June 2014
Lucy Miller wanted to experience more than just a few days of teaching in Shanghai; she wanted to immerse herself in rural China for a few weeks before returning to her home in England. Stepping Stones organized for her to volunteer to teach English for three weeks as a volunteer in Jiashan, a rural town, an hour’s drive southwest of Shanghai, at a school in dire need of assistance with their English classes.
Lucy is from England and had already been teaching English in China for more than two years. At the school for migrants School in Jiashan, she taught two lessons per week to grades 1-6, and one lesson per week to grades 7 and 8.
She reported that the schools were in awful disrepair and were lacking enough desks and chairs to accommodate the number of students in class. Regardless of the conditions, the students were incredibly enthusiastic. “It was amazing to see the students’ confidence in their language skills grow”, Lucy wrote in a letter to Stepping Stones.
The teachers eagerly welcomed Lucy into their school. In a heartfelt thank you note they wrote, “All good things must come to an end. If you have a chance to come back to China one day, we really hope we’ll meet again. It’s a beautiful memory in our life. We’ll never forget all of these memories.”
In response to the conditions at the school, Stepping Stones have introduced Habitat for Humanity to bring a refurbishment project there this summer, and Stepping Stones is planning on sending more volunteers to teach.