Meet the Hopkins-Nanjing Center’s Fall 2021 Student Committee

The semester may have started unconventionally, with HNC students taking classes from all over the world. However, one tradition remains this fall: The selection of the student committee. Every semester, the HNC invites its students to select four of their classmates as the HNC student committee representatives. The student committee, also known as the “banwei” 班委, are responsible for connecting students with the HNC staff, as well as with each other. They host activities to help students interact socially and aid each other academically.  

This semester more than ever, the banwei have tasked themselves with planning events focused on giving students opportunities to socialize with each other. Due to travel restrictions in China, many students are not able to come to Nanjing and live together at the HNC campus. Fortunately, the banwei have been very active and creative in approaching their duties. 

Let’s get to know the new banwei! 

 

 (From left to right: Christian Slavin, Rebecca Ash-Cervantes, Li Xiaoyang, Qie Jingran) 

Chris Slavin (白旻)  

I was born in a little town in Idaho and travelled to Taiwan as a Rotary Youth Exchange student during my undergraduate years. I’m currently a Certificate student at the HNC. Before the HNC, I earned a dual bachelor's degree in international business, with minors in Chinese and Japanese, from the University of Montana. In my free time, I enjoy reading, orienteering, cooking, and playing piano. 

Rebecca Ash-Cervantes (安貅一) 

I’m currently living in California. I started learning Chinese in college and I have been studying it for seven years. In 2014 I went to China, which led me to change my major to Chinese, and I have been traveling back and forth every other year. I am a first year SAIS-Bologna student, with an interest in migration, which is why I decided to spend my first year taking courses at the HNC. 

Li Xiaoyang (李晓阳) 

I am from Weifang, Shandong, which is known as the city of kites. I received my undergraduate degree from Shandong University. My major has always been International Politics. I applied to the HNC for their MA program, and I am now a 2nd year MA student majoring in politics. 

Qie Jingran (郄景然) 

I am a Certificate student at the HNC. I graduated from Nanjing University with a major in biological science and finance. Since I’m also interested in international relations, I thought it would only make sense for me to apply to the HNC. 

 

Why did you decide to sign up as a banwei? 

Xiaoyang: Although we cannot all be in Nanjing this semester, I believe HNC should still be an international community. So, as a banwei, I would like to help us all connect and better our community. Second, I really want to make more friends in the HNC. As banwei, I will have more opportunities to connect with people. I also want to help students get closer with each other as a group. I want us to exchange cultures and become a kind of representation of public diplomacy 公共外交 (gong gong waijiao) .

Jingran: Because I spent my undergraduate years in Nanjing University, I am familiar with campus activities. I think it only makes sense for me to try this position and help everyone find and enjoy these activities. As a banwei, I want to help my classmates familiarize themselves with Nanjing, the university, and activities that are available for them. 

What have the banwei been working on so far?  

Rebecca: I’ve done a lot of notes organizing for our meetings so far. It’s been fun and interesting talking with our Chinese counterparts. One thing that we set up back in September was the language partner program. We are also planning on doing Holiday-themed movie nights through Zoom. 

Xiaoyang: First, we have started the language partner program where we matched students to become each other’s language partners. In addition, we have come up with potential activities that we can do in-person when the Hopkins-Nanjing Center reopens. Personally, I want to plan activities that resemble traditional HNC activities, such as a costume party for Halloween and a Christmas dinner. I also want to celebrate Chinese traditional holidays and events, such as the Winter Solstice, with international students. 

Due to our current situation, most students are only able to meet each other virtually. How do you  plan to  connect with your classmates and each other?  

Jingran: Due to Covid, many students can’t meet on campus. We plan to protect the culture that HNC is known for, or 特色 (tese),  through programs and activities via Zoom. 

Chris: For me, an important part [of socializing] is being able to talk to people face to face. So, to start with, whenever I attend HNC events and classes, I always try to turn my camera on and identify each of the students by their face. 

Xiaoyang: The biggest problem is that many events require us to be in Nanjing. For example, going to Nanjing’s city wall. There are a few students who have been able to move to Nanjing. We are using this opportunity to have small gatherings with students who were able to get back to campus. For example, we play card games and have meals in small groups. 

Rebecca: I think the Chinese students have not had to adapt to using Zoom to socialize as much as the other international students. I want to be transparent with them that we (international students) may not be in China for a while, to encourage more participation in online social events. To solve this issue, we have considered dividing social activities based on three considerations: Zoom accessibility, time difference, and availability of in-person meetings. Our number one goal this semester, since we are the ones to start the year, is to leave a good precedent. We want to set a precedent so the next set of leadership can continue what we were building. 

