Commencement

“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” –T.S. Eliot

The past few days marked the commencement activities and ceremonies for the graduating students at Yale University. I speculate that they will leave the commencement services with a countless amount of treasured memories, tears of joy, and wonderful plans for the future. The level of excitement on campus must be unimaginably high. Although I am far away from graduation, I nonetheless share this degree of excitement, the reason being that these recent days mark the commencement of my own journey into the real world. This journey will be of my full immersion into the Chinese language, culture, and society. My experiences and reflections will be recorded on this blog.

I want to begin by expressing my immeasurable gratitude to the Richard U. Light Foundation, which is providing a generous fellowship that makes my summer adventures financially possible. The Light Fellowship, unique to Yale, makes available opportunities for students to study the East Asian languages of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean in their respective countries by covering the entire cost of their summer programs, transportation expenditures, etc. A competitive application process at the beginning of the Spring semester determines who will be awarded the fellowship during the following Summer and Fall. I consider myself very fortunate to be able to gain the support of the fellowship. I want to give my complements to the Light Fellowship administrators, including Kelly McLaughlin and Adam Ginsberg, for their hard work in promoting publicity for the fellowship and in organizing helpful orientation meetings. They have truly prevented a lot of worries and facilitated the whole pre-departure process. I would also like to give a shout out to Xu Laoshi, my professor for Chinese 133 this past year. I walked into the classroom without being able to correctly write my name in Chinese characters, and now I am able to read a majority of characters in various Chinese publications and write well-crafted essays. Without her tutelage, I would not have acquired the necessary skills to take on this summer.

Secondly, I want to thank the Associated Colleges in China (ACC) Summer Field Studies Program for accepting me. The program is a summer intensive language program administered by Hamilton College in partnership with the Southwest University for Nationalities in Chengdu and the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing. The program is comprised of two courses entitled “Independent Project and Teaching Practicum” and “Issues on China’s Education System,” which includes a study of China’s education system and advanced oral interpretation and translation. In addition, students are required to teach at two day camps and to present at two educational conferences on various topics that are useful to rural Chinese educators. The tasks must all be completed using Chinese, which presents a significant challenge. My presentation is entitled “Developing Leadership/Teamwork Skills, Voicing Personal Opinions, and Exploring Social/Career Interests through Publicly Funded Extracurricular Student Organizations: How After-school Activities Supplement Academics and Advance Preparation for Higher Education,” or in Chinese, “美国中小学如何利用课外活动组织来培养学生的领导能力、团队合作、有效沟通及工作兴趣”. Unlike some other programs, preparation for the ACC Field Studies program begins a couple of months before the actual start date, and responsibilities exceed the end date. I list a brief schedule below:

4/1-4/25 Proposal revision I

4/26-5/20 Collection of media materials and project revision II

5/21-6/1 First draft of presentation

5/14 Flight to Beijing

6/20 Arrive in Chengdu, Sichuan Province (start of program)

7/12-7/14 Cultural tour of Hainan Province

7/15 Arrive at Haikuo City, Hainan Province

7/16-7/19 Joint Conference on Basic Education for Rural Teachers and Students in Haikuo City, Sponsored by ESS and Hainan Ministry

7/20-7/22 Day camp I at Lingao Country, Hainan Province

7/23 Arrive at Leshan City, Sichuan Province

7/24-7/27 Joint Conference on Basic Education for Rural Teachers and School Administrators, Sponsored by ESS, Sichuan Education Ministry, and Leshan Teacher’s College

7/28-7/30 Day camp II at Ziyan County, Sichuan Province

7/31-8/1 Cultural tour

8/2 Travel to Beijing for the remainder of the program

8/7 Flight back to New Haven (end of program)

9/10-10/30 Presentations at home institution and in the community

9/1-10/31 Program evaluation and summary

You may have noticed that I am already in Beijing. Currently, I am just visiting relatives and collecting research materials. I have already had some insightful experiences in terms of interacting with the Chinese culture, but I will write about them in future entries. No doubt this entry has gone on long enough. Stay tuned.

韩兵