Rebecca Chang — Rebecca on the Job!
Meet 21-year-old Rebecca Chang, the first graduate of Half the Sky’s Big Sister’s program to become a full-fledged staff-member in our Beijing office. Rebecca, grew up in the Jiamusi Children’s Welfare Institution in Heilongjiang Province.
Our newest intern, with the help of HTS' Big Sisters program, studied at Heilongjiang University in Harbin for four years, majoring in economic law. Rebecca says she would not have been able to graduate from a university without the financial support of the Big Sisters program: “Without Half the Sky’s help I would have gone straight into the workforce.”
After graduation, Rebecca did go into the workforce. An internship led to a job selling adspace for a legal newspaper. But when she was offered a job at Half the Sky she jumped at it: “I have always been helped by other people. It has always been part of my dream to have the opportunity to help others.”
In particular, Rebecca says, “I would like to help people with similar backgrounds.”
For children growing up in institutions, Rebecca says Half the Sky’s programs offer a wonderful chance for healthy emotional and cognitive development. With nurture, children learn they are loved and with an enriched environment they are prepared to study in school: “Most of the children in institutions receive only a basic education of nine years and they are not exposed to extracurricular activities like art and music,” says Rebecca. That makes it more difficult for them to succeed in school and for them to develop a love of learning.
Rebecca’s love of learning continues unabated even though she has already graduated from college. In addition to her job, Rebecca is taking English classes at night school. Because Heilongjiang is the Chinese province closest to Russia, Rebecca has studied Russian but not English. Rebecca’s goal is “to be able to fully communicate in English with all of Half the Sky’s staff.”
Though she no longer lives in Heilonjiang, Rebecca still has strong ties there. She is in “constant communication” with the workers at Jiamusi Children’s Institution where she grew up. “They are very happy and proud of me, but they also feel I am extremely lucky.” Rebecca agrees.
n fact, she believes she was destined to connect with Half the Sky, which has not only helped her with her education, but also given her the opportunity to help others.