Since we did not have a lot of chance to get to know you in-person, what would you like current students to know about you? 

Chris: I like playing piano and listening to music, especially jazz. I have been spending time playing Super Smash with my family members.  

Xiaoyang: First, I think I have a bright personality. I have always liked meeting and talking to many different people. As for my hobby, I like exercising. I'm trying to get into basketball and invite more people to play with me. I also like activities that can relax my mind like hiking or chatting in a café. 

Jingran: Although my previous major is related to life science, like biology, I’m also very interested in economics and have participated in activities to learn about Chinese economies in the past. So, if anyone has any questions or the same interests, you are welcome to talk to me! 

Meet the 2021-2022 Certificate Student Bloggers!

Meet our new team of student bloggers at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center (HNC)! Elizabeth Gonzales and Eljoy Tanos are both pursuing Certificate programs at the HNC.  They will be sharing their experiences studying at the HNC throughout the academic year. 

Elizabeth Gonzales, HNC Certificate '22

你好！My name is Elizabeth Gonzales, and I am a Certificate student at the HNC. After earning my HNC Certificate, I plan to pursue the MAIS program at the HNC, where I hope to further my Chinese studies and concentrate on Comparative and International Law. I was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, but attended Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. I graduated in 2019 with a BA in International Relations and Chinese.  

I began studying Mandarin in college. I was always very intrigued by Chinese culture and history, so I ultimately decided to learn the language. My passion to learn Mandarin further increased when I was a first-year college student and took a course on Beijing that included a 3-week trip to Beijing. While there, I explored the processes that have shaped and defined Beijing, especially during the past century or so. I recorded a documentary comparing past Beijing fashion to that of modern-day. I loved the city of Beijing immensely, and fortunately, the same professor was leading a China study group to Shanghai. Therefore, my second-year fall semester, I studied abroad in Shanghai. There, I was able to have an unpaid internship at a popular Shanghai retail store. As a junior, I went back to Shanghai with the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE). Thanks to this program, I was able to travel one of the paths of the Silk Road, meet different ethnic groups in China, and even walk in the Singing Sand Dunes in Dunhuang. Lastly, in 2019-2020, I was an English teaching assistant for Fulbright Taiwan. All these immersive experiences in a Chinese environment influenced my decision to continue learning Mandarin and to focus on China in terms of international studies. As a result, I chose to study at the HNC.  

 

Although I am currently attending HNC virtually, I am still very excited and eager to learn from my Chinese professors and engage with my Chinese and International peers about Sino-global relations. I am currently taking three courses: Chinese Constitution, Anthropology and Chinese Studies, and History and Philosophy of Law in the West.  

 

I look forward to working for admissions this year and being a helping hand to students interested in studying at the HNC! 

Eljoy Tanos, HNC Certificate '22 + SAIS MAIR '23

Hi! My name is Eljoy Tanos, and I am a Certificate student at the HNC. I was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia until my family and I immigrated to Maryland when I was eleven. In 2020, I graduated from the University of Richmond with a bachelor’s degree in Global Studies, with a concentration in Asia and Chinese Studies. 

I started learning Mandarin in my first year of college on a whim. Although I have always loved learning languages and cultures, I knew that learning Chinese was not going to be easy. Fortunately, I met a Chinese professor who inspired and encouraged me to continue learning Chinese. In my junior year, I attended a language immersion program in Peking University and lived in an apartment outside of campus. Thanks to this program, I was able to travel and immerse myself in the culture of Chengdu, Luoyang, Xi’an, and Tibet. From this, I realized that the best way to improve my Chinese was to be surrounded by the locals. 

Although I am not at the HNC campus this semester, I am still excited, and still slightly nervous, to learn alongside my classmates and the HNC professors. I am especially looking forward to my International Water Politics and Contemporary Chinese Film, Society, and Culture courses. Through my experience in HNC I hope to gain more knowledge about the Chinese modern society and the policies China has taken on climate change and other global issues. 

I’d like to end my introduction with a Chinese idiom: 苦尽甘来(kǔ jìn gān lái) - after suffering comes happiness. 

 

Using the HNC experience to impact lives

Quinn Campbell '16 uses his HNC experience to impact individual lives, including current students

What is your favorite memory from the HNC?

