PCC Courier Online (Pasadena City College)
March 17 2005
Sister Cities Heads to Beijing, China
Kate Murray, Staff Writer
Japan, Finland, Germany and Armenia are all places that the Pasadena
Sister Cities Student Exchange Program has sent students in past
years. Now back in its seventh year, the exchange program to Beijing,
China is being offered to PCC students for summer 2005.
“China is an old country with more than 5,000 years of rich history,”
said Dr. Cathy Wei, coordinator of the exchange program at PCC.
“Beijing has been the capital city of China for more than 1,000
years. Students will definitely learn a lot through this trip.”
The program is offered to full-time college students aged 18 to 24
who are either enrolled at a college in the Pasadena Area Community
College District or are Pasadena residents. In addition, applicants
must be able to demonstrate basic fluency in Mandarin Chinese. Two
applicants will be chosen to represent Pasadena. These “young
ambassadors” will be flown to Xicheng, the center of Beijing, where
they will stay with a Chinese family for four to six weeks.
“[The students] will have the first-hand opportunity to observe how
the Chinese people live daily life,” Wei said. “The Chinese host
families may take the students to visit the historical sites around
Beijing, [like] the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Temple of
Heaven and the Summer Palace.”
The exchange program will give students a chance to immerse
themselves in Chinese culture and practice the language in its native
land. Once in Beijing, students may also have internship
opportunities in the area of their majors.
“If a selected student is a business major he or she may have the
chance to be an intern at the famous Financial Street Business Center
in Beijing and observe a variety of international business
interactions,” Wei said.
Application packages for the Beijing exchange program are currently
available in the languages division office in C247. The deadline for
applications is March 25. For more information, contact Cathy Wei in
R223D or email her at cjwei@pasadena.edu.