Today we’d like to introduce you to Vilma Seeberg.
Hi Vilma, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started the Guanlan Scholarship project in 2000 because of three powerful ideas:
– Going to school makes a life-changing difference for village girls in remote China. Suddenly their families and community saw them as valuable, legitimate young scholars.
– it is a rare gift to be able to help another person, a community, and right a wrong.
– This is a chance to pay back a gift given to me by a village family somewhere in China, the gift of a daughter to bring home and complete my family, my daughter Zoë Guanlan.
It has been a joy to be able to witness the Guanlan Sisters use the Scholarships to make new lives for themselves and their families over these past 22 years. This year we are focusing on going online with our fundraising activities.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Anything worth doing will have challenges and you will encounter failures that teach. If it’s worth doing, miracles too will happen. Our miracle was finding a local villager who with his wife took on the challenge of vetting worthy scholarship recipients and getting the scholarships to them. He and his wife have created a local nongovernmental children’s aid center and help out in ways that as a foundation far away we cannot even perceive. This had been our main obstacle, finding a local welfare agency interested in working with us because they understand what a wealth of talent was hidden in the villages. Now that we and the local NGO have built a thriving welfare center, the government institution has signed on with support.
Another obstacle is that not many Chinese Americans have a philanthropic mindset, it is a new way of thinking that America has fostered. We are trying to connect with Chinese Americans who understand that our fortunes are tied together with the many young Chinese girls and their families and that peace needs us all to lift each other with honesty and humility.
Going online with our fundraising is the route we’ve chosen to realize this goal. Going online as a philanthropic agency is a challenge all its own. Luckily we have found young volunteers to help, but expertise in online marketing remains a challenge.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I have spent a career as a comparative international education scholar and faculty member at a midwest university.
Prior to that I had helped found a street academy for middle and high school dropouts in the midwest before accepting a position at a university in China for a most life-changing year. I have taught myself to understand the place of schooling in society, in emerging market societies such as China, in developed market societies such as the U.S., and in old Europe. What I am known for is understanding the driving forces of how societies respond to people’s wishes to educate themselves.
What sets me apart is that I look to foster in people their capabilities, aspirations, and willingness to act to gain a better and more fulfilling life for themselves and their communities. I where I can act on my intellectual passion and make a real-world difference that does Good. Period.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
At every turn in my life, there is some serendipity. How is it that my parents, coming out of the devastation of WWII-Shoa, could bring us to sunny Washington, DC? So many worldwide confluences made that happen. Similarly, my invitation to teach in China came as if out of the blue.
Accidentally finding the perfect job, a faculty position in a university nearby was luck? Becoming a mom to a wonderful daughter, fortune. Starting a scholarship fund in a village that produced a son who would take this on as his life’s work, could have gone many different ways. Every challenge, every failure, and stress sometimes lead to and sometimes was offset by moments of luck and moments of achievement. Start your day with gratitude, get done what you can, do GOOD, be kind, and start over again the next day. Smile.
The Guanlan Scholarship Foundation is always looking for volunteer help in media production, social media marketing, and communicating with the Guanlan Sisters!
Pricing:
- Donation of $75 for one year of primary & junior secondary school
- Donation of $150-$130 for one year of senior secondary school
- Donation of any amount is most welcome
Contact Info:
- Website: guanlanscholarshipfoundation.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guanlanscholarship/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GuanlanScholarshipFoundation
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mis5i1x_VGI
Image Credits
Dr. Vilma Seeberg and B.L. Pang
