Collaborative projects shared by a gang of creative and generous folk are all-out awesome. 
Yesterday, looking ahead to a slightly lighter schedule over the winter break, I dropped a tweet to several current students with an interest in China & Taiwan, and also to one alum who is currently in graduate school at National Taiwan University.
I’ve been thinking that it’d be nice to find new ways for our current students to network with others who’ve studied or worked in China (and, now as I’m thinking of it, East Asia more broadly). I see students in office hour visits who are in the first steps of trying to figure out how to get from Fredericksburg to Beijing, Taiwan, Shanghai. And they’ve got important questions about daunting, if intriguing projects:
– how do I build a true fluency in Chinese? (A: get thee to a very good intensive program abroad…)
– where can I find funding for this kind of language study?
– Or, are there internships in East Asia to be had? Teaching opportunities abroad after graduation?
In the past, I’ve mentioned a few programs and often tell them of this or that UMW alum who’s travelled that path before them. But why not use social networking and the ready tools of the ‘net to help them connect with peers? Or find new ways for peers to share the resources they’ve discovered?
Our students have done a great job in finding programs and winning scholarships (cheers to Joseph Calpin and Shirley Martey for excelling in this effort!) So we’re jumping in, brainstorming some ideas, and kicking the project off. S.
Suggestions welcome as it percolates…
Here’s the Twitter convo that rolled on the topic yesterday, with some great ideas added already:
Image: “Young girl jumping on a trampoline at the Sarasota High School Sailor Circus,” 1952. State Library and Archives of Florida. Via Flickr Commons Collection – link.
