At Evergreen Education Foundation, we are dedicated to fostering educational equity through various innovative programs designed to support children and communities in both rural China and the United States. Our initiatives are rooted in the belief that providing access to quality education and development resources is crucial in building sustainable futures. Below are the core programs we are passionate about:
Current Initiatives & Projects
Present Focus
Educational Opportunities
EEF supports project-based learning, enhances literacy with Household Reading Sites, and offers workshops. Additionally, it connects students to global STEM challenges, fostering cross-cultural learning.
Evergreen Family Story Initiative
The Family Stories Project preserves family stories through interviews and digital archiving. As a pilot, it lays the foundation for a scalable initiative, ensuring these voices are recorded and shared for future generations.
Household Library Literacy Program
Partnering with Prof. Zizhou Wang at Peking University, the Rural Library Reading Corners with Small Project aims to elevate reading, science, technology, health, and cultural literacy level that tailors to community needs.
1-6 Early Childhood Play Center
Partnering with Humana People to People, the Parenting and Play Centers in rural Teng Chong City, China, support early childhood (1-6) development, reducing delays and enhancing cognitive, language, and social skills.
Past Initiatives & Projects
Previous Focus
Initiatives
EEF’s past initiatives include science education through hands-on project-based learning, oral interviews and preservation, community ICT training to bridge the digital divide, and health education to improve awareness and preventive care in rural communities.
Library Automation
EEF supported library automation by providing hardware and software to enhance circulation and service evaluation. By 2012, we had successfully automated 18 libraries. Thereafter, EEF shifted focus to provide small projects for collaboration.
Scholarships
EEF provides scholarships to high-achieving, financially needy students in rural China. Since 2001, EEF has granted 1930+ scholarships spanning 9 provinces in China. We have supported over 677 individual students, with over 160 students entering universities.
Programs
EEF’s small projects have helped libraries enhance services. Schools use them for project-based learning, while public libraries use them to engage communities in education, health, and culture. Projects emphasize measurable outcomes and experiential learning.
International Conferences
EEF’s Information Technology in Education (ITIE) conferences were curated to promote the communication of ideas, methodologies, and practical experiences. It is a gathering of educators, library practitioners, academics, researchers, and NGO members from around the world.
Professional Workshops
From 2002-2018, EEF organized biennial training workshops. Topics were selected based on the most pressing needs. Participants include Evergreen staff, Chinese educators, librarians, academics, and international experts, providing systematic training on best practices and methodologies.
International Exchanges
EEF actively collaborates with international library organizations, presenting papers at IFLA and IASL conferences and connecting EEF partners with prominent libraries like Dokk1 to showcase their work. We also sponsored teachers to attend international workshops.
Academic Publications
EEF has published papers at IFLA, Library Trend, and IASL on EEF’s service model in China, EEF library impact studies, and educational practices in rural China. EEF also translated publications into Chinese, including the Design Thinking Playbook; the Chinese version was debuted at ITIE 2016.