Description: Jiaen Liang is a second-year graduate student studying Social Work at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. Her primary concerns are poverty and gender issues. Jiaen is working on a dissertation which analyzes the behavior of an organization from a gender perspective. Jiaen has various kinds of direct service experience and she has worked in several research centers that provide her practical skills and research ability. Jiaen has also volunteered with an organization that helps to eliminate poverty and empowered those in weak position. She is attracted to the W.T. Chan fellowship because it is her desire to obtain more innovative perspectives towards social service. Jiaen believes that through working with a NGO in the U.S. she can gain a deeper understanding of the social work systems and welfare regimes and be able to apply the knowledge she learnt to tackle complex social problems in China.