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
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.