News
CSG Students Attend Summer Camp in China
Posted July 19, 2012
On July 8th, seven CSG students arrived in the Peoples Republic of China as guests of the Chinese Ministry of Education to participate in a three-city, two-week Chinese language and culture camp.
The camp, which is free of charge (except for airfare to China), is offered to students from schools that have been designated as a “Confucius Classroom” by the New York-based Asia Society. These schools constitute a national network of 100 exemplary Chinese language programs that serve as model sites for developing the field of Chinese language teaching.
In 2010, CSG was invited to join this group through a competitive process based on the school’s effective Chinese language instruction, strong administrative leadership and support, and demonstrated commitment to international exchange and collaboration.
Form X students Jemma Maynard, Samantha McDougall and Michaela Milligan, Form XI students Autumn Pu and Ellie Hasan, and Form XII students Keiko Wilkins and Maddie McGregor joined Ping Wu, CSG’s Chinese teacher, in China. Ms. Wu, who was students’ chaperone throughout the two-week trip, was also chosen to be the leader of all of the chaperones at this year’s camp.
Starting out in the capital city of Beijing, the students will visit the Forbidden City, Great Wall, Confucius Temple, Capital Museum, and Temple of Heaven. They were also treated to a kungfu show and visited some of the shopping venues for which the country is justly famous.
On July 11th, the students flew to Changsha, located in the interior of the country, where they had a week of Chinese language and culture classes at Hunan University. In addition, they toured Orange Island (which is located in a river), visited a museum, walked through Folk Culture Street, attended a Chinese-speaking competition, participated in sports activities with local Chinese students, and spent an entire day visiting with a local Chinese family.
Finally, on July 20th, the students flew to the mega-city of Shanghai. There, they had a whirlwind tour of such sites as Old Town, the Bund, Yu Garden, and the Shanghai Museum before flying back to Columbus on July 22nd.
Interested students should note that Ms. Wu has applied for 15 slots for CSG at next year’s summer camp in China, which will be available to students in Forms IX through XII. In addition, up to two CSG students may attend a free one-semester study-abroad program in China next year. The only cost to attend either program is the students’ roundtrip airfare to China.
