NSLI-Y students in China volunteered with Grace Home, an organization that works with differently-abled local residents. After mingling with the students at Grace Home and finding a seat, participants were given an exciting performance of two songs. On the second day, NSLI-Y students returned for more activities at Grace Home, including sculpting different objects with play-doh. Students also decorated picture frames with stickers and placed pictures of them with their new friends at Grace Home in the frames. NSLI-Y student Keiondre reflected on his time at Grace Home:
“During my time at the Grace Home Community Center I enjoyed being able to interact and spend time with people of China that I don't normally encounter, those people being a portion of the Chinese disabled community. Despite their disabilities, the people of the Grace Home enthusiastically welcomed and joined us in taking part in various activities such as singing, charades, and mutual drawn portraits. It was also refreshing to realize that my Mandarin had developed to the point where I was able to communicate with the people without much problem. At one point even, the topic of conversation between my partner and I turned to discussing the CBA and NBA. Who would think that one day I would be discussing everything from the environmental conditions of China to bi-lateral basketball comparisons at a disabled home in Nanjing? Overall, my time at the Grace Home was a heartwarming experience that I'm thankful for, giving me the opportunity to communicate and interact with a part of Chinese society that is not typically represented or heard about in discourse about the modern Chinese society.”
-Keiondre, NSLI-Y China, Academic Year 2013-2014