Hopkins-Nanjing Center Blog

Happy holidays from the Hopkins-Nanjing Center Washington Office! The Hopkins-Nanjing Center Washington Office will be closed from Saturday, December 23 through Monday, January 1. Admissions representatives will respond to any emails sent to nanjing@jhu.edu after the holiday break. As reminder, HNC admissions representatives will be holding virtual information sessions in January. Join one of our upcoming virtual sessions to get tips and advice on the HNC application process. Admissions representatives will be going over each section of the application. To receive email updates about the upcoming virtual sessions, RSVP by clicking the links below. To join the sessions, click here at the scheduled time.     Tuesday, January 9, 7:00-8:00pm ET     Friday, January 26, 12:00-1:00pm ET Can’t wait until the virtual session? Check out a blog post on 5 things to remember when applying to the HNC or email nanjing@jhu.edu to speak with an admissions representa...

This Wednesday, student blogger, Alexandra Hansen, features life at the HNC through pictures. We hope that through this series you will be able to better understand the HNC’s campus, community, and culture.  Photos by Alexandra Hansen, Certificate '18

On December 1-3, the Hopkins-Nanjing Center (HNC) offered an exciting mini-course, Public Affairs in China: A Practical Approach, taught by Johns Hopkins SAIS’s own Practitioner-in-Residence for China Studies, Beth Keck, SAIS ‘85. The course, taught over three days, covered topics ranging from the history of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to identifying stakeholders and partners in business, the practice of Government Relations (GR), and crisis management. Professor Keck took an active approach by having students work through complex case studies based on actual events. SAIS Practitioner-in-Residence Beth Keck at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center In her role as SAIS Practitioner-in-Residence, Beth Keck brings vast experience in international business, global public affairs, and corporate social responsibility. She implemented Walmart’s Women’s Economic Empowerment initiative to train one million women and the company’s environmental sustainability initiative. She is also the vice...

Sean Leow is the Director of International for Kickstarter. He was a founding member of Neocha, a creative agency and bilingual magazine which celebrates and empowers creatives in China and is still an active board member. He graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Arts in 2003, received his HNC Certificate in 2005 and graduated with an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management in 2012. He worked at Facebook prior to his position at Kickstarter. What was your background before coming to study at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center? I went to Duke University and I was interested in China because my father is Chinese, so I grew up, spent a couple years in Singapore, but really never got to know China because my dad is from Malaysia, of Hakka descent. So I applied to study abroad in Beijing while I was at Duke and had a really great time, and I met David [Davies, current American Co-Director] there where he was leading the [Duke] program. He told me as well as other classmates about t...

It's hard to overstate the importance of your personal statement as part of your application to the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. This is a valuable opportunity to let the Admissions Committee get to know you as more than test scores, transcripts, and a resume. Applicants to all of our programs (Certificate, MAIS, and the HNC Certificate/SAIS MA) are required to submit a personal statement as part of their application: How do you expect Sino-global relations to impact your future, and how do you believe your time at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center will assist you in achieving your long-term career objectives? Here are few tips to keep in mind as you write your personal statement. 1) Answer the prompt. It may seem obvious, but some students submit personal statements that don’t fully answer the personal statement prompt. Review your essay and make sure that your essay clearly answers all parts of the prompt. It’s okay if you don’t have a five-year career plan! The Admissions Committee is look...

I’m student blogger Anna Woods, currently studying at SAIS DC in the SAIS MA part of the HNC Certificate/SAIS MA program. Some of the following points apply to all HNC applicants, while others are specifically to do with the HNC Certificate/SAIS MA application process. I hope they can be of use to prospective applicants! 1. There may be more outside funding than you might think . It pays to look beyond HNC fellowships when funding your time at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. China’s growing importance is something that organisations and governments around the world are increasingly recognising in the funding they give out. Hence, it’s a great idea to do some individual research for opportunities you might be eligible for. Terms for different fellowships vary, but it may be the case that master’s fellowships will fund the MAIS or HNC Certificate/SAIS MA programs, or study abroad scholarships will fund the HNC Certificate. I received a New Zealand Government Prime Minister’s Scholarshi...

