Today @ UCI
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Exerpt from Today @ UCI Website
Student director of the UCI earthquake relief fund Campus responds to crisis Led by doctoral student Wei Li, UCI mobilizes an emergency relief effort for victims of the China quake (05.30.2008)
When Wei Li, a second-year doctoral student in planning, policy and design, first learned of the devastating earthquake in his native China, he did what any good son would do: He phoned home.
Li’s parents live in Henan Province, 800 miles from the epicenter in Wenchuan County, but they still felt the ground shake. When Li called, his mother had been watching TV and seeing the bodies of the young children who died when their schools collapsed. She sobbed into the phone. That was all it took:
“Hearing my mother cry prompted me to do something,” Li says.
Li immediately began mobilizing a UCI earthquake relief effort. Over the next week, he slept only a few hours a night, working late to quickly organize campus and community fundraisers. He created posters, banners and donation boxes with his friends, and sent e-mails asking for help. Soon he had more than 40 volunteers (see list below), many of them members of Chinese student groups at UCI. He also had invaluable support from Manuel Gómez, vice chancellor of student affairs, and Sherwynn Umali, assistant director of the Cross-Cultural Center; they helped mobilize the campus and procure a site for the fundraiser.
On Thursday and Friday, May 15-16, the relief effort set up a donation booth at the UCI Student Center and collected $23,342. More than 1,000 students, faculty and other campus community members made donations.
“We were so moved by people’s kindness,” Li says. “People would stop and ask us if our families were O.K.”
The donations included a $5,000 gift from Dr. Robert Detrano, professor of radiological sciences and president of the China California Heart Watch (www.chinacal.org), a nonprofit organization that offers treatment and training to stem the rising incidence of hypertension and cardiovascular disease in China’s rural areas. Anteaters for Israel donated a day’s proceeds from their lunch fundraiser on Ring Road.
“The money we raised is great, but we also raised awareness that when people are in need, UCI cares,” Li says.
The group also spent the weekend raising $2,456 at a local church and $5,539 from 99 Ranch Market in Irvine, bringing the total to $31,337, which Li sent to the Red Cross Society of China. (He is still accepting donations: E-mail him at wli3@uci.edu.)
Li worked the booth all four days from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., during a heat wave that sent temperatures into triple digits.
“Every volunteer was a flagpole, standing there in the sun. We worked so hard as a cohesive team,” he says. “Nobody complained about the heat.”
Li also raised more than $3,000 last February for victims of snowstorms in China. His group will hold a candlelight vigil for the quake victims at 7-8 p.m. Sunday, June 1, at the UCI flagpoles. The event will include a performance by the Irvine Young Concert Artists.
“What I’ve learned from this is that people have good hearts,” he says. “They want to do something. They just need encouragement to act.”
— Kathryn Bold, University Communications
http://today.uci.edu/Features/profile_detail.asp?key=353
Exerpt from Today @ UCI Website
Student director of the UCI earthquake relief fund Campus responds to crisis Led by doctoral student Wei Li, UCI mobilizes an emergency relief effort for victims of the China quake (05.30.2008)
When Wei Li, a second-year doctoral student in planning, policy and design, first learned of the devastating earthquake in his native China, he did what any good son would do: He phoned home.
Li’s parents live in Henan Province, 800 miles from the epicenter in Wenchuan County, but they still felt the ground shake. When Li called, his mother had been watching TV and seeing the bodies of the young children who died when their schools collapsed. She sobbed into the phone. That was all it took:
“Hearing my mother cry prompted me to do something,” Li says.
Li immediately began mobilizing a UCI earthquake relief effort. Over the next week, he slept only a few hours a night, working late to quickly organize campus and community fundraisers. He created posters, banners and donation boxes with his friends, and sent e-mails asking for help. Soon he had more than 40 volunteers (see list below), many of them members of Chinese student groups at UCI. He also had invaluable support from Manuel Gómez, vice chancellor of student affairs, and Sherwynn Umali, assistant director of the Cross-Cultural Center; they helped mobilize the campus and procure a site for the fundraiser.
On Thursday and Friday, May 15-16, the relief effort set up a donation booth at the UCI Student Center and collected $23,342. More than 1,000 students, faculty and other campus community members made donations.
