In January of 1998, North American Chinese Educational foundation (NACEF) along with Chinese Youth Development Foundation (CYDF) and Association of Chinese Students and Scholars at Stanford (ACSSS) launched the Event: China Project Hope - Fund Raising in North America. CYDF’s China Project Hope is the most influential public event in China in the l990s. In the past ten years, Project Hope, a name known by almost every household in China and by most overseas Chinese, has received donations totaling over US$200 million. The fund raised has supported over 2 million Chinese primary school dropouts to return to school and has built over 7,000 hope schools in China. The Project Hope - Fund Raising in North America ‘98 & ‘99 has been joined by Chinese student associations in 33 universities like Harvard, MIT, Columbia, UC Berkeley, CalTech, and Toronto, and by a couple of Chinese community organizations like North American Chinese Network and Southwest China Association as chief-co-organizers and cosponsors. The objective of China Project Hope - Fund Raising in North America ‘98 & ‘99 is to motivate and unite organizations and individuals who are concerned about the educational development of China. This project seeks to sponsor the return to school of millions of children who were forced to drop out because of sheer poverty.
Fund Raising in North America is the first time China Project Hope has been publicly staged in North America. Envisioned and planned by Chinese students studying abroad at the most prestigious universities in United States, this event possesses great significance. It shows that the overseas Chinese’s wish to support their country by showing a united front. We want to help to actualize the plan to educate the Chinese youth and to further the technological advancement of China.

The first donor to the event is Professor Steve Chu, winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize for physics. Professor Chu made the donation after he heard of the event in early Jan. He said he would be happy to do something for the poor Chinese school dropouts. He urged more people to join our efforts. The Fund Raising in North America  has caught a great attention among public, so far the project have received funds which was used to support 320 dropouts back to schools.

Dr. C.J. Huang (Chang Jen Huang)
Dr. Huang is a partner at venture capital firm H&W Development LLC. He served as the Chairman of the Board at Summit Oil Co. Bangkok and Vice Chairman of Oceanic Petroleum Corporation in the 80’s. Dr. Huang received his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Wuhan University in China and his master’s degree in Civil Engineering from University of Michigan in the United States. Dr. Huang has been actively involved in numerous charitable projects and organization. Because of his outstanding accomplishments, in 1995, the City of San Francisco declared December 29 as C.J. Huang day in San Francisco.
Tung-Yen Lin (T. Y. Lin)
Internationally known engineer and educator T. Y. Lin is a professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering at University of California at Berkeley. He is best known as the designer of the massive arches that hold up Moscone Center in Scan Francisco. T. Y. Lin graduated from Jiaotong University of China with a bachelor’s degree and received a M. S. degree in civil Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. He received numerous awards and four honorary doctorate degrees from the US, Hong Kong, and China. He is recognized as the first overseas Chinese to have proposed the development of Pudong, Shanghai.
Ting, Shao Kuang
Mr. Ting is a professor in Chinese Painting, History of Eastern Art, History of Western Art, Oil Painting, and Woodcut. He graduated from Central Art and Craft Institute of Beijing, China with the highest honor and was admitted to the National Chinese Artists Association. Mr. Ting was the official artist of United Nations in 1995, responsible for planning and releasing a series of six postage stamps for “International Year of Woman”. He is an honorary professor at Central Art and Craft Institute, Beijing, at Shanghai University of Art and Shansi University.