Administrators to travel to China

Administrators from Huntington University in Huntington, Indiana, and Lenawee Christian School in Adrian, Michigan, will travel to China on Saturday for a 10-day trip to explore partnerships with Chinese institutions. (Follow their trip by checking out the photo ablum!) 

The HU delegation includes Dr. Sherilyn Emberton, president; Dr. Mike Wanous, vice president for academic affairs; Dr. Luke Fetters, director of HU’s Institute for TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Institute (ITS); Shoshannah McKinney, associate director of ITS; and Jeff Bleijerveld, associate with the ITS. The Lenawee Christian School representatives are Trevor Cook, president, and Joy Carl, director of international studies.

The group will visit Liaocheng University in Liaocheng, Shandong Province, to discuss opportunities for agriculture, business and English programs as well as student and faculty exchange programs. Also on the schedule is a meeting with officials from Tong Sheng Hu Experimental School in Changsha, Hunan Province, about a potential partnership. Another stop on the trip will be to China Hong Kong English School in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, to dialogue about a Foundation Year program that would allow Chinese students to experience HU in China before attending the university in the U.S. as well as summer programs. Lastly, the group will visit Jilin University – Zhuhai College in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, to discuss growing the summer TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) program and finalizing a joint degree program as well as a faculty exchange program.

This is the third trip to China that Huntington University administrators have made within a year to pursue partnerships. Huntington University has a seven-year history with China, having hosted summer English camps in there since 2007. Those camps have expanded significantly with last summer’s programs involving 180 Chinese students, 80 Chinese teachers, 32 U.S. team members and six weeks of camps in three locations. In addition, this fall, five HU alumni established an office at China Hong Kong English School and are teaching English classes there. In fall 2014, 10 percent of the international students enrolled at HU were from China.

For more information about HU’s Institute for TESOL Studies, visit www.huntington.edu/tesol/.