Another Class Returns to China: A Look Back at the 2016 Young Scholars Program

2016 YOUNG SCHOLARS: From Rural China to New York City

Together with members of the PEER team, Young Scholar Dai Gaole lead a workshop in Jianghua, China. (Hong Chenchen & Wang Zijia)
Young Scholar Dai Gaole and PEER program participants take a break from a packed schedule of workshops in Jianghua, China. (Hong Chenchen & Wang Zijia)
Group picture of the Summer 2016 PEER cohort, Jianghua, China. (Hong Chenchen & Wang Zijia)
Young Scholar Zhuo Yaqin interacts with 1000Girls, 1000Futures mentees at the 2016 Global Stem Alliance Summit, hosted by the New York Academy of Sciences. (Jenny Xu)
Barbara Rakusin, Executive Director of the Long Island-based community services center Youth and Family Counseling Agency, spoke about the work her organization does. (Jenny Xu)
The Young Scholars visited the Yale-China Association, where they spoke with Director of Education Leslie Stone about the long history of education exchange between Yale University and China. (Jenny Xu)
Each Young Scholar was assigned a “Big Buddy,” a U.S.-based young professional, to mentor him or her throughout the program and beyond. (Jenny Xu)
At a Manhattan Chinatown-based porcelain store and community space, the scholars discussed with founder and Executive Director Mei Lum the challenges and possibilities gentrification has brought to New York’s Chinatowns. (Jenny Xu)
The Young Scholars learned about the unique model of New York-based accelerator Grand Central Tech from Director Charles Bonello. (Jenny Xu)
The Young Scholar participated in an afternoon start-up challenge led by a group of Chinese entrepreneurs working out of the Columbia Startup Lab. (Jenny Xu)
Young Scholars Zhuo Yaqin and Ma Xing package sandwiches for the homeless as part of the Friday morning breakfast program at Central Synagogue, in New York. (Jenny Xu)
The Young Scholars visit the IMF in Washington, D.C., for a discussion on global human migration. (Jenny Xu)
The Young Scholars admire Pepper, the robot powered by IBM Watson cognitive computing technology, in New York. (Jenny Xu)
The Young Scholars discuss U.S.-China relations with Professor Peter Gries at the Oklahoma University Institute for U.S.-China Issues. (Jenny Xu)
On the roof of the National Weather Center in Oklahoma, the Young Scholars learn about instruments and student projects. (Jenny Xu)
The 2016 Young Scholars program concluded with a final presentation of their social innovation project. They are pictured here with Asia Society President and CEO Josette Sheeran, at Asia Society in New York. (Jenny Xu)
Enlarge Hide captions

Shidu and Jianghua, China

The Young Scholars started their journey in the town of Shidu, just outside of Beijing, where, under the guidance of our program partner PEER, they each developed a seminar for junior high students. These workshops varied based on the skills each Young Scholar brought to the table.

  • Chen Shihuan explored gender discrimination in everyday life and what can be done to help those who experience prejudice.
  • Li Yingyu investigated local education policy reform and what might be done to support it.
  • Dai Gaole undertook a project discussing humanity’s role in environmental stewardship.
  • Ma Xing, by way of presenting the customs of the local Yao ethnic minority in Jianghua, sought to raise awareness of the challenges of preserving the culture of ethnic minorities in an era of rapid economic development in China.
  • Zhuo Yaqin compiled a beginner’s guide to conducting market research.

Community exploration is the foundation of PEER’s education experience. By going out into the communities to field questions from local shopkeepers, leaders, and residents, students are encouraged to think critically about problems and become aware of their own individual capacity to make positive change.

Through PEER, the Young Scholars also attended lectures given by a variety of speakers, including Zhang Fan, Chairman of the WiSpring Education Development Foundation; Qin Yuefei, who founded Serve for China with a group of Yale graduates; and founding members of the New Workers Art Troupe.

Equipped with the tools to lead workshops and community exploration, the Young Scholars set out, via sleeper train, to Jianghua in Hunan province. There, they quickly set up shop in a local school building and started a ten-day program packed with seminars, icebreakers, and visits to local craftsmen, shopkeepers, and government institutions.

New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Oklahoma City

Armed with a new set of experiences and, most importantly, an urge to find solutions to the challenges they observed in Jianghua, the Young Scholars arrived in New York on July 25. The four and a half weeks they spent in the U.S. allowed them the opportunity to pry as deeply as their curiosity took them into the ways American society works to build a better place for citizens both local and global.

Each day began with a session led by Asia Society staff to prepare the scholars for the day’s activities. The Young Scholars then met with leaders at different social ventures, educational institutions, startups, philanthropies, global and local NGOs, and cultural centers. At the end of each day, they reflected as a group on what they learned and what it might mean in the context of the communities they had gotten to know back in China. One day per week was dedicated to what we call “Innovation Hubs.” These weekly sessions afforded the scholars an opportunity to discuss, synthesize, and apply their observations in order to devise an actionable social innovation project.

Each week brought the Young Scholars to a different city. They started off in New York, their home base, where they visited organizations that ranged from large global enterprises such as Teach For All to smaller local organizations such as the Youth and Family Counseling Agency on Long Island or the W.o.W. project, a community space in Chinatown. The second week, they visited the nation’s capital, where they met with representatives at the IMF, Ashoka, WWF, and the Pulitzer Center. Their next trip took them to Oklahoma City, in order to see a very different part of America—the southern midwest. There, they learned about Native American history and the oil industry, among other things. Finally, they traveled to Boston, where they spent significant time visiting educational institutions such as the MIT Media Lab and Harvard-Yenching Institute. The highlight of their Boston trip was their participation in the Marshall Ganz Workshop at Harvard, a seminar designed to help leaders mobilize support for their social causes.

The program culminated in a final presentation of their social innovation group project to Asia Society staff and partner organizations. The goal of this project was to tie together all of their learning in the U.S.- this year, they sought to answer the question: “How might we help small and mid-sized NGOs in the U.S. develop resources to implement their projects?” The lessons learned that they articulated through their presentation will undoubtedly serve them as they jump head-first into the social ventures many of them intend to start back in China.

Center on U.S.-China Relations U.S.-China Dialogue intern Aaron Fernandez contributed writing and translation for this post.