1,500 children receive unique Soong Ching Ling scholarships
Children are presented the Soong Ching Ling Scholarship in Shanghai on May 31, 2018.
More than 100 children were presented the Soong Ching Ling Scholarship on Thursday in Shanghai, representing the total of 1,532 winners from all over the country.
Each of them received 500 yuan (US$78) from the scholarship, but it was the honor that mainly made them excited.
The scholarship, launched in 1994 by the Ministry of Education, the China Welfare Institute and the Soong Ching Ling Foundation, is the only national scholarship in China for students in the nine-year compulsory education period.
It aims to promote the great spirit of Soong Ching Ling, the late honorary president of the People's Republic of China, and encourage students to become morally good, knowledgeable and capable persons.
The winners were honored for their outstanding performance in various areas, such as study, dedication in volunteering, succeeding out of adversity, exploration in science, enthusiasm in innovation and caring for others.
They include Jiang Yuyan, a seventh-grader at Shaoxing Jiangong Middle School in Zhejiang Province.
She lost her right arm and leg when she was run over by a truck at the age of 4. But with diligent training day after day, she made her way to become a champion in national and international swimming competitions, including a gold prize in the 100-meter women's freestyle at last year’s Asian Youth Para Games.
Another winner is Pan Tianshun, a sixth-grader in Tianjin. He has been learning martial arts since he was 6, overcoming boring and toilsome practice to win various martial arts competitions.
His persistence won him the honor of lighting the torch at the 13th National Games of the People’s Republic of China last year in Tianjin.
Li Yiyuan, a sixth-grader in Fujian Province who has traveled more than 1,200 kilometers to deliver over 1,000 letters, newspapers and magazines to villagers in Shanchong Village since September 2014, is also a recipient of this year’s scholarship.
The winners will also participate in a five-day camp to visit Soong Ching Ling's former residence and memorial, the site of the first National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Shanghai Natural History Museum and other sites around the city.
