Local Kids Receive Kohl's Scholarship For Volunteer Work

By Katherine Hafner

It wasn’t until Belinda Zeng visited her family in rural China that she realized how lucky she is to live in Silicon Valley.

Zeng, 17, visited Kaiyuan in the HeBei province of China in 2008, and upon meeting her aunts who did not know how to write and had almost no money, was immediately inspired to do something to help.

Zeng, a Cupertino resident, founded HEARTS, Help Everyone And Remember To Share, in 2008 as a student club at Monta Vista High School, from which she recently graduated.

The organization, now recognized as a nonprofit organization with around 50 to 100 regular members, currently sponsors the education of 32 Chinese children at the elementary level.

“We partially subsidize their educations,” Zeng said. “It gives the message that if they’re willing to work hard, it’s entirely possible to go to college.”

Zeng, along with five other Bay Area kids and teens, was rewarded for her volunteer work last week, through receiving a scholarship from Kohl’s Cares Scholarship Program.

The scholarship is funded by Kohl’s Department Stores and awards kids “for making a positive impact in their local communities,” according to a press release about the scholarship.

All recipients of the first phase of the scholarship are now eligible for a grand national prize of $10,000 – $9,000 toward their higher education and $1,000 for a charity of their choice. Winners of the 10 national scholarships are to be announced later this month, according to the press release.

Zeng will be attending Harvard College in the fall, which is where the $1,000 scholarship goes. She said she is also hoping to win the national scholarship, however, and would give the $1,000 for charity to the HEARTS organization.

Although it will not cover her Harvard education, Zeng said receiving the Kohl’s scholarship helped validate her charity work.

“It’s not exactly the financial help, it’s more the ‘we believe in you, we believe in your cause,’” Zeng said. “Maybe you really can change the world.”