Mark Moran - my official artist profile -alivenotdead.com

Send Jennifer to China!

I would like to tell you a bit about my friend, Jennifer.

I have two best friends in the world (not including Ruhi, who gets a special status higher than best friend). Two people that I have a very special bond with and can literally talk to about anything. One of them is Jennifer Wang.

jennifer in Shandong Province, China, 2006

She would be too embarassed to do this herself, so I am taking the initiative to help her out of a bind.

You see, one of Jennifer’s passions is China. She really loves China. And as a result she is very serious about learning Chinese. After a long time away from school, she recently went back to school to get her degree in Chinese Language, which, as someone who once tried to go back to school himself, is not an easy thing to motivate one’s self to do. She left a good paying job at an advertising agency to fulfill her dream and put herself through school and get her degree.

Now, although she has spent some time in China before, in order to really get good at a language it is necessary to really study the language intensely in the native environment: China. She was recently accepted to a wonderful study abroad program through her University at Beijing University (Beijing Da Xue), the BEST university in a country of 1.6 billion people. It is a great chance for her to really pursue her dream and follow her passion.

Jennifer waiting outside a store in Beijing, China – 2006

However, in all of this, there was snaffoo with the timing of her Student Loan payment. She will not be receiving the next student loan payment until she has already been in China for over a month. The problem with that is that she needs that money to pay for books, lodging and food for the first several weeks. It isn’t a ton of money. Just a few hundred dollars. But it isn’t something she has readily available.

And the clock is ticking. She is leaving in less than a week and needs to come up with the money IMMEDIATELY.

It is down to the wire.

Now, the reason I’m taking the initiative to do this is because of a few reasons:

She isn’t the sort of person who feels comfortable asking people for money. I can relate to that. I don’t like asking people for money either. It is a very uncomfortable thing to do. But I have NO problem asking on someon else’s behalf. Especially someone awesome like her.
It isn’t a hand-out. It is just bad timing on the part of the student loan payment. She isn’t needy or destitute, but she really could use help on fulfilling this part of her life.
She is an important person to me and I want to help her in any way I can. I would give her the money myself if I had it, but I don’t. So I’m reaching out to my extended network of friends, family and co-horts.

I have set up a donation button through paypal, which you can use to send whatever you like. $2. $5. $20. It doesn’t matter. Every little bit helps. And in this economy I’m well aware that it isn’t easy to scrape together money for something like this.

Jennifer in Beijing, 2005

But if you can do it, I promise that it will go towards something worthwhile. Not just the fulfillment of her dream of studying in China, but an opportunity to help educate and motivate someone to really excel at something they are really good at.

Her grades are top notch — she was on the Dean’s list every quarter she’s been back in school. She is one of the smartest people I’ve ever known — literally. She understands and knows Chinese culture so this isn’t someone who is just going for a fun year abroad — she is SERIOUS about studying Chinese and China.

And she really deserves this opportunity to study in China.

So, if you can, please help out. I don’t want to sound like Sally Struthers getting food for kids in Africa, because it obviously isn’t as dire as that. But to me this is important, and whenever we have a chance to help out someone fulfill their purpose in life, I think it is something worthwhile to be a part of.

Whatever you can do is very much appreciated.

THANK YOU! XIE XIE!