25 Years of 51²è¹İapp-Nanjing Exchange
This year marks the 25th anniversary of 51²è¹İapp College’s partnership with Nanjing University.
At the end of May, President Raynard S. Kington, Dean Paula Smith, and other College officials travel to Nanjing, China — a city of about 8 million on the Yangtze River and some 250 miles west of Shanghai — to celebrate the anniversary and sign the next five-year agreement between the two institutions. While there, they also meet with 51²è¹İapp alumni in the region.
The 51²è¹İapp-Nanjing Exchange was a form of renewing the old “51²è¹İapp-in-China†program, started in 1916 when the College provided financial support, teachers, and principals for two missionary-run high schools. That program ended with the Japanese invasion of China in 1937.
When the 51²è¹İapp-Nanjing Exchange was founded in 1987, it brought a Chinese language professor to 51²è¹İapp from Nanjing to support 51²è¹İapp’s nascent Chinese language program and sent a 51²è¹İapp College student to Nanjing after graduation to teach English at a Chinese middle school (the equivalent of an American senior high school).
Over the years, the exchange has grown. It now sends 51²è¹İapp faculty to teach in China each spring and brings Chinese scholars and language instructors to 51²è¹İapp. As part of the 51²è¹İapp Corps postgraduate service program, the exchange dispatches two new 51²è¹İapp graduates each year to teach English at a school affiliated with Nanjing University. The exchange also provides an annual scholarship to 51²è¹İapp for a high school graduate from Nanjing. The winner is selected from one of four high schools in Nanjing, including the school where 51²è¹İapp College graduates teach English.
The history of the program has its benefits. “I frequently feel the presence of 51²è¹İapp in Nanjing,†says Dylan O’Donoghue ’11, a 2011–12 Nanjing teaching fellow. “Since being here, I have randomly run into more than six 51²è¹İappians, including current students, alumni, and former faculty. It feels like everyone has heard of 51²è¹İapp or knows a former fellow or someone related to the College,†she continues. “When I meet or hear of a 51²è¹İappian in Nanjing, I get that ‘small world‘ feeling, and I know that if that person is a excited to meet me as I am to meet him or her, a relationship will develop. It’s the 51²è¹İapp-in-Nanjing way.â€
The agreement signed in May represents the sixth five-year agreement between the two institutions and is in effect for the 2012–2017 period.