Working with China's Poorest Children

Jennifer Miller, second from left, back row, with her family, including two adopted children from China

For years, University of Maryland graduating senior Jennifer Miller has pursued a calling that led her to some of China's poorest children. "While in Beijing, I had the opportunity to volunteer at a home for street children," says Miller, who grew up in a Washington D.C. suburb and majored in Chinese. "This inspired me to return to help such children."

So, Miller went back and spent several months at an orphanage in a small Chinese city. She worked under the radar; officially, foreigners are not even supposed to be involved in this kind of work. "It must have been a terrific challenge," says her teacher David Branner. "This is not merely a public service job; it's a place where those children who have the greatest handicaps are routinely given only minimal care. Some are severely retarded. Some are blind. Some are severely undernourished." And yet, for years, that's exactly where Miller wanted to be. "The reason I chose Chinese as my major is because I want to help orphans in China," says Miller, the daughter of a minister and one of nine children. "Actually, as far back as I can remember, I have had a heart for the poor."

As a young girl, Miller was moved to tears by the picture of a malnourished child in a magazine charity ad. "Her huge beautiful, black eyes revealed pain and suffering - something I had never truly experienced." Soon, Miller began delivering newspapers and used the money to sponsor a girl from India. At Miller's instigation, she and her siblings pressed their parents to adopt two Chinese orphans.

When she got to Maryland, Miller relied on her intense drive and hard work to learn a difficult language. "Ms. Miller is not one of those students for whom Chinese seems to come easily," Branner says. "She is the hardest working undergraduate I have ever had." After graduation, Miller will pursue her master's degree in Chinese language and literature, and eventually plans to work in China as a translator or interpreter so she can communicate with all kinds of people - as she puts it, from "the common street person, to the president of China."

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