Hopkins-Nanjing Center Blog

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, HNC Certificate 2012, shares how her HNC experience helped further her career goals. Bethany is the current assistant editor of Foreign Policy magazine's China channel Tea Leaf Nation . Tell us about your current role. In my role as assistant editor of Foreign Policy magazine's China channel Tea Leaf Nation, I write timely coverage and analysis of news and major trends in China. I also provide on-air commentary for broadcast media such as CNN International, BBC's The World, and PRI, and I've spoken on panels at Georgetown University and Tufts University. How do you think your experience at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center prepared you for this work? I would not be where I am today if I hadn't studied at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. I must be able to swiftly skim and analyze Chinese-language media for an English-speaking audience; I must be able to conduct interviews in Chinese; and above all, I must understand the context for events and tre...

Sean Ages, HNC MAIS 2013, reflects back on his time at the HNC and his experience working for the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Read on to hear how his HNC experience helped further his career. Tell us about your current role. Right now I’m at Treasury’s Office of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, which is the office that coordinates the Economic Track of the yearly bilateral summit. Day-to-day, it’s a bit of everything: writing briefings, coordinating a unified government policy for negotiations, doing logistical legwork for the event, and everything in between. I love the variety and the pacing, plus the ability to be exposed to a little bit of nearly every office at Treasury and many other federal agencies. How do you think your experience at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center prepared you for this work? The classes at HNC provided a great foundation for me to work at the Treasury. I focused on international politics at HNC and Treasury often deals with the intersecti...

For my second professor interview, I decided to speak with my professor for “Social Issues of China’s Modernization.” This is one of the most popular courses at the HNC for good reason. The course focuses a lot on issues that have developed since China’s “Reform and Opening”（改革开放）and Chinese society still faces, such as wealth inequality, environmental concerns, China’s urbanization and city planning, and many others. However outside the content of the course, one of the main benefits of this class is learning from Professor Hua Tao. Professor Hua Tao has been teaching at the HNC for over a decade and has found a way to engage both international students and Chinese students so well that his classes are always among the most popular. Andrew with Professor Hua Tao Q&A with Professor Hua Tao Please tell me a little about your background, individual research, and when you came to HNC?  I received my doctorate from Nanjing University in 1989. My research is in Chinese Hi...

As the Hopkins-Nanjing Center begins to gear up for the 30th Anniversary Celebration this June, we asked alumni to reflect back on their HNC experiences.  “Just one year of study ended up having a very large impact on my life,” alumnus Brian Wong (HNC 1997) comments. Brian went on from the HNC to become one of the very first non-Chinese employees at Alibaba and only the 52nd at the company. He now serves as Vice President in the Office of the Chairman, Jack Ma.  Watch the following 2-minute video to hear more perspectives from HNC alumni. Alumni featured in the video are: Brian Wong (HNC 1997) Vice President, Alibaba Group Brantley Turner (HNC 2000) Vice-Principal, Shanghai Qibao Dwight High School Helen Yan (HNC 1995) Vice President, Corporate Development, Sanofi Jonathan Garrison (HNC 2000) General Manager, International Cooperation Development,  Wanda Group Share your stories with us! To view more updates from HNC Alumni, visit our class notes page .