Qin Yuefei decided to become a village official, even though he graduated from Yale University. He has introduced funds of 800,000 yuan ($128,640) to build public facilities such as a new nursing home within one year, which is rather extraordinary compared with other graduates from top Chinese universities serving as village officials. Qin's success is closely related to his perception of and active plan for his job, says an article in Beijing Youth Daily. Excerpts:

In many people's opinion, graduates from top universities should choose to work in the finance industry, such as investment banks, which guarantees higher income. The post of a village official, in their view, is more like a stepping stone to clear the entrance exam for postgraduate schools or become a civil servant.

This is exactly the mentality that many graduates have while opting to serve as village officials. No wonder, they don't have a vision or proper planning to serve villagers and fail to introduce and cultivate new ideas for the uplift of rural areas.

But Qin, like many other Ivy League graduates, has made plans for his first social service job. According to Qin, the open platform will help him better understand the basic situation in our country, and gain firsthand knowledge of the rural public healthcare system and water conservancy projects.

Such views reflect social responsibility and should be emulated by our university and college students, as well as local governments. While local governments should take the initiative to devise comprehensive plans to manage village officials, graduates must have a clear understanding of village officials' role and value, and map out their functions and duties.

Many graduates from Chinese mainland universities cannot plan their careers, which leads to short-term planning and undermines their role as village officials. Students prepared to serve as village officials should learn from Qin about the demands of their job but make their own plans instead of simply copying his methods.