For me, it was coming in third place at the Nanjing Dragon Boat Festival. We trained so hard for ten weeks straight, had boat practices every single Saturday, were lifting in the gym together and doing cardio practices. On the day of, we showed up and realized we were the least-practiced team there because we had only started training 10 weeks prior. But we had been working hard in those 10 weeks. Plus, we really wanted it, and we had our HNC community (including many teachers and both co-directors) cheering us on from the sidelines. We raced well throughout the bracket and ended up making it all the way to the championship heat, where we clocked our fastest time yet and came in third place overall!

What is your relationship with the HNC today? 

I try to participate in a Career Trek every year, and I’m the most recent member of the Hopkins-Nanjing Advisory Council. I try to stay as involved as I can, generally. On one side, it’s a desire to stay connected and give back on a deeper, more longitudinal level, because I have the time and being at the HNC was such a formative year in my life. For the Career Trek, I participated in every single Career Trek I could when I was a student. I remember being in that position, with so much opportunity and excitement about what comes next. It was a natural transition to give back on the other side.

Do you have any advice for alumni looking to stay connected with the HNC?

To anybody who is remotely considering getting involved, I would say: do it, 100 percent. It requires so little from you as an alum but means so much to the community. It’s fulfilling as an alum to be on the other side of things, and you remember so well the excitement and stress of being a student. Everyone who goes to China is a bit weird, and we all love each other for it. The HNC alumni community is tightly knit; it’s one of our strongest characteristics. I remember tapping into that for support and help when I was a student. It’s nice to turn around and give back to it. If you don’t know where to start, you can reach out to me.    

Could you introduce your work in your own words? How much built upon your HNC experience, and how much did you have to learn on the job?

Voodoo is a mobile games publishing company. We focus on hyper-casual games, which are simple, rewarding games that take about 30 seconds to play per level, and you can play them anywhere.  We work with hundreds of game studios across the world to help them create games, test games, and get them in the best spot to launch. We then launch under our brand name, similar to a book publishing company. I also create game presentation decks fully in Chinese; that in and of itself is hard enough, because it’s one thing to have your Chinese to a level where you feel comfortable communicating, but another thing when it represents your professionalism and must be error-free.

In the Southeast Asia Career Trek Session, you mentioned having a direct impact on individuals as a motivating factor for your transition from Deloitte to Voodoo. How was that sort of individual impact a part of your HNC experience?

The HNC community is tight-knit, you’re involved with the lives of every individual. I was disappointed with the gym when I got there, so I organized with others to fundraise. We were able to get some great additions to the gym and hold weightlifting and yoga classes. I was also involved with the Consulting Club, at both campuses, and ended up creating a consulting program purely aimed at upskilling students as quickly as possible for consulting interviews. I saw the impact of this more at SAIS DC. On average, they send three to four students into consulting, but at the end of the year we had 15 students with offers for consulting positions. 

What has been the most fulfilling moment or accomplishment for you since your time at the HNC?

The most fulfilling moment is launching my very first game at Voodoo, Strong Pusher, with a solo developer out of Mongolia named Batzaya. He’s 26 with a newborn. He came to me with this game last year, basically saying “help.” We started working on it, improving it, and it ended up going viral on TikTok. That’s when we knew we caught lightning in a bottle. With a newborn at home, it's so impactful to Batzaya to have this source of income. He sends me pictures of the car he bought, the new home he bought, the renovations he’s done for his newborn’s room. It’s awesome to see that change for someone.

HNC is now 35 years old, what do you see as the value of the HNC in the coming 35 years? 

The HNC is more important going forward than it probably ever has been. US-China relations are obviously more important now than ever. Arguably, this is the longest period of tightened relations between the US and China since the HNC opened in 1986. What the HNC offers here is important: a cadre of Chinese and international students who are interested in each other’s culture, language, and international relations and issues on top of that. Engaging in each other’s culture, deeper thinking, and building relationships that bridge the current US-China relationship makes the HNC and its legacy a very compelling situation. What it enables for many future players in the US-China mix is completely unparalleled. There is nothing else like the HNC. A lot of students wouldn’t have access to this depth of study, experience, or the cross-cultural connections the HNC provides. 

On top of that, by their very nature, programs that offer this opportunity are not cheap. As an alum, getting involved in fundraising in any amount, shape, or form is what helps open the door for students to take advantage of what the HNC has to offer. Alumni fundraising is a huge part of making sure the HNC is accessible for the committed, energized students it attracts.