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Collegiate Seniors Visit China for Emerging Leaders: Asia Program

3/31/2016

BY ASHLEY JONES

Collegiate School seniors participating in the International Emerging Leaders: Asia program recently traveled to China as part of their semester-long collaborative examination of economic, cultural and political ties between the U.S. and China.

The 12 students visited Beijing New Oriental Foreign Language School at Yangzhou, Collegiate’s partner school, to meet with their Chinese peers who visited Richmond in February, as part of this unique joint learning venture.

While visiting Richmond, the students from China spent a week exploring design thinking processes with Collegiate’s International Emerging Leaders: Asia (IEL:Asia) participants, and visited the headquarters of WestRock, an innovative packaging company based in Richmond, which also has offices in China.

While Collegiate’s students were China from March 20-27, they were able to engage in an interactive session with the company’s division in Shanghai.

Collegiate’s Interim Head of Upper School J.P. Watson, along with the School’s Director of Responsible Citizenship, Clare Sisisky, led the seniors on the trip. Once settled, the students stayed with host families in Yangzhou, to gain the full experience of Chinese life and culture, and learn the Chinese concept of Guang Xi (connected relationships).

“Having hosted 12 students in February, our students were able to dive right into living and interacting with their hosts in Yangzhou,” said Mr. Watson. “To witness the strong relationships that formed between our students and the students from Beijing New Oriental Foreign Language School was truly remarkable.”

Mrs. Sisisky said students always come away with a richer understanding of what they are learning in the classroom after personally experiencing it, especially in a place like China.

By having hosted the students from China in Richmond and having Collegiate students live with host families during their stay in China, all of the students are able to understand life from both perspectives, she said.

“For a teenager to be able to put themselves in someone else’s shoes, especially with cultural differences, that is a great skill to develop.”

Collegiate senior Margaret Davenport shared that sentiment in a reflections piece she wrote about the IEL: Asia trip: “China has thousands of years of history, culture and people behind it. To attempt to tackle the simple basis of what China stands for without witnessing the country itself firsthand is an almost impossible task.”

Inspired by the trip, senior Mackenzie Meadows said she encourages other students to take advantage of the IEL: Asia senior seminar and the opportunity to immerse oneself in a culture as significant as China’s.

“China was a life-changing experience that I would suggest to any junior who is hesitant about joining the IEL program,” she said.

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