Miami, September 6, 2011 – Following a competition among college students across the globe, six Miami Dade College (MDC) students have been awarded a one-year Confucius Institute Scholarship from the Hanban/Confucius Institute headquartered in Xuzhou City to study in China.
To compete for these prestigious scholarships, the six MDC students had to excel on the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (also known as the HSK), the Standard Chinese Language Proficiency Test. They prepared for the exam by completing two Chinese language courses taught by faculty from the Confucius Institute at MDC.
Student winner Yaacov Moshe studied at MDC’s InterAmerican campus, while the remaining five students are from the Wolfson campus: Sean O’Connell; Dayvis Cortes; Nicolas Lucas Gallo; Alejandro Gustavo Mendez; and Ernesto Monge. Their instructors at the MDC Confucius Institute include Jing (Iris) Zhang from the Wolfson Campus and Wensheng (Kevin) Yang from the InterAmerican Campus.
Their full scholarship includes tuition, room and board, and living expenses for the 2011-2012 academic year. They will attend Xuzhou Normal University, MDC’s sister university in China, where they will study the Mandarin Chinese language, culture, and related subjects beginning in early September.
“The students and Confucius Institute faculty are to be commended for their exceptional teaching and learning of Mandarin Chinese at MDC,” said Jane Ann Williams, executive director of MDC’s Office of International Education.
For more information about the Confucius Institute at MDC, please contact Dr. Jim Yu, Confucius Institute Director at 305-237-7581 or xyu@mdc.edu.