Community

Academic Community

The China Center has a local Academic Director, adjunct Faculty Advisers and field advisors. Decisions that affect the community are made at community meetings and are an integral part of the direction of the China Center. The Community consists of current students, faculty, field advisors, and staff. Community meetings are to be held once per month or as needed, and may be called by any student or faculty member at any time. Each meeting will begin with a moment of silence, and followed by an election of a student facilitator and a minutes keeper for that meeting. The minutes keeper will send a digital copy of the minutes at the conclusion of the meeting, and within twenty-four hours, as a record of the important points discussed and resolutions made.

At the beginning of each semester a Student Representative is elected by all China Center students present at the first community meeting, to be held within the first two weeks of the semester. The Student Representative will be responsible for communicating the needs of China Center students to the Academic Director and/or faculty, and for coordinating student social activities, such as birthday parties, image sharing, and to organizing the design and production of a program T-shirt, etc. In addition, the Student Representative will work together with the organizers of the In Touch Cross-Cultural Club to involve China Center students in the various community activity subgroups, including Chinese-English language exchange, history and literature, sports, and nightlife clubs. A language liaison will also be elected to communicate any problems with language instruction to the Academic Director.

The faculty will also appoint a continuing China Center student to the paid position of Peer Mentor/Student Coordinator. The Peer Mentor will be charged with communicating between the China Center student body and the Global College Student Executive, participate in interviewing and hiring new faculty and staff, speaking to prospective students, coordinating the midterm and end-of-semester center evaluations, providing feedback about the academic program and student services to the directorate, and coordinating students to participate in extracurricular activities and events. In addition, the Peer Mentor/ Student Coordinator will be responsible for tidying the China Center facilities each week or after community events, photographing and documenting student activities, updating the China Center Internet homepage, and coordinating the newsletter, which includes the collection, editing and layout of all student submissions, posting the newsletter on-line, and sending out PDF versions to all centers prior to the first day of registration. All interested and qualified candidates for this paid and possibly credit-bearing position should apply to the Academic Director prior to the beginning of the semester and no later than the end of the orientation period.

Chinese

Global College students are also part of the local community while in China and the China Center makes every effort to build relations and facilitate cultural exchange between these communities through academic courses and field trips as well as through extracurricular activities. The Peer Mentor/ Student Coordinator will also help students and faculty build community with the local Chinese population through various means. For example, all first semester students at the China Center will be paired with an English-speaking Chinese partner for the first two weeks of the program, and will meet with Chinese students studying at Zhejiang University during the Mid-Autumn Festival for a community event. In addition, he or she could help arrange a bi-monthly English Corner, where Global College students will have the opportunity to meet with and talk to local Zhejiang University English students. Community can also be built through bi-monthly movie nights, and Thanksgiving and winter holiday dinners with students, teachers and friends, typically hosted at Professor Liu Wei's home, in addition to other recreational outings and group dinners held while in Hangzhou.

It is our hope that this will facilitate your adjustment to life in China as well as open new possibilities for enduring friendships and cultural understanding throughout your entire stay. In addition students may elect to teach English as volunteers at a local middle school or Buddhist monastery, and there will be multiple opportunities for students to live with Chinese families of different economic and ethnic backgrounds throughout the year.

Some students enjoy voluntarily speaking English with the eager language learners, ranging from school children to their grandparents, who gather at the local "English Corner" that meet on the weekends throughout the city. Here students reach instant celebrity status for merely being willing to converse in their native tongue. Two of the most popular English Corners in Hangzhou are:

Place: Park Number Six
Time: Every Sunday morning
Directions: Northeast side of West Lake across from the Lakeview Hotel on Hubing Road
Name and address in Chinese: 六公园 湖滨路

Place: Innocent Age Book Bar
Time: Every Friday and Sunday evening at 7:00 P.M.
Directions: 29 Wenyuan Road, near West Wensan Road.
Phone: 571-87969178; 87979483

Name and address in Chinese: 纯真年代书吧 文三西路29号文苑路29号(即文三西路)
The proprietor speaks excellent English and is familiar with the Friends World Program, having hosted several of our events in the past.