The 2024 Tencent Mini E Innovation Camp & Spring Bud Sci-Tech Literacy Camp was held from January 24 to 27 by China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF) and Chinese tech giant Tencent in Shenzhen, a city in South China's Guangdong Province.

With the theme, "Technology Drives the Realization of Dream and Empowers Culture", the four-day camp drew the attendance of 30 Spring Bud girls from Northwest China's Gansu Province and Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. The girls further improved their sci-tech and cultural literacy, gained a deeper self-understanding and made breakthroughs of themselves in the process.

As an important component of the Spring Bud Girls' Sci-Tech and Music Literacy Advancement Project, the camp has been held twice in Beijing. Since 2021, it has raised the donation of the digital facilities, organized online courses, invited volunteers and other participants to visit the Spring Bud girls in their homes, promoted the interactions between the Spring Bud girls and their supporters, and carried out cross-discipline sci-tech innovation education activities in a move to help the girls and rural teachers further bolster their comprehensive competence in the digital era.

Product tutors and design experts of Tencent were invited to open two courses under the theme of cultural creative product design and interactive product design. The girls were guided to focus on the positive sides of technology and translate personal understanding of animal protection and cultural inheritance into tangible digital products.

Ling Yun, supervisor of youth sci-tech learning center in Tencent, said that since March 2021, the center has engaged in in-depth cooperation with the CCTF on the enhancement of sci-tech literacy of the Spring Bud girls, the building of diverse learning scenarios and the implementation of talent cultivation schemes in a drive to help the girls better master and employ Internet-related digital technologies.

Zhuang Junlian, head of Tencent Mini E Talent Cultivation program, said that the charitable program is mainly designed to encourage the Spring Bud girls to make full use of their unique perspectives and mental strength and explore the fast development of the sci-tech world. She added that she is delighted to see that they have made notable progress in their mental exercise, technical skills and social expression.

 

At the class of cultural creative product design, the girls studied the guiding principles of Tencent files and theme skin products and used Procreate painting tools to successfully design innovative skins associated with rare animals in their hometowns, such as wolves, lesser pandas and musk deer.

At the class of interactive product design, the girls were shown the development process of smartphone apps and the significance of interactive design. They followed hot social issues, pondered over the utilization of Internet technologies in solving concrete problems, and produced several highly practical apps that are related to the sales of agricultural products, the employment of college graduates, and the physical and mental health of pregnant women.

At the closing ceremony of the camp, Zhang Yi, a Spring Bud girl from Gansu, said that she has found her future path through attending the camp. Shi Meiting, who comes from Chongqing, said that she has acquired new knowledge and technology, gained a deep understanding of the charm of sci-tech innovation, and built friendship with other participants in the midst of their teamwork.

Xi Jianhua, a teacher from Gangou Middle School from Gansu, said that the camp will help young trainees further expand personal horizons and help them become more decisive about their future, especially the selection of college majors.