 7:45 a.m –  I wake up and scurry over to Skyways to grab a morning coffee. If you purchase a coffee before noon, your purchase includes a free baked good (croissants, muffins, and even gluten free options are available!) Skyways Bakery 云中食品店 8:15 a.m. – I settle into the library and finish legal research for a Moot Court meeting I have later this afternoon. 9:50 a.m. – On Fridays, my only class is History and Philosophy of Law in the West: Critical Thinking and Legal Reasoning, my only English course this semester. Professor Simon hands back our papers on human nature and finishes his lecture on the topic of the week: Constructivism. Walking to the West Building to meet up with my roommate & language partner 11:30 a.m . – I leave class and walk to the West Building to meet my roommate and my language partner. We go to a nearby noodles restaurant that is popular among HNC students. I order 羊肉拉面. During our conversation, I try my best to stick with Chinese...

Through the academic year, HNC students take advantage of mid-autumn, fall and winter breaks to travel around China, intern in China and abroad; and others vacation elsewhere in Asia or return to their home countries to visit family and friends. Emily Rivera, Certificate '18, shares with us her travels to Shanghai over the Mid-Autumn Festival and Chinese National Day earlier this year. A frequently question asked is: Are there opportunities to travel to nearby cities while studying in Nanjing? Although our main focus at the HNC is of course, our studies, official school breaks do give students ample free time, and some students use this time to explore China. In fact, traveling around China is becoming increasingly more convenient. To travel, you can choose from several modes of transportation including the 高铁 (fast train), which is the quickest option. During the break, some students stayed at the HNC, while others traveled to neighboring cities. Our travel group at a delici...

As if the HNC wasn’t already special enough, another of the unique characteristics of your time in Nanjing is that almost every student rooms with another of the different culture. In this blog post, I wanted to write about my personal experience of living with my roommate Ning Xinyuan 宁心源. While our experience can’t count for everyone’s (people are different, and we all have varying dynamics) I thought it would be helpful to provide an example of what this was really like in practice. A photo of our room from the very first week The first step in my roommate journey was the online form I filled out in May of 2016, a couple of months after finding out I had been accepted to the HNC. There are questions about your habits and personality and sections to describe your sleeping schedule and to mention if you mind having a roommate who snores (!) (I don’t remember what I picked, but luckily for me Xinyuan did not snore, haha). The thing that amazed us both on the very first day we m...

If you’ve never thought about soda cans sitting on the ocean floor, or how the fish you may have eaten yesterday used to feed on small, toxic plastic pieces that float throughout oceanic water columns, neither did most of us attending Doug Woodring’s three-day ERE mini-course at Hopkins-Nanjing Center, “Creating Good: Entrepreneurs for the Environment”. A SAIS/Wharton graduate and a resident of Hong Kong for the last 20 years, Doug shared with us his past successes, present endeavors, and future aspirations regarding the monumental task of reducing global plastic pollution -- and how we, as potential entrepreneurs, could do the same.  Director and Co-Founder of the Ocean Recovery Alliance , Mr. Woodring inspired us to think about how plastic products and related services can be changed to reduce plastic footprints through design alterations and publicity, and how by imagining areas of constructive conflict between brands and creatively challenging businesses to embrace social r...

Last week, the HNC held its annual Halloween party (万圣节派对). A yearly tradition, the party gives students the opportunity to spend time with their peers and faculty members, as well as the opportunity to meet students studying at other universities in Nanjing. HNC’s student-elected banwei (班委) traditionally coordinates the party. Made up of two international students and two Chinese students, the banwei act as the student representatives of the HNC student body. Besides working as the student-faculty liaison, the banwei also has the fun job of planning parties and events throughout the year, including the Halloween party, Christmas party, and end of the year BBQ! The banquet hall before the festivities began! My favorite part of the party was the fact that this was many of the Chinese students’ first time celebrating Halloween and attending a Halloween party! Here is what some of the Chinese students had to say about their Halloween experiences: "The Chinese students were ...