition, and the local economy. Since then, students, along with Yangjuan and Pianshui people, have conducted research projects every year in and around Yangjuan and Pianshui.

School Support

Many of the students who have lived and studied in Yangjuan felt a strong connection to the community and a strong desire to help Yangjuan Primary School. In Fall of 2004, Katharine Liang, who had done wolf ecology research in the mountains above Yangjuan and Pianshui, proposed that professors, students, and alumni of the Yangjuan-Pianshui research compile a calendar featuring some of the spectacular photos they had taken during their stay in the area, and sell the calendar as a fund-raiser. Successful sales of the 2005 calendar led to the official incorporation in July 2005 of the Cool Mountain Education Fund.

Why found the Cool Mountain Education Fund?

There are no middle or high schools in the immediate Yangjuan-Pianshui area. Continuing education beyond 6th grade means sending the child to a boarding school in the county town of Yanyuan or further. Many families lack the means to send their children to these schools. CMEF offers partial scholarships for Yangjuan Primary School students to attend middle and high school.

CMEF also pays the salaries of “unofficial” (daike) teachers who are an integral part of the Yangjuan Primary School's programs but whose positions are not funded by the Education Department. Providing additional teachers reduces class sizes, and allows innovative curricula in arts and language to be implemented.

CMEF also helps with small-scale development projects in and around Yangjuan and Pianshui.

The Cool Mountain Education Fund Board

Steve became the first President. The other original board members were Barbara Grub, Tami Blumenfield, and Victoria Poling. Later additions to the board have included Li Xingxing, Phil Chi, Katharine Liang, and Lauren Brown. Victoria and Phil resigned in August 2008, and Nancy Meenen, recently appointed treasurer, and Deborah Sung, who takes over as secretary, replaced them on the board. We wish to offer our sincere thanks to Victoria and Phil for their years of service.