The month of August was a time of saying farewell and welcome at the Center in Beijing, with a number of programs finishing in time for the start of autumn quarter, as well as several events and preparations for the same.
The ten-week-long Chicago in Beijing Summer Language program ended on August 4. During their time in Beijing, our students completed three quarters’ worth of language study in ten weeks. While it was an arduous process, most students came away with improved skills and a strong sense of accomplishment.
Our Public Policy interns also completed their summer work this month, departing on August 24. All six interns made great use of their time here as they conducted valuable research on a wide range of topics. Meanwhile, the Psychology Lab interns are finishing up their projects, with Alice completing a final round of experiments in Beijing, and Sijie and Jiwei relocating to Shanghai in a final push for participants. The two psychology studies have managed to recruit over 400 participants in total! Finally, we were sad to bid farewell to our Admissions Ambassador, who completed her final info session on August 11, but we are very grateful for her hard work and we wish her the best in her next internship in Hangzhou. Our remaining interns will stay for a few more weeks to complete their projects, before returning to Chicago to begin the autumn quarter.
Undergraduate life at the Center is still alive and well, however: two weeks after we bid adieu to our Summer Language students, we welcomed an enthusiastic group of 13 incoming first-years for the 2018 Beijing Exploration program. During this two-week-long program, students will take two course: “Multiethnic China, Multiethnic Beijing,” taught by Susan Su, PhD candidate in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and “Public Space in China,” taught by Paola Iovene, associate professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. We are excited to see this group through their first two weeks as University of Chicago students!
The Center’s events in August also tied into the theme of welcoming new members into the community, beginning with the extremely successful Beijing Launchpad event, held on August 17. Then, on August 30, 2018, the University of Chicago Alumni Club of Beijing and the University of Chicago Center in Beijing welcomed alumni and friends to gather together for an alumni reception. With recent graduates and others arriving in Beijing these past few months for the start of a new chapter in their post-graduate lives, this was the perfect opportunity to welcome newcomers into the University of Chicago Alumni Club of Beijing community, and to reconnect with familiar faces. A range of attendees, from 2018 Harris School of Public Policy graduates to 1998 Booth School of Business graduates, made for a delightful evening of lively discussion.
Amid all these programming transitions and events, the Center in Beijing also maintained “business as usual,” receiving a group of students and faculty from Xiuining High School in Anhui Province, assisting graduate and faculty researchers during their time in Beijing, and preparing for a busy and exciting fall.
