Brightening the Future - UNNC Student Civic Engagement (SCE) was originated from the summer social practice (SSP). With the development of volunteering, the students' participation in civic engagement have been enriched and improved. In addition, the sub-projects have been continuously derived, including large-scale competitions and high-level conferences, research on animal and plant protection, and study of traditional Chinese culture, and etc.
Since 2006, the project has continuously carried out summer social practice for 16 years, (except for a one-year suspension in 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic), and the project has developed 180 teaching routes in total, consisting of 2609 volunteers, covering 36 countries and 23 provinces and regions. The project includes various kinds of teaching activities, such as subjects teaching, physical education, art edification, labor and technical education, fun events, and more. More specifically, the target teaching population are children from rural areas, left-behind children, children with downs syndrome, and elderly people with no family.
The 19th Asian Games was held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province in 2023. The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, as one of the key members among universities in Ningbo undertaking the volunteer service tasks for the Games, has been actively engaged in the games coordination and volunteer recruitment, training, and motivation since 2021. More than 700 students were organized to actively sign up for selection, and eventually, 106 volunteers were chosen to head to the Ningbo Xiangshan competition zone of the Asian Games, fully committed to providing volunteer support for the event.
Through the persistence after the initial commitment for 16 years, we have also created and developed branding teaching teams, such as Spring Hope, Lemon Tree, Passing Hope, Summer Seeding Program and Dare to Dream. Moreover, based on the existing programs, we have developed and created new teaching routes, combined with the idea of university’s mission and vision,; for example: "Chasing Heritage" (for spreading traditional culture) and “Green Wild” (for animal protection education). These all demonstrated the idea of UNNC’s teaching and learning and illustrated the university’s responsibility in cultivating students with a high sense of social responsibilities.