United Planet volunteer, Holly Hornbeck, traveled to China for a 4 week volunteer Group Quest in 2013, where she worked with children at an after school program. We had the pleasure of catching up with Holly, who is also our Campus Outreach Intern at Bowdoin College.
At sixteen Holly was looking for something fun to do in summer when she came across United Planet. Being so young, her parents were very comfortable with United Planet’s safety and structure.
Holly was a little intimidated to fly over to China by herself. But as soon as she got to Beijing, she was greeted by United Planet staff and one of the volunteers and it made her feel comfortable right away. During her Quest, Holly was together with a group of volunteers from the US, which really helped her limit the culture shock, as they all went through the new experiences together.
“All of the volunteers were so friendly, smart, and it was an overall great environment to be in.”
On her Quest, Holly taught English at a rural summer school that was optional for children to attend. American volunteers were split into groups and paired with Chinese English major college students. They worked collaboratively to come up with lesson plans, switching between styles of teaching and topics. Since US volunteers did not speak Mandarin, this collaboration was very beneficial to maintain a good level of understanding between American volunteers and Chinese students.
Throughout the program, Holly tried as much as she could to make an impact on the children that she was working with. After teaching the children at school, she played with them and organized various activities. Even though Holly did not speak Mandarin, she managed to communicate with the children using sign language. Holly was able to build strong relationships with children and was very surprised that such a deep bond could be formed without language.
Holly realized how deep the relationship grew at the end of program, when there was a big graduation for students. She remembered how two female students, who were some of the best in her class, stayed after everyone left the room. They had their heads down and when they looked up at Holly she saw that they were crying. The children said, “We’re going to miss you.” Then they handed Holly a long letter that said that they really wanted to become a teacher just like her. Holly was very touched that the students cared so much about their relationship.
Before going on her Quest, Holly did not really know what she wanted to do with her life. This experience showed her that she can be happy all the time as long as she is helping people. China Summer Program shaped Holly’s career plans, and she decided to go into education policy.
“I now have an urge to help people, as it really is something that makes me happy. My United Planet Quest really helped me realize that. It changed the way I treat my friends and family, as making them happy makes me happy.”
Are you interested in teaching English in China? You can learn more about China Summer Quest here.
ABOUT UNITED PLANET
United Planet is a non-profit organization with a mission to create a global community, one relationship at a time. Established in 2001, United Planet offers volunteer abroad, virtual internships, internships abroad, gap year volunteering, and global virtual exchange in more than 40 countries.
