Four SYSU Students Recruited in the China Education Initiative

 

Recently, Rachel Wasse, person-in-charge of China Education Initiative (CEI), wrote formally to Leslie Stone, person-in-charge of Lingnan Foundation, showing appreciation to the Foundation for its recommending SYSU to join the China Education Initiative, and spoke highly of the comprehensive qualities embodied by the SYSU students interviewed, and the energetic efforts related teachers made in the recruitment. To date, CEI has finished interview sessions in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou for students from various universities and 10 university students are admitted, among whom, Zhu Hui, Fan Ni, Wang Jingjian and Liang Shan are from SYSU.

According to sources, CEI was set up by alumni from Princeton University, USA and Tsinghua University in May 2008, targeting at the current dilemma of unequal allocation of educational resources and grave shortage of teaching forces in low-income areas. The initiative is intended to openly recruit outstanding students from 10 universities in both China and America as volunteer teaching fellows, provide them with systematic training and education of pedagogy, law and regulations, and the local customs, and assign them to one-year posts in the elementary and secondary schools of indigent regions in the middle and western part of China. The initiative uses “2+2” teamwork mode, dispatching two volunteers from China and two from America to every post in the designated school. The partnering of Chinese and American volunteer teaching fellows promotes the cross-cultural learning and communication. The volunteers will connect their teaching contents to the actual needs of local schools, and foster a pure English learning atmosphere there. While teaching classes to the students, the volunteers also provide regular training for the local English teachers. What’s more, they will deliver lectures with a diverse range of subjects according to their own knowledge backgrounds, providing different viewpoints and perspectives in classes to broaden the local students’ horizons.

From October 2008 to May 2009, with an open and highly competitive selection process, CEI evaluated and recruited the qualified applicants from ten universities including Princeton University, Harvard University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Sun Yat-sen University and 5 other universities. SYSU students showed great enthusiasm to CEI, and about 70 students applied for admission to the initiative, with 4 of them finally succeeded in being offered the position.

2009.5.20