Hopkins-Nanjing Center Blog

HNC Certificate/SAIS MA student Tyler Makepeace is now pursuing the MA portion of his program in DC, but memories of his time in HNC's band live on: Tyler, on guitar On one of the first few days of orientation last year at HNC, two students gave a presentation about a talent show that was going to be held for the Mid-Autumn festival and they were looking for acts. Hengxue, my roommate, was very enthusiastic about forcibly drafting me into the show, though significantly less so when I said I would sign up on the condition that he signed up as well. I had taught myself guitar during high school, but had never been serious enough about it to have ever attempted to be a part of a band. The two coordinators put up a sign up sheet, which remained perfectly blank for the first day until Patrick Baine signed up as a drummer looking for other band members. Later that day, I met up with Patrick and Joe Plantamura, a bass player who had studied music in college, and by the end of th...

As a Certificate student at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, I had to take at least three courses per semester in Chinese. Out of all the courses I took while at the Center, one of my favorites would have to be Contemporary Chinese Foreign Policy with Professor Cai Jiahe. Not only was it my favorite course, but it was also the first course I ever sat in on at the Center.  Lauren in Shanghai I’ll never forget that first day of the semester. Bright and early at 8:00am and feeling…well, pretty intimidated to be honest with you. I had never taken a graduate level course in Chinese before, and I didn’t really know what to expect. I remember talking with the students sitting next to me, and quickly realizing that I wasn’t the only one who was a bit nervous. That first class was definitely difficult, but not impossible, and after that first day the class just got better and better. One of the reasons I loved this course so much was that the content was different from anything I had ...

All of us who work for the Hopkins-Nanjing Center feel passionate about the mission of the HNC and the importance of the skills our students learn.   However you may not know that five of the eleven American staff members who work for the HNC in either Nanjing or Washington are actually alumni of the Center, representing both the Certificate and MAIS programs and graduating between 1988 and 2013.   A number of the Chinese faculty and staff are also alumni of the HNC.   Katie Brooks (HNC ’09) is one such graduate.   Now in her role as Assistant Director and Admissions Officer in the HNC Washington Support Office, she reflects on the first time she heard about the Hopkins-Nanjing Center:   Katie and a classmate at HNC's 25th Anniversary I can still remember exactly where I was sitting the first time I heard about the Hopkins-Nanjing Center.   It was 2004 and I was in my freshman year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.   Than...

HNC Certificate/SAIS MA student Tyler Makepeace has joined the HNC Office of International Admissions as a student worker.  Along with two Nanjing-based students, over the next year he'll be providing a glimpse into the student experience at HNC on this blog.  Read on to learn more about Tyler: 大家好！      My name is Tyler Makepeace, and I am a 2014 HNC Certificate graduate as well as a current SAIS MA student double-concentrating in China Studies and International Finance. This year, I am excited to be working with the HNC admissions office, and will be participating in online chats with prospective students, as well as updating the HNC blog with some helpful information about the Hopkins-Nanjing Center and my own personal experiences at the Center.      My own interest in China began in the summer of 2008, in the buildup to the Beijing Olympics. The STARTALK Program, a government funded program that offers free month...