The Cool Mountain Education Fund supports the Yangjuan Primary School and its graduating students. Beginning in Autumn 2008, we will give scholarships to graduating students of Baiwu Primary School as well.

Yangjuan Primary School

Built in 2000 with the support of Chinese and foreign friends, YJ Primary School is dedicated to comprehensive education from Kindergarten through 6th grade. The school opened with 4 classrooms and 140 students in kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade. One grade was added each year until 2004, and the first classes graduated in 2005 and 2006. A new classroom building with four more rooms was added in 2003. Funding came from a variety of sources n Sichuan, Taiwan, France, Spain and the US.

YJ School Goals

  • bringing high-quality elementary education to the children of the villages of Yangjuan, Pianshui, Zhuchang, and Gangou

  • combining a standard curriculum with an innovative curriculum that reflects the nature of the Yangjuan/Pianshui area as an ethnic community of the Nuosu people

  • bringing experts in the arts, sciences, and healing professions to conduct research on the local culture, the natural environment, and the health of the population, and eventually to translate these results into practical solutions for these remote communities

  • bringing artists and musicians to teach and learn from local children and adults

  • evolving into a self-sufficient model that can be adopted by other similar ethnic minority communities in Liangshan and elsewhere

The school hosts an innovative arts education program directed by Benoit Vermander of the Taipei Ricci Institute and Li Jinyuan of Sichuan Normal University. It is also the site of a multidisciplinary anthropological-ecological research project carried on by the Sichuan Provincial Institute for Minority Studies, Sichuan Univesity and University of Washington.

  
     


TEACHERS


STUDENTS
             
             
 

     

Sha Ziqing received scholarships for three years from CMEF to attend the Nationalities Middle School in Yanyuan County, where he graduated with high honors in 2008. In his first year, he tested 2nd in his class of 57 students from all over the county. He reported then that his favorite subject was math, because it is interesting and relevant, and because it will be a core subject if he could manage to go on to high school. We are delighted to report that Ziqing has recently tested into the prestigious Prefectural Nationalities High School in Xichang, where he will be one of CMEF's first high-school scholarship recipients.

 
             
             
             
             
 

Shen Ying started her first year at Ganhai Middle School, with a small scholarship supplement of 300 RMB, but then transferred to the Nationalities Middle School for the second semester. She thought middle school was really hard at first, but she talked to teachers and got help, and ended up testing 7th in her class of 57 students. In 2008, she will start high school at Yanyuan Nationalities Middle School.

     

 
             
             
             
 

     

Li Ajia was one of three Yangjuan Graduates to attend the prestigious Prefectural Nationalities School in Xichang, with a 2000 RMB scholarship from CMEF. He reported that he liked school a lot, and that a year in middle school has improved his Chinese dramatically. In 2008, he will attend high school with a CMEF scholarship.