Words From Our Volunteers

“Being part of Beyond Horizon has dramatically changed my perception towards volunteering. The mundane work that I thought would consume my time and energy has now become an extracurricular activity that harvests precious thoughts and reflection. Learning is not merely receiving knowledge, but imparting and sharing knowledge from accumulated experiences. Seeing kids develop from fledgling students who barely know the language to English speakers has truly been a rewarding experience. From the interaction with school children, I found that English is much greater than a language, but a tool that bridges culture with our daily lives. In the future, I hope to continue to help school children broaden their perspectives and promote the integration of Taiwanese with global perspectives.”

— Jeffrey Huang

“Prior to joining Beyond Horizon Youth Volunteer Organization, I was unaware of the issue of urban-rural disparity, because as a city kid, I have no previous experience in directly contacting or interacting with rural children. As a result, when my friend Jane Wu from Kang Chiao International School invited me to participate in this extracurricular activity, I doubt that my involvement will help eliminate rural-urban disparity. However, because teaching children aligns with my personal interest, I still accepted the invitation and further recruited 20 classmates to participate. After several weeks of online teaching, I discovered that the gap between rural and urban areas is not simply a matter of insufficient technological equipment but also a matter of their indifference toward the significance of English proficiency in today's rapidly changing, multicultural world. Thus, I encountered many challenges during the lessons, as they were unmotivated. In order to motivate and enabling them to realize the importance of English ability, I transformed my teaching method into interactive learning, and incorporated games & current events within my lessons that allows them to apply English to their lives. Fortunately, my hard work paid off after a year. I witnessed a noticeable improvement in their English levels, but what I found most rewarding was that they were much more enthusiastic to attend my classes. In this way, even with only 30 minutes of weekly interactions, our bond has grown stronger as time accumulates. Online English lessons not only expand the children’s English knowledge but also teach me valuable life lessons and enable me to become even more committed to bridging the urban-rural gap.”

— Annie Wu