Honoring visionaries who made a difference

The British Council has also provided support information online for funding, scholarships and interview services, and has helped Chinese students deal with UK institutions, according to Burney.

"Each year we organize pre-departure briefings for students, providing them with comprehensive view of life and study in the UK," he says.

"We are also doing an increasing amount of work to provide people access to internships and job opportunities when they return to China."

At the moment, the British Council is working on the Alumni Platform, which will enable 600,000 UK alumni in China to network with each other in a productive way.

Speaking about her application for the Alumni Awards, Zhang considered it an opportunity to get more attention for her philanthropy work.

"We only received 30,000 yuan ($4,300) worth of donations seven years ago, and yet the figure rose to 1 million yuan by 2016," Zhang says of her library.

Now, her library has more than 1,000 volunteers.

"I help them find resources and teach them how to better reach their audience, all of which is very interesti