Youth building bridges (YBB), against common assumptions, is more than a program to earn SSL hours that look pretty on a college application. YBB is a unique program that allows high school students to experience the world outside their comfort zone by going to rural China and helping other people. My part in YBB has allowed me to grow not only as a leader, but also as a person. The physical and emotional challenges everyone faced on the trip has been instrumental in making all of us more aware of the world we live in. The responsibilities placed upon us were numerous, but everyone in the end persevered. The relationships I built with the students at the Gansu location were hard earned, but will be treasured. YBB is a program that will continuously learn from previous experience so that the coming years will be even more successful. 

YBB Responsibilities

    Being a part of YBB entails a lot of responsibilities. For me personally, I was a dorm leader whicMh meant I had to make su that our dorms were neat. Having a clean dorm was not only for aesthetic reasons, but also for sanitation reasons and just being respectful. It is within the school culture for students to keep their dorms and bathrooms neat, by adhering to school culture, YBB shows that we are different than the average student, we do not expect people to do things for us. YBBers can take care of their own business. YBB 2014 at the Gansu location had the duty of cleaning bathrooms. The very first time the girls cleaned the bathroom, our dorm took the job. I understood that being dorm leader did not justify me bossing everyone around while I stand outside. To set a good example, I was taking tongs and picking up the dirty bathroom waste along with the rest of the dorm. Even though cleaning the dorms and toilets was not the most glamorous part of the experience, it was a necessary evil. More importantly, picking up after ourselves was a matter of respect. Every single person being conscious of the environment they create shows our hosts that we are grateful for their hospitality.

Another big responsibility of mine was being a teacher in the classroom. In class, doing things like floating around the classroom to make sure every student receives the individual attention they deserve. Also, having a charged computer. This might not sound extremely important, but the kids responded very well to visuals which made the classes so much smoother. Making sure that the students knew we were taking charge in the class, and not just friends to hang out with. Out of class, preparing lessons for the next day was the most exhausting part of YBB. Our classroom group would stay up talking over how each lesson was to be taught. Coming up with games, making new lessons, fixing the more questionable lessons are just a few of the responsibilities we undertook. We endured the late nights and long days because we wanted to make sure our students got the most out of our teaching. I once stayed up to a late hour I will not mention because it was technically lights out to create powerpoints for new lessons our group made extemporaneously. Everyone in the group pulled at least one night like this because it was our job. Yes, we got tired, but everyone loved their kids.

My individual responsibilities were just a small part of the YBB's responsibility as a whole. The big one was being respectful to the culture. Growing up in America, we grew up liberal in our ideas and behavior and in Gansu the group had to make sure that we did not trample the traditional culture. Being quiet and not having everyone participate in a cacophony of noise, the girls dressing more conservatively in the hot weather, remaining conscious of Islam in the school, etc. Because the people at Gansu have never left the area, YBBers were diplomats for the US on top of being teachers. Most individual responsibilities (be polite, be patient, be professional) also work as group responsibilities. It is the duty of YBB as a whole to courteous everywhere we go and uphold an image that reflects our value and our mission. 

    My perspective on the teaching program is that it is a great way to remind us not to take things for granted. Sure we have problems: stress, schoolwork, social pressure, but that is really nothing compared  to the problems of other people.YBB let me consider how isolated some people can be. There’s a world out there in which countries go to war, parallel universes are being tested, and the kids don’t know it’s happening In Gansu, the students will have to work hard for their education to make sure they do not devolve into a life of menial labor. The high school test our students will take is notoriously difficult and many of the students think they will fail. Education has never been a problem for me. To put it simply, I am extremely lucky. I live in a town in which people judge you if the worth of your house isn’t in the millions. Because I’ve grown up here, I forgot that this kind of mentality isn’t normal. But luck is random, and not based on merit. What have I done to deserve the life I live? If my parents did not leave China, I could easily be in the position of our students in Gansu. The same goes for most people in YBB. Participating in YBB allows high school students to really think about their position in the world and how they can make a difference in the world. YBB also gives us exposure to a culture completely different from our own.

