The Sunrise Alumni Club—Giving Back to Those in Need

Sunrise scholarship recipients, grateful for the opportunities given to them by our organization, are now giving back to those in need through the Shanghai Sunrise Alumni Club.

Qu Ting, a former administrative assistant in the Sunrise office, first thought of the idea of forming an Alumni Club in spring 2010 when fellow Sunrise alumni Zhai XiaoWei and Shen LiLi approached her with the desire to contribute toward a student scholarship. Thinking that more alumni would jump at the chance to give back, she promptly called all Sunrise alumni and invited them to donate funds toward a scholarship for a current student.

The donations added up and this year the Sunrise Alumni Club was able to sponsor twin brothers Xia YaMin and Xia YaQin. About 20 Sunrise graduates pooled their money to fund the brothers’ high school tuition for one year. The Club hopes that alumni will continue to donate funds to help the brothers finish University.  As Qu Ting notes, “Maybe only one can just donate 500 RMB, but if there are 10 people, it will be 5000 RMB.”

The group is eager to recruit more members in the future. Cai DanPing, another former Sunrise administrative assistant and scholarship recipient, remarks, “We hope every graduate can join us no matter how much they can donate. We just hope the Sunrise Alumni club will help more and more students and will be a symbol to let people know, we, the students from poor families, if you give the help to us, first, we will have a different future and we also will continue the love to others.”

With new graduates soon joining the Sunrise alumni ranks, Qu Ting is hopeful that the group will expand beyond its current 16 members. In her words, “…we all have a heart to return. There are a lot of people who help us in our life, maybe we cannot return to all, but we try to find a way to help others. We feel happy to do that.”

If you are a Sunrise alumnus who would like to give back, contact Cai DanPing or Qu Ting for more information.