Who We Are

The SOAR Foundation was founded in 1995 in the San Francisco Bay Area by a group of people who cared deeply about education in China.

Each scholarship is a seed that has the potential not only to change the life of the recipients and their families, but also to affect positively the society and its civil progression. SOAR earnestly seeks your support for this forward-looking undertaking.

The SOAR headquarters in the United States is staffed by volunteers who receive no remuneration, financially or otherwise. Expenses on transportation, meals, student-visit trips in China, etc., are entirely funded by volunteers. Members of the foundation receive updates and financial reports twice a year.

Education in China

Since the “Reform and Opening”, China has made great strides in universal access to education. Literacy has risen to over 96%. Nine-year compulsory education is the rule. Enrollment at high school and university levels has grown significantly, reaching respectively 86.5% and 37.5% in 2014, not much lower than the same-year figures of the United States: 95% and 40%.

But resources and opportunities are not equally available to rural population. A study published in 2016 revealed that over 50% of middle school graduates from extremely poor families in farming villages did not attend high school.

In terms of expenditure per student by educational institutions, China spent less than 1/4 of OECD average in a 2011 report. There are still many areas in education that can use help from private funds.