The Rural Education Action Program is part of the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions.
REAP pairs local Stanford students with new visiting students from China every quarter. Once paired, Partners meet regularly to learn about each other’s languages, cultures, customs, and explore Stanford and the surrounding Bay Area together.
Our faculty and research staff regularly co-author papers with students. We support and advise students as they conduct graduate-level research, analyze REAP data, and co-write and submit a paper ending in a publication with their name on the byline.
We work with students year-round to develop original research projects that build on REAP’s existing projects. Students take their research to the field for an incomparable learning experience where they apply qualitative and quantitative research techniques to answer their driving research question.
Every summer REAP takes a group of 15-20 interns to China to participate in a project-based internship that offers them extensive hands-on qualitative research experience while working alongside faculty, senior research staff, and our local partners.
REAP provides more than just personalized one-on-one mentoring, we also give students access to our data, connect them to researchers and organizations in the field, and advise them on their theses and dissertations. We also connect students to funding opportunities at Stanford and beyond.
Every year we place recent graduates in our China-side field offices to work as academic editors for our faculty and graduate students. They spend a year immersed in the Chinese language and culture while also gaining field research experience and co-authoring publications. We also sponsor students for external placements with organizations like Fulbright.
We take pride in the individualized attention and support we offer to our students across all academic levels. We work with the best and brightest students and provide them with unprecedented opportunities including access to our data, hands-on research experiences, and tailored mentorships. Throughout our time working with a student, sometimes lasting multiple years, we develop a strong working relationship that continues well past their time with us. We care about where they end up and support each student as they transition into their next life stage - be it attending their school of choice or breaking into the bustling workforce.
Click through the tabs on the left to see where some of our students have ended up.
Our high school mentees have attended top undergraduate programs such as:
Students we have worked with while they were completeing their undergraduate degree have continued on to top graduate programs such as:
Several of our students have gone directly into the workforce accepting positions at leading companies in a wide variety of industries including:
1. The Landscape of Early Childhood Development in Rural China. 2019. The Asia-Pacific Journal.
2. Understanding the Situation of China's Left‐Behind Children: A Mixed‐Methods Analysis. 2019. The Developing Economies.
3. Are Infant/Toddler Developmental Delays a Problem Across Rural China? 2019. Journal of Comparative Economics.
4. The Prevalence of Parent-Teacher Interaction in Developing Countries and its Effect on Student Outcomes. 2019. Teaching and Teacher Education.
5. Pay by Design: Teacher Performance Pay Design and the Distribution of Student Achievement. 2019. Journal of Labor Economics.
6. The Effect of Providing Free Eyeglasses on Children’s Mental Health Outcomes in China: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial. 2018. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
7. Stereotype Threat and Educational Tracking: A Field Experiment in Chinese Vocational High Schools. 2018. Socius.
8. Is Infant/Toddler Anemia a Problem Across Rural China? A Mixed-Methods Analysis. 2018. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
9. Assessing the Quality of Upper-Secondary Vocational Education and Training: Evidence from China. 2018. Comparative Education Review.
10. Effect of Deworming on Indices of Health, Cognition, and Education among Schoolchildren in Rural China: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial. 2017. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
11. Inequalities in the Pathway to College in China: When do Students from Poor Areas Fall Behind? 2017. The China Quarterly.
12. China’s Invisible Crisis: Cognitive Delays among Rural Toddlers and the Absence of Modern Parenting. 2017. The China Journal.
13. Neglected Tropical Disease in China: The Case of Neurocystocercosis in Tibetan Farming Communities. 2017. (Manuscript under revision.)