“We were so moved by people’s kindness,” Li says. “People would stop and ask us if our families were O.K.”
The donations included a $5,000 gift from Dr. Robert Detrano, professor of radiological sciences and president of the China California Heart Watch (www.chinacal.org), a nonprofit organization that offers treatment and training to stem the rising incidence of hypertension and cardiovascular disease in China’s rural areas. Anteaters for Israel donated a day’s proceeds from their lunch fundraiser on Ring Road.
“The money we raised is great, but we also raised awareness that when people are in need, UCI cares,” Li says.
The group also spent the weekend raising $2,456 at a local church and $5,539 from 99 Ranch Market in Irvine, bringing the total to $31,337, which Li sent to the Red Cross Society of China. (He is still accepting donations: E-mail him at wli3@uci.edu.)
Li worked the booth all four days from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., during a heat wave that sent temperatures into triple digits.
“Every volunteer was a flagpole, standing there in the sun. We worked so hard as a cohesive team,” he says. “Nobody complained about the heat.”
Li also raised more than $3,000 last February for victims of snowstorms in China. His group will hold a candlelight vigil for the quake victims at 7-8 p.m. Sunday, June 1, at the UCI flagpoles. The event will include a performance by the Irvine Young Concert Artists.
“What I’ve learned from this is that people have good hearts,” he says. “They want to do something. They just need encouragement to act.”
— Kathryn Bold, University Communications
http://today.uci.edu/Features/profile_detail.asp?key=353
Korea Daily News
어바인 시청 앞에서 IYCA 오케스트라의 한인 학생들이 즉석 연주를 선보이고 있다. 뒷줄 왼쪽 두번째가 강석희 어바인 부시장.
한인 청소년들이 주축이 된 '어바인 영 콘서트 아티스트(IYCA) 오케스트라'(단장 리어나드 류)가 오는 8월 베이징에서 올림픽 축하공연을 갖는다. 또 중국 공연에 앞서 서울 노원구와 경기도에서도 각각 한 차례씩 협연을 갖기로 했다.
대만계 바이얼리니스트 앨버트 우씨가 지휘를 맡고 있는 IYCA는 어바인과 인근 지역 학생들로 이루어진 오케스트라로 단원의 60% 가량이 한인이다.
지휘자인 우씨는 "2년 전부터 중국 당국 및 각 도시 관계자들과 접촉 올림픽 축하공연을 기획했다. 학생들에게 평생 잊지 못할 추억이 될 것"이라고 말했다.
IYCA는 7월 28일부터 8월 7일까지 상하이와 텐진 시안 항저우 베이징 등 중국의 다섯 개 도시에서 8차례 콘서트를 가질 예정이며 이에 앞서 7월 23일과 24일에는 경기도 성남아트홀과 노원구 콘서트홀에서도 특별공연을 한다.
한국 공연은 우씨가 강석희 어바인 부시장에게 "단원 중 상당수가 한인인 만큼 중국에 가는 길에 한국에서도 공연을 하면 좋겠다"고 부탁해 성사됐다.
IYCA는 노원구 청소년 오케스트라와 협연을 하며 두 공연 모두 피날레를 한국민요 '아리랑'으로 장식한다.
조인트 콘서트를 주선한 강 부시장은 "한인 학생들을 포함한 단원 모두가 이 기회에 한국과 한국 문화에 친숙해지길 기대한다"고 말했다.
바이올린 연주자인 이인제군은 "여러 오케스트라에서 활동해 봤지만 한국과 올림픽 개막을 앞둔 중국에서 공연하게 될 줄은 몰랐다. 정말 꿈같은 일"이라고 기쁨을 감추지 못했다.
한편 이번 콘서트 투어엔 크리스틴 황 줄리 황 최유니 이인제 데이비드 박 헤더 윤 폴 정 크리스틴 이 우태영 미셸 이 지텐 다지 루펜 다지 헬레나 밸브 로라 밸브 등 한인 학생 14명이 참가한다.
임상환 기자 limsh@koreadaily.com
신문발행일 :2008. 04. 01
수정시간 :2008. 3. 31 20: 46
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Letter From the Mayor
