Passages - New Beginnings
The start of a new school year always brings excitement to the Yale-China community, and this year is no exception. From an ambassadorial visit and a new grant to support our work to new projects by Fellows, so much is happening on both sides of the ocean.
US Ambassador Visits Yale China Fellows
On September 8th, US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns visited Changsha and made two stops: Xiangya Hospital and Yali High School, two of our long-standing partners. At each stop he praised the long history of accomplishments between Yale-China and our partner institutions.
Read more about his visit to Yali below.
Health Fellows Hit New Haven
Halfway through their six-month Fellowship, Yale-China’s 2023 Health Fellows are hard at work on their research projects.
Read more about their research and experiences below.
Xiuning Fellows Start Writing Workshop
Xiuning senior Fellows Matthew Jordan and Tyler Hayward this year launched the Writing Club, a summer writing workshop designed to help select students continue improving their English over the summer and prepare them to apply for the Yale Young Global Scholars summer program the following academic year.
Read more about the process below.
Yale-China Receives Grant from the Li Foundation
The Li Foundation is supporting our work in New Haven schools.
Read more below.
US Ambassador Visits Yale China Fellows
During his visit to Yali, Ambassador Burns met with both the school administration and the student body; there, he not only gave a speech and answered student questions, but was also presented with gifts in the form of a Yali flag and handmade tie-dye created by students. Four of the Fellows’ former students, now in their final year of high school and having graduated from their Oral English classes, stepped up to welcome Ambassador Burns on behalf of the school: Helen He moderated the conversation with students while Barney Gong provided live on-the-spot interpretation. Following the event, their classmates Josie Yao and Allen Théo Young gave Ambassador Burns a detailed English tour of the Yali school history museum, including its establishment by Yale-China.
Ambassador Burns also met separately with the four Yale-China Fellows at the school, sitting down with them in the English Library to discuss their work and express his support for it. Yale-China is deeply honored by Ambassador Burns’s visit, and inspired by his commitment to international partnership, even at a time when tensions are high.
Read Ambassador Burns’s comments on his visits to Yali here and his visit to Xiangya here and here; read Yali’s article (in Chinese) about the visit here.
“It was clear to see how excited the students were for Ambassador Burns’ visit to Yali and it was great to see how he answered their questions with so much attention. I also really appreciated that he took out time from his very busy schedule to speak with the Yali fellows in our English Library and let us know that he supports our program and work!”
Health Fellows Hit New Haven
The Chia Health Fellows from Changsha and the Yale-China Health Fellows from Kunming, four accomplished female health professionals affiliated with Xiangya Hospitals and Kunming Medical University, arrived in New Haven on July 4th, just in time for their first quintessential American experience: the fireworks at East Rock Park. After a summer filled with English classes, exploration, and falling in love with the city’s green spaces, the school year has begun and the Fellows are delving into their research at the Yale Schools of Nursing and Medicine.
The four Health Fellows have taken full advantage of the opportunities presented to them at Yale and New Haven, from studying at Sterling Memorial Library to collaborating with local professors and students. With research topics ranging from mental health to chronic pain, the Fellows cover a lot of ground academically, but there’s one thing they can all agree on: they love New Haven pizza.
“In essence, this Fellowship is a dream opportunity that resonates with my academic passions, personal values, and aspirations. It represents a path towards academic excellence, global impact, and personal growth. I am deeply honored to have been chosen for this Fellowship and am committed to making the most of this extraordinary opportunity.”
Xiuzhong Students Establish New Writing Workshop
Along with now-former Fellows Allen Wang and Caderyn Owen Jones, and in collaboration with the students’ primary English teachers, Matthew and Tyler selected a group of twenty-four students whom they thought had the potential to benefit from an intensive writing workshop. Over the course of the summer, the Fellows introduced these students to the personal essay, a staple of American high schools and applications that is very different from the style of writing Xiuzhong students are exposed to, and worked with them to write five such personal narratives. For each essay, the Fellows gave the students an open-ended prompt, such as “Tell us about something that has influenced you and articulate how it has shaped you”; after writing their initial drafts, the students would receive detailed feedback from the Fellows, beginning a cycle of rewrites and feedback that pushed the students to hone their skills and resulted in much stronger final essays.
With the new school year in session, Writing Club is over, at least for now, but the essays are not. Matthew and Tyler are now supporting some of the same students as they use their newfound skills to complete the application (including multiple personal essays) for Yale Young Global Scholars, Yale’s international summer pre-college program in New Haven. Several Xiuzhong students have received full scholarships to attend YYGS in the past, and they hope to resume the tradition.
“We feel that having the students write in this style not only helped them learn how to use English to speak about themselves but also helped us better understand them as people. We are both proud of the students’ progress and saw substantial improvement in each of their abilities by the end of the workshop.”
Yale-China Receives $25,000 grant from the Li Foundation
Yale-China is pleased to announce a $25,000 grant from the Li Foundation. These funds will support our Chinese Teaching Fellows, three teachers from Changsha's Yali education group who are teaching Chinese language and culture in New Haven public schools this academic year. The Li Foundation was founded in 1944 with a primary goal to promote friendly relations between the United States and China, with educational exchange as the main focus. We are deeply grateful to the Li Foundation for joining other funders in supporting this popular program that will reach hundreds of elementary school students at four public schools.
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