Hopkins-Nanjing Center Blog

Cecilia Joy-Pérez, Certificate ’16, uses her Chinese language skills and economics background in her role as an analyst in Washington, DC. Tell us about your career. After graduating from the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, I moved to Washington, DC, to work in public policy. My first job ended up across the street from Johns Hopkins SAIS as a research assistant in demographics and political economy at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). At AEI, I contributed to the Chinese Global Investment Tracker (CGIT), the only database of Chinese construction and investment worldwide. My individual research focuses on the Belt and Road Initiative. Talk about the commercial footprint of the Belt and Road Initiative is wildly often overhyped, without being based in clear data. Motivated to bring facts into the conversation, I used the CGIT to quantify the Belt and Road Initiative.  Currently, I am working as an analyst at Pointe Bello, a research and advisory firm. My aim is to continue to follo...

Name: Benjamin Sinvany Program: Master of Arts in International Studies ’20 Hometown: Columbus, Ohio Undergraduate Institution and Major: Emory ’15, History Major How did you become interested in China? I started studying Chinese in middle school. In early high school I took a field trip to China with my class. We visited the Terra Cotta Warriors, silk factories, artisanal places, and did a lot of super touristy, but fun activities. One of my best memories is fighting over dumplings with my classmates. My Chinese teacher told me about the School Year Abroad China program, which gives high school students a chance to study abroad for a year. I spent nine months living with a host family and took 12 hours of Chinese class a week. I also did the Princeton in Beijing program and worked as a teaching assistant at a study abroad program after college. Could you tell us about the article you had published recently? I published an article in the Journal of Chinese Military ...

The Hopkins-Nanjing Center offers the Student Leader Scholarship to students who have held a leadership position in a China-related student organization on their campus or in their community, or have been selected as a delegate for a student-run conference on China. Meet the 2019-2020 Student Leader Scholars below. Bochen Han Hopkins-Nanjing Center Certificate + Johns Hopkins SAIS MA ‘21 Duke University-University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC) China Leadership Summit Co-Director and Senior Advisor Born into a tightly-knit extended family in the Chinese island province of Hainan, Bochen has always felt connected to China’s culture and people even after immigrating to Canada at age six. But what drew her academically to China was the concept of “soft power” that she discovered during her freshman year of college: a framework that seemingly explained China’s obstacles to global influence, and that appeared to offer a form of influence that was more benign, persuas...

Ashley Johnson, HNC Certificate ’15 + Johns Hopkins SAIS MA ’16, is a Project Manager for Trade, Economic, and Energy Affairs at the National Bureau of Asian Research, a non-profit think tank focused on U.S. relations with Asia based in Washington, D.C. Tell us about your current role. I am currently Project Manager for Trade, Economic, and Energy Affairs at the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR). NBR is a nonpartisan, non-profit think tank that produces independent research on issues affecting U.S. relations with Asia. My team works on topics such as energy security, climate change adaptation and mitigation, technology innovation, sustainable development, and trade relations in the Asia-Pacific. In my role, I develop and maintain relations with technical experts and other stakeholders, assist in editing and publishing essays and reports, and organize events to disseminate NBR’s research and findings. How did your experience at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center and Johns Hopkins SAIS ...