[2012-01-18] President Steve Ting: Organizational Announcement to All Shin Shin Volunteers

Dear Shin Shin volunteers,

First of all, I wish you all a healthy, happy, and prosperous Chinese New Year of Dragon!

Thank you for your passion, dedication, and generosity, we have reconstructed four elementary schools, provided needed facilities for 120 Shin Shin schools, and successfully implemented a number of important educational initiatives in 2011. There were more than 200 schools and approximately 100,000 children have benefited from this tremendous effort!   We have again made difference and impact in further improving the basic education for those disadvantaged children in poor mountainous and villages in remote corners of China.     (Please browse our newly revamped Shin Shin website for the details of the excellent work and result.)

To kick off the New Year, I want to take this opportunity to announce several leadership changes of the Operation Team:

Because of their personal demands, three leaders and our beloved friends have decided to take a break for a different or less active role from their current Shin Shin responsibilities.  They are Ms. Liuping (Director of Facility Improvement/RM Coordination and Hubei RM), Ms. Lihua Jin  (Qinghai RM), and Ms. Mily Tsou (Rotary Liaison/Ambassador).   Their years of tireless contribution and leadership are truly appreciated.

We want to warmly welcome two very passionate and well respected volunteers to join the Cabinet and take on added and/or new Shin Shin responsibilities.

Ms. Teresa Wu (Director, Facility Improvement/RM Coordination).  Teresa joined Shin Shin in 2008 and was a Hunan RM and University Outreach manager.   Her dedication and hard work have impressed many Shin Shin volunteers and Hunan government agencies and Shin Shin schools there.   She graduated from the Graduate Institute of Information and Computer Education of Taiwan Normal University and education has always been her passion and focus.   She is very actively involved in Chinese language schools locally and works as a teacher.   Teresa was born and grew up in Taiwan and is a Hunan descendant.

Dr. Jian He (Director, IT).   Given the fast and ever changing IT technologies and applications, this newly created Cabinet position allows us to stay focused and take good advantage of many latest IT services to collaborate and outreach internally as well as externally.   She joined Shin Shin family in 2006, is an in-house IT expert, and most recently has led a team to successfully revamp the Shin Shin website.   Jian grew up in Sichuan mountainous regions, and earned her Bachelor degree in computer engineering from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, and Master and PhD degrees in computer science from Virginia Tech.

Several key Regional Mangers (RMs) and Program Managers (PMs) are appointed:

Ms. Jingjing Guo assumes Hunan RM position from Teresa Wu.   Jingjing is a Hunan native and has been working as a SM (School Manager) in Hunan since joining Shin Shin in 2009.   She earned an advanced degree in biomedical science from Texas A&M University.  Jingjing is currently in the real estate business.

Ms. Junyi Xu assumes Qinghai RM position from Lihua Jin.   Junyi joined Shin Shin in 2005 and has been actively involved in several key programs including Gansu school manager, ECTT, and eLearning.   She graduated from Tsinghua University and is currently working as an engineering staff at Marvell.

Mr. Xiangjun Dong assumes Hubei RM position from Liuping.   Xiangjun grew up in Heilingjiang Province, graduated from Tsinghua University, and came to the States in late 90s.   He joined Shin Shin a year ago and has been actively involved in University Outreach program.  Because of this program, he personally visited Shin Shin school in Hunan last summer.    He is a high tech ASIC design professional for the computing and networking industry.

Mr. Weiping (Victor) Liu assume Guangxi and Hainan RM position from Stephanie Wang who has decided to focus on other Shin Shin functions.   Weiping joined Shin Shin several months ago and has demonstrated his passion and interest in helping those disadvantaged children in rural China.    He has 20+ years of software development experience and is currently with Barnes & Noble working on the Nook device.

Ms. Hui Xu is acting as Jiangxi RM from Mr. Wen Yuan who will focus his effort for ECTT in Gansu Province.   Hui is one of the most seasoned volunteers and currently a Cabinet member in charge of new schools construction/renovation.   Hui holds advanced degrees of Master in economics and MBA, and is VP, Portfolio Manager and Financial Advisor at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

Ms. Jing Sun is appointed as the University Outreach manager position from Teresa Wu overseeing the overall operation of this program with other team members who are working with several universities in China.   She was instrumental in bringing Jilin University as part of this program to fruition.  Jing graduated from Jilin University and is currently an engineering staff at Google.

Ms. Gigi Lam assumes the Rotary Liaison/Ambassador responsibility from Mily Tsou.    She is also a member of Rotary Club of Cupertino which is one of Shin Shin’s long term and most important partners.   Gigi was born in Hong Kong, came to Bay Area 16 years ago, and graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Statistics.  She is currently with NUMMI in Fremont where she is leading corporate transitional planning, business analysis, and public relations.

Again, let’s work together to further raise the level of education and literacy in rural China and help those disadvantaged children to realize their full potential!