Great Expectations
Through this program, high-school-age youth from extreme poverty who have shown academic promise earn high-school diplomas. The Chinese public-education system guarantees only nine years of schooling for all children. As a result, youth living in extreme poverty, regardless of their potential or past school performance, are typically forced into a life of hard labor, and they often join the high-risk floating population. Great Expectations allows these children to escape that fate and continue learning.
GCI initiated the first cohort of 80 children into the Great Expectations program in the fall of 2006 with matching financial support from the central and local government, and collaboration with an ancillary services agency. Seventy-five of our 80 students are from rural areas, 48 are female, nine have already received some kind of national award for school performance, and five have applied for or are holding patents for inventions they have created. The students began classes at Yan Qing High School #2. In the national exam, these students' scores ranged from 485 to 540 out of a total of 570, well above the minimum score (430) required for acceptance into high school.
In 2009, 100% of graduating Golden Courage students will attend college.
Our hope is to secure funds to support 200 new high school students each year for their three-year high school programs. With the strong support of government officials, business leaders and the local community, the Golden Courage students now are given an honored position in the classrooms and look forward to scholarships and support for their college experience after proving great success in the Great Expectations Program.