“Jill” Xiaoting Huang, SAIS ’16, is a second year SAIS MA student, double concentrating in China Studies and International Law. She was born in Liaoning, China, and went to undergraduate at Tianjin Foreign Studies University. After that, she worked for almost two years at the Bank of China Headquarters in Beijing as an associate account manager in the Financial Institutions Department. Jill has long been familiar with the HNC because her uncle is a HNC alumnus, graduating in the early 90s as one of the earliest certificate graduates of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. During her years in Beijing, Jill went to many HNC/SAIS gatherings and got to know alumni of both the HNC and SAIS. She still remembers the first day she met American HNC alumni and how amazed she was by their flawless Mandarin. “It was a strange and yet wonderful feeling, ”she said, “to communicate with Americans my age who can express themselves freely in Mandarin and truly understand Chinese culture as well.” Jill believes the HNC is an organization that is doing great things to not only make positive changes to US-China relations, but also to the world.
Jill’s favorite class in the China Studies concentration at SAIS has been US-China Relations with Professor David M. Lampton, who is also one of her favorite professors at SAIS. Besides working for the HNC DC office, she’s also doing a second internship as the Research Assistant of 100,000 Strong Foundation, which is an organization dedicated to strengthening US-China relations through Mandarin language learning and study abroad.
In terms of SAIS extracurricular activities, Jill is part of the SAIS China Club, International Law Club and Consulting Club. She’s also part of the Student Government Association (SGA) and will be serving as the President for the 2015 to 2016 academic year.
