A student learns about ethnic Miao embroidery during a handicraft class at Guizhou Forerunner College. Zhao Kai / for China Daily

As the school is located in a remote area, the first few foreign volunteers used to stop traffic when they were on the streets. The students, too, were very shy and reserved.

"For the first two weeks, I thought this was going to be a long year. I really did," says Chaley Ayers, a former high school teacher of graphic design and photography in the United States. "The students were very shy, and they were kind of afraid of you at first. We were not connecting, and their English level was low."

But Ayers soon had a breakthrough in an English class where the hotel management students successfully played out a reception scenario.

"You just have to find some kind of hook - these kids can be wonderful. They are so enthusiastic and lovely. They have a lot in their brains. It's just they haven't had experiences like communicating with a customer," Ayers says.

Gong Haijun, a computer-science student, recalls how Ayers surprised him by bringing him a MacBook from the US after she learned that Gong developed an on line social network for the college without a laptop.

"Chaley later suggested that she could help me if I want to pursue further studies in the US, which I didn't even dare to think about before," says Gong.

Lacey Weddel has been teaching English in the college for one year. A Spanish major who has always wanted to help people in poverty, she regularly visits her students on holidays. On her last trip to a student's home in the mountains, she got lice and had to cut off her cherished long hair.