With help from the Spring Bud Project, Zhuang Yuxuan has grown from an ordinary, rural girl into a young woman, who is studying preventive medicine at Peking University, in Beijing.

Zhuang is from a mountainous village in Yudu County, in Ganzhou, a city in East China's Jiangxi Province.

Zhuang says she knew her family's economic situation was not good when she was a child. Nevertheless, her parents did everything they could to ensure Zhuang and her siblings were raised in a harmonious and happy living environment. 

Zhuang says her parents are good-tempered, and they always support the decisions made by their children.

Zhuang's father often took her and her older brother to school, and he often picked them up after school. The routine was shattered after their father suffered a heart attack, which resulted in him having to stay home to rehabilitate. He was no longer able to perform heavy physical work. 

As a result, Zhuang's mother –– who had bone spurs on her spine, which caused her considerable pain in the back and shoulders –– became the family's sole wage earner.

The cost of Zhuang's father's medical treatment and rehabilitation placed a huge additional economic burden on the family.

When Zhuang was 17, the Spring Bud Project came into her life –– like a ray of sunshine. A high school teacher told Zhuang she qualified for financial assistance through the charity.

Since then, Zhuang has received an annual subsidy from the Spring Bud Project, and the money she has received has helped Zhuang and her family cope with economic difficulties. More importantly, the financial assistance has encouraged Zhuang to study harder.

As her parents were in poor health, Zhuang decided to study medical sciences before she wrote the national college-entrance exam last June. In August 2022, Zhuang enrolled at Peking University, where she has been majoring in preventive medicine.

Life on campus has been a new experience for Zhuang. She has spent the majority of her free time in the library, but she has taken some time to appreciate the colorful life at Peking University.

Zhuang says she is determined to follow in the footsteps of Tu Youyou, a scientist at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, and who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine for her contributions to the discovery of artemisinin (an antimalaria treatment).

Zhuang says Tu, 93, began studying pharmaceutical sciences at Peking University in 1951, and she graduated in 1955. Zhuang adds Tu discovered artemisinin after she conducted hundreds of rounds of medical experiments.

As a student at the School of Public Health of Peking University, Zhuang says she will study hard and do her utmost to live up to the school's motto of safeguarding public health.

"Preventive medicine is to prevent diseases, and to block the sources of diseases, reduce people's chances of getting the diseases in the first place and enhance the quality of people's lives, and that it covers a wide range of fields concerning public health," Zhuang says.

Zhuang is satisfied with her college life, and she is grateful for the uninterrupted assistance from the Spring Bud Project.

When she discusses her future plans, Zhuang says she looks forward to focusing on her studies, learning painting and taking part in on-campus volunteer activities.

Zhuang hopes she will be able to get involved in public-welfare projects, or even entrepreneurial initiatives, aimed at supporting and caring for underprivileged children after she graduates.