In Gansu, girls have to cover up for religious reasons. In America, girls can walk around in half-shirts and nobody blinks an eye. The most surprising thing I realized pertaining to the modesty of women, is that walking around with wet hair is considered scandalous. Interaction with such a different mindset about women helped me realize that my opinions are not the only opinions out there. Sure, I learned about the role of women in different cultures in class, but coming face to face with them is a completely surprising experience. This personal experience of mine is a fantastic example of how YBB provides important exposure to other cultures.I learned that there will be times that I need to keep quiet about my own opinions because other people are equally entitled to their own opinions.  No culture can be right, they’re just different. It is important to see other cultures up close because this creates tolerance, then acceptance. If everyone could at the very least tolerate differences in ideologies, then the world might be less inclined to point nuclear weapons at each other.

Maybe some of us might be leaders in the future, and tolerant leaders in something everyone needs. 

YBB shapes us to be effective leaders. Through the program, we learn how to bear hardship, how to take charge, how to work together, how to prepare for the worst, and how at least a small facet of the world outside our lives functions. Also, YBB teaches us skills that we can use later in life. For example, in any workplace, patience is important. The world moves very fast and people forget things are not always instantaneous. The day long train ride allowed us to practice our patience, times when kids just would not listen or late at night when everyone is irritable, our patience was tested. The overused, clichéd platitude that good things comes to those who wait nicely sums up the benefits we reaped from waiting. Obviously, learning to present ourselves as professionals and getting other people to trust us with their children is another skill we can use after school ends and we need to work. One summer in our high school years can be a stepping stone for our future.

Building Relationships

    My personal experience in building relationships with the students is one I associate with positive, sentimental feelings. At first, the language barrier and general awkwardness of meeting a group of people for the first time lead to some silences. However, teachers gradually became closer with the kids. Outside of classroom time, the students asked us to come to their dorm to spend time with them. During classroom time,  the students called us brother and sister. This level of familiarity is one the class achieved by working side by side every day. During art, the students would make us oragami and the class as a whole, hung up the art on string attached to the ceiling. In addition to the ceiling, the students also beautified the teachers with their origami. They clipped roses and hearts to our hair and proceeded to take pictures of us posing. Once, we taught a holiday lesson and allowed the students to make holiday cards for each other. The students sent us Valentine cards that said I love you and New Year’s cards and Christmas cards. Chelsea and myself gave them a very dramatic performance of a man proposing to his girlfriend on Valentines day to demonstrate what people do on Valentines day and the students laughed at our antics.. We shared a kind of ritual with the kids, they always want us to perform for them, and we would if they could answer these questions, or not make too much noise during class. Preparing for the final performance was fantastic because the students and teachers all together worked on the song and dance. Our class really put a unified front to beat everyone else’s performance. 

The moment I truly realized what a special bond we formed with the kids was the night before we had to leave. The teachers walked into night class and on the blackboard was a giant heart with all of our names in it. Surrounding the heart was one giant message from the students, and crammed underneath was many individual messages from our students telling us that they will miss us. While we read the message, the whole class sang us one last song. I can’t really describe the feeling of knowing that me, a somewhat awkward Asian teenager from New Jersey, made a real impact on students from rural China. I’ve never considered myself to be someone of significance, but all the teachers in our class somehow managed to be important enough for our kids to give us this grand farewell. 

Summary

I can definitely say that I have matured in many ways during my time at YBB. The first thing I realized is how I inconsiderate I can get towards my own teachers. It is hard keeping a class full of kids engaged. And teaching is extremely tiring. While we did not assign homework, so I can’t imagine going home to a pile of essays to grade after being on your feet for a whole day. I’m guilty of complaining that teachers don’t give assignments back fast enough, failing to recognize that lessons need to be planned and teachers just want to relax after they get home. I’ve come to learn that teaching is an act of benevolence, you spend your time helping other people. It can get difficult to work so hard, knowing that it isn’t for yourself, but to help someone else. From past experience, I know what a difference a good teacher can make. I think teaching is an underrated career because people don’t realize the benefits of teaching aren’t monetary. Being a part of YBB, I didn’t get paid since this is a service project (and I’m not a qualified teacher). But spending time with our kids is incentive enough to come back.

I would like to close my report by talking about the differences between price and value. Mrs. Teng taught us that not everything with a high price is valuable, and by the end of the trip, every YBBer has come to understand this. Price is material. Iphones, fancy cars, expensive clothes. These are things easily bought without much personal sacrifice. Things of true value can’t have a price tag slapped on them. Having a rural school go out of their way to accommodate us, that’s something that is valuable. Nobody bribed the principals to allow us to stay in their home for two weeks. Becoming friends with our students is worth more than one thousand turquoise rings. The youth building bridges program gives its participants a valuable experience.