On the afternoon of December 17th, the Fourth Anniversary of JISU’s Confucius Institute (CI) and the Opening Ceremony of Confucius Institute Class were held at New Milford High School, New Jersey, US. President Qin He delivered a speech and participated in the ceremony with Sue Henderson, President of New Jersey City University, Michael Politzi, Superintendent of New Milford School District, and Louis Manupri, Principal of New Milford High School. It is the first “Confucius Class” set by CI of JISU, representing a leap forward by the Confucius Institute.
President Qin He joined the Opening Ceremony of “Confucius Classroom”
In her speech, President Qin He expressed her congratulations at the ceremony and the fourth anniversary celebration. She also praised the achievements made by the CI over the four years, and shared her expectations for the establishment of the first “Confucius Class”. She commented, as globalization develops, the demands for students with international awareness is increasingly growing. As a window of Chinese-foreign language and cultural exchanges, Confucius Institute and Confucius Class will play a significant role for American students to study and learn Chinese culture. Meanwhile, she hoped that students of New Milford School District could seize the opportunity to study Chinese and put it into practice to make contributions to promoting Chinese-American exchanges and the development of a diverse and interesting world civilizations.
JISU and New Jersey City University jointly established the Confucius Institute in 2015. With the guidance of Confucius Institute Headquarters, great achievements have been achieved due to the joint endeavors of these two universities over the past four years. These achievements include the following: the number of students in CI has increased to 1,712 from 300; the academic hours learning Chinese have increased to 2,691 from 1,532; the number of cultural activities held rose from 10 in the first year to 45 this year, and the number of people participating in cultural activities has increased from 2,600 in the first year to the current 6,320. CI has eight teaching places with full coverage of kindergartens, primary schools, middle schools and universities, and has become a platform of studying Chinese, a symbol of Chinese culture and a bridge for Chinese-American cultural exchanges and mutual learning.
In 2019, CI has made multiple achievements: the first CI scholarship student is studying in JISU’s International Chinese Program; the first Chinese online course is launched to meet the needs of CI students’ individualized and autonomous learning; the first Chinese Immersive Summer Camp in New Jersey was opened, and was warmly received by students and their parents; the first “Confucius Class”—the Opening Ceremony at New Milford High School, served as a beneficial platform for American students to study Chinese and learn Chinese culture.
