Twelve days into his summer class, “Social Entrepreneurship,” Yufan “Noah” He told Annenberg media that he wants to come to USC for college.
He was among the group of 15 high school students traveling from Sendelta International Academy in Shenzhen, China to attend a summer class in partnership with the US-China Institute on Social Entrepreneurship.
The class, taught by Annenberg professor Freddy Tran Nager, is structured around one question: can a startup company do good and do well at the same time?
“I’m very excited,” Nager said when he first learned he would be teaching the course. “I’m always excited to help bridge the cultures of China in the US and the teaching, [and] I’ve taught hundreds of Chinese students over the years.”
Nager taught similar courses before the program. During the school year, he is the associate director of the digital social media masters program.
“[This class] is something new for me,” Nager said. “Being [with the] high school students is different, challenging, and interesting.”
To adapt the high school students’ learning style, Nager changed up his curriculum to make his class much more interactive and he encouraged students to be inspired rather than just observing.
“For many of them, this was the very first exposure to business,” Nager said.
His students’ study outcomes rewarded his effort. He said the class helped him find a clear path to his career.
“I think for many of them [it’s] a very different experience in terms of education because typically they’re used to just sitting and listening in their classes.”
In contrast to the U.S. classroom, students in China are not encouraged to participate in discussion. They sit in the classroom for more than nine hours a day and study with less than a three hour break in between, according to a blog post published on the Sohu website.
Students in China also have fewer opportunities within the education system. Unlike American students who can go to a community college or trade school to transfer into a 4-year elite institution like USC, their GaoKao grades are their only way into the country’s top universities, and most of them only get one shot for the test.
Runyu Sun, current counselor of Sendelta International Academy and a USC alumni, called the system very robust and stressful.
“Everything is focused on how to get a high score, and it seems that anything else it’s not important, even normal life,” Sun said.
Sun said some people might be able to live in that kind of environment, but for those who don’t, study abroad offered them an alternative.
After graduating from college in 2008, Sun was accepted for the master program at Sol Price School of Public Policy. “I really want to go abroad to explore other countries in other cultures. It [was] quite early I [made] this decision,” Sun said.
“If I stay in China, [I would] probably enter government work as a civil servant,” Sun added. “Because both of my parents work for the government "
Studying abroad experience in the U.S. offered Sun an alternative perspective, soon after graduation Sun realized that she wants to use her study abroad experience to help more Chinese students.
“I really want to bring back something to my students,” Sun said. “That’s why I feel really interested in the industry of education.”
As the lead counselor at Sendelta, Sun is now in the power to make an effective change to impact the lives of her students in her school.
“We can see how extreme the students change,” Sun said. She often witnessed transfers from traditional Chinese schools that went from being lost in their life to finding new passions. “When you see their happy faces again, you can tell how the education setting is helping them to be themselves again.”
