From Jan. 26 to Feb 8., the GA Curriculum Partnership Program (CPP) will host a group of tenth grade students from Capital Normal University High School (CNU) in Beijing, China. During their stay, students will get to experience the class days of a regular GA student, visit colleges, and explore parts of American culture in Philadelphia.
In 2012, Mr. Rich Schellhas, Head of School, started the partnership program to assist Chinese students with college counseling in the U.S., where colleges generally have a more holistic and less exam-based application system than in China.
“Our goal is to help the students from Beijing apply to schools in the US and other countries,” Ms. Amanda Amarosi, CPP College Counselor, said. “We teach them about the education system here and about the whole college process.”
For counselors that run the program, their goal is to infuse the style of independent style teaching that GA uses for its curriculum with the CNU Chinese styled pedagogical system.
“Some of the GA teachers help advise some of the CNU teachers,” Ms. Jennifer Bamigboye, CPP Assistant Director, said.
In this program, the GA CPP team of counselors fly to Beijing three times every year for a total of 6 weeks collectively to meet students and their families To build a better relationship, the team has put together social events, like going out to dinner with the adults.
“The strength of the relationship is really a testament to the relationship between the schools and heads of schools,” Ms. Bamigboye said. “We are so close to the families of students at CNU, who have always welcomed us with open arms.”
Since COVID-19, this aspect of the program has mainly suffered. Students from CNU and our team of GA counselors have not met in person as of meeting in the program.
“I was kind of sad when every student I had been working with I had never met in person,” Ms. Bamigboye said. “The meetings have maintained these relationships and the touch points throughout the year have really strengthened that.”
However, the fully virtual aspect of the program has not suffered the fundamental parts that the counseling team provides to the Chinese students. The pandemic caused program administrators to reflect on how to go about future in person settings with the CNU students.
“I think rather than spending all our time filling out the common app when meeting with the students, we will focus more on meeting with different groups, individuals, parents, faculties, and do more in depth activities,” Ms. Bamigboye said.
Looking towards the future, the CPP team hopes to keep these virtual relations strong while also getting to return to Beijing this Spring to meet CNU families and faculties.
For this reason, the visit of CNU students is important for not only the counseling team, but also for the students themselves.
CNU students will stay with GA host families over the duration of their stay.
“I’m very glad to have the opportunity to host a student from our sister school in China,” Helen Liang’ 25, one of the hosts, said. “I hope to be able to share our American culture and the experience of going to school here, and also be able to connect with someone from my motherland.”
During their stay, the CPP team plans for students to shadow GA students and attend college visits in the Philadelphia area. Along with this, the program will take the students around Philadelphia, being able to enjoy a trip to the Constitution center and a memorable light show. They may even get to try Philly’s famous cheesesteaks.
One of the visiting students, Brena Yue, looks forward to her stay. Yue enjoys reading literature and going to the theater on the weekends. In the future, she hopes to join her college’s musical club and pursue a career in Humanities and Social Sciences.
“My most exciting part about visiting the US would be meeting new people and living with my host family. I’m a really outgoing and extroverted person, I’m curious about your campus and your school life, and I would love to meet with you guys in GA. I can’t even wait for it!” Yue said.
Aligned with her interests, Yue talks about wanting to explore the musical sides of US culture.
“The thing I want to try the most would certainly be watching an original musical in the US,” Yue said.
As this trip is part of the partnership program, Yue describes how she hopes to be able to use this time to help with her application process as well, furthering her face to face conversations with her counselor, learning how GA students write applications, and visiting colleges.
The program hopes to better both students’ experiences of different cultures. This trip will give GA students time to interact with different cultures, not just learning about them in the classroom.