This program seeks to promote cultural understanding, dispel stereotypes, develop global leaders, and build life-long friendships. We believe that it is critical for us in the public schools to ensure that our students are knowledgeable, open to different perspectives, have a curiosity and desire to learn, and are equipped with the cross-cultural competencies required to make global relations productive. Providing substantive opportunities to live and learn together is our most promising path to mutual understanding, peace, and prosperity.
Goals
After participation in this immersion program, students will appreciate and utilize myriad strategies for understanding and negotiating across cultures—in host families, in classrooms, and in public places. Students will reflect upon assumptions they have acquired as they develop a cross-cultural perspective about themselves and their place in the world. Students will also examine recurring motifs in modern Chinese culture as they thoughtfully compare social, ethical, religious, and political differences between the United States and China.