Dec 6th, 2017: Colombia
On a beautiful Wednesday morning, December 6th, the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Colombia, Sandra Salamanca Rosas, visited the Yenching Academy on an informational visit. She came to learn more about the Yenching Scholars and the Yenching Program, and how she could help facilitate more recruitment from Colombia.
Minister Salamanca was greeted by Professor David Moser, Admissions Director Miranda Zuo, and was especially happy to meet Miryam Amsili, a 2017 Yenching Scholar from Colombia/USA (Princeton ‘14). She first visited the Yenching Academy at the 2017 Opening Ceremony, and was eager to use this visit as a way to learn more about the program.
Professor Moser shared with her the present varied range of demographics of the scholars and their backgrounds, while also sharing the future shared wish of more Latin American students at the Academy. A plus of the program, in Professor Moser’s eyes, was its flexibility. “We are explicitly multidisciplinary, and open to students merging their interests with studying China. What’s most important is to want to explore China.”
Minister Salamanca shared that one of the reasons she came to China was to study History, because her country, Colombia, needed to have people who understood the cultures of other countries, and that a current obstacle is the need to have more experts on China and East Asia. This is why she was hopeful and eager to help with recruitment of more Colombians students to the program; a sentiment shared by Professor Moser and the Yenching Academy.
December 15th,2017: Nepal
On December 15th, Leela Mani Paudyal, Nepalese Ambassador to China, paid a visit to the Yenching Academy of Peking University. Professor Chen Changwei, Assistant to the Dean of the Yenching Academy, hosted the ambassador and his delegation. The seminar was hosted by Asmod Karki, a Nepalese student of the Yenching Academy.
Ambassador Paudyal shared his work experience with the attending students, including his role in initiating the clean-up operation of the Bagmati River during his tenure as the Chief Secretary of the Nepalese government, and introducing the Nepalese government's projects on energy, transport and agricultural development.
Ambassador Paudyal said that developing countries play an important role in the global order. Developing countries have their own unique national conditions and need to explore proper policies that are adapted to local conditions. A competent government official in developing countries should have the means to deal with complicated situations and the ability to solve unexpected situations. Finally, Ambassador Paudyal held discussions with Yenching students on topics such as the relationship between Nepal and China, and the responsibilities of government officials.
December 20th, 2017: Germany
On December 20th, the Yenching Academy received a visit from a delegation from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, led by its Deputy Director, Mr. Mitja Mueller. The delegation was very interested to learn ways of boosting China expertise in Germany, and spent some time with Professor David Moser to discuss this.
Professor Moser shared with the delegation the present varied range of demographics of the scholars and their backgrounds. Four Yenching Scholars - - also joined the meeting to offer a deeper student perspective. They spoke about why they chose to come to the Yenching Academy, what it’s like to be a Scholar, and why young Germans might want to consider the program in their futures.
Mr. Mueller acknowledge that it was important to their mission that “more and more young Germans know China, know Chinese, understand China well” which reinforced the desire to learn about how the Yenching Academy and German institutions can work together to bring more Germans to the Academy and to China.
