At AISG, the mission of community service is to empower our community to take action locally and globally to bring about positive change, Unite – Care - Act. Our student-led community service groups follow this mission in seeking causes to dedicate their efforts.

Over the course of the school year, we are highlighting some of our student groups in our newly themed feature, Community Service Spotlight with the purpose of increasing awareness to our AISG community and beyond of our students making a difference outside of the classroom.

Our first student group to spotlight is GIN (Global Issues Network) and we have asked them to introduce themselves and share their message. Enjoy their incredible story about helping provide education to underprivileged girls in the Shaoguan, China for over 20 years!

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Hey AISG community and beyond! We are GIN members!

We are Global Issues Network, GIN. GIN aims to solve problems across the globe. Since 2010, GIN at AISG has supported over 200 girls to continue their education. Led by student coordinators, GIN fundraises at school events. All the money earned by these fundraisers are donated to help female students currently studying in Renhua High School to finish their educational progress. In addition, GIN provides exchange opportunities between AISG students and the girls at Shaoguan, encouraging a better connection between both cultures.

 

Supporting the Shaoguan girls

Annually, GIN hosts events such as the Color Run and Trivia night as fundraisers. You might have also seen our student booth offering activities at the Family Fun Day and the Holiday Celebration. In our most popular event, the Color Run, GIN fundraises while bringing the Rams community together. We sell bottles of colored powder and allow everyone to run around spraying each other. Both students and teachers have fun at all our events. Most importantly, all profits from these activities are donated to the girls in Shaoguan to continue their education.

 

Shaoguan & Guangzhou Trip

Each year, GIN provides opportunities for cultural and conversation exchange with the girls in Shaoguan. AISG students visit Renhua High School for one day. GIN members have the chance to talk with the girls on topics such as family and schoolwork, and share their cultures with each other. During this visit, girls who have benefited and graduated from this program come back to give a speech for both GIN members and the Shaoguan girls about the Shining Star Organization. The girls from Shaoguan also have the opportunity to visit Guangzhou with GIN hosting them to see popular Guangzhou attractions like the Canton Tower.

 

Scholarship program 

The scholarship program provided by GIN subsidizes and gives underprivileged girls in Shaoguan a chance to receive an education. GIN subsidizes approximately 60 female students every year with each donor receiving an autographed letter from the student. Most of the freshman and junior year of high school students are enrolled in Renhua Secondary School. Since Shaoguan is in a poverty-stricken area of China, many rural families still maintain a patriarchal mentality. Providing education to the male child of the family becomes every family’s priority and a girl’s education is deprioritized and sent to work earlier.

 

Accomplishments 

Since GIN’s founding in 2010, GIN has supported more than 200 girls in receiving an education. Summer Tan, the founder of the Shining Star Organization, was one of the first to receive a scholarship from GIN, and she along with many other girls who have graduated, has a continuous bond with GIN. GIN has also inspired many girls to continue their education with many graduates going to universities located in Guangzhou, such as Jinan University, South China University of Technology, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, etc.

 

Shining Star Organization

In addition to providing education to the Shaoguan girls, GIN partners with Shining Star Organization, a charity organization that helps impoverished students in China. As mentioned above, the Shining Star Organization was founded by one of GIN’s first graduates of their scholarship program, Summer Tan, and she knows first-hand how education can change someone's life. She is now using her gift of education to give back to her own community and AISG is now following in her footsteps to help others. Together with the Shining Star Organization, AISG can support students in poverty in Shaoguan.

 

If you have any questions about AISG GIN or would like to offer your support in providing education to the Shaoguan girls, please email: communications@aisgz.org