Hopkins-Nanjing Center Blog

Three weeks ago, during the first week of winter break, Hopkins-Nanjing Center (HNC) career services organized the 2022 Asia Career trek focusing on careers in Hong Kong and Shanghai. This trek is actually an annual “tradition”: every year students meet with alumni and professionals in the Shanghai-Hong Kong areas to learn about the myriad of career opportunities available to Johns Hopkins SAIS students. HNC MAIS student Nathan Rose discusses his experience at this year's trek.  This year, we were able to organize a total of nine separate career panels, with professionals sharing their experiences working in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Normally, this trek is done in person, but because of the ongoing pandemic and travel restrictions, this year’s trek was conducted virtually.  One of the great things about this year’s trek is that we were able to showcase a variety of employers. Often times, treks are organized around a specific sector or industry. This is good, as students can div...

In January, several Hopkins-Nanjing Center (HNC) students who are living in the DC area were able to meet up for a quick lunch break. Certificate student Eljoy Tanos reflects on this special moment during the ongoing pandemic that has resulted in a virtual learning environment and prevented many classmates from meeting.  For many people, the end of December is spent celebrating holidays and the new year. However, for students at the HNC, the first two weeks of January are spent worrying about papers, exams, and presentations. While taking classes from the comfort of my home is convenient, this arrangement has also made it harder to differentiate between my “studying” and “resting” spaces. After going through the first half of my exams, I was starting to feel burnt out. As I read through pages of articles about “copycat culture” ( shanzhai wenhua ), my phone vibrated with a WeChat notification. A text was sent to the group chat for HNC students in the DC area. Someone had just sugge...

Second-year MAIS student  Grace Faerber  interviewed Alex Martin ( HNC Certificate ‘18 and SAIS MA International Economics, International Law and Organizations ‘19) about his role as a  Trade Policy Researcher at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).  After graduating in Spring of 2019, Alex was connected to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) by some Hopkins-Nanjing Center and Johns Hopkins SAIS classmates and encouraged to apply for their internship. Alex had specialized in International Economics throughout his studies, and had worked in the business sector in China for three years prior to attending the HNC, so the opportunity to work in trade research at the China Affairs Office at USTR was very appealing.   In his interview, Alex described his 3-month internship fondly, explaining how the relatively small China Affairs Office provided him with much support and mentoring. He was able to develop the necessary skills and experienc...

Elizabeth Gonzales interviewed several Hopkins-Nanjing Center professors, who shared the inside scoop on their favorite thing about teaching at the HNC and their best advice to incoming students.  What do you like about teaching at the HNC? Qi Lingling  祁玲玲 , Associate Professor, School of Government, Nanjing University: 老师喜欢 HNC 课堂上的多元文化交流，同学们带着各自不同的教育与文化背景来到课堂，带来了很多思想碰撞的火花。   I like the multicultural communication in the HNC classroom. The students come to the classroom with their different educational and cultural backgrounds, which brings out a lot of riveting exchange of ideas.   Wang Changjiang  王长江 , Professor, School of Business, Nanjing University: 我在中心讲课已经将近 20 年， 主要讲课的内容是金融学基础 。 由于各国文化等不同，对金融的理解区别较大。 通过多年的教学， 能够有机会与国际学生课堂及课后交流金融投资的基本问题， 让我对金融的实践理解更为深入一些 ， 在研究上也开阔了视野 。同时中心的教学组织、行政服务等创造了非常好的环境， 让我感觉能够愉快、顺利的从事教学。   I have been teaching at the Center for nearly 20 years. The main content of my teaching is on the introduction to finance. Due to the di...

Final papers are in, Chinese New Year is fast approaching, and Hopkins-Nanjing Center students are embarking on a much needed holiday between semesters. First-year MAIS student Nathan Rose reflects on his semester.    With the Fall 2021 semester coming to an end (and the year of the Tiger fast approaching), I reflected a bit on the past couple months. This semester had its challenges, but upon reflection I was surprised how much I gained. First, let’s address the elephant in the room: virtual learning is tough. There is no denying this. Students, teachers, administrators are all frustrated with it, but it is an unfortunate reality we all must face in our COVID world. As such, let me describe some of the realities I experienced this semester. Having class early in the morning and late in the evening is difficult—something made worse if you are located in an unideal time zone (HNC virtual classes are scheduled as a compromise between EST and Beijing time, with classes occurring ...

Master of Arts in International Studies (MAIS) student Albert Heidecke shares his best tips on balancing a full course load with an internship while studying at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center.  Just like any graduate program, the Hopkins-Nanjing Center attracts students who have a wide range of professional and academic backgrounds. Some students may have nearly a decade of work experience, while others may have only finished undergraduate study just before matriculating at the HNC. I could spend an hour talking about the merits of going straight to graduate school after undergrad or taking time off to gain work experience – but that’s for another blog post. The fact is that work experience is important. To play off the old phrase:  工作经验不是万能的，但没有工作经验是万万不能的  – work experience isn’t everything, but you must have some.  Most MAIS students at the HNC opt for interning full-time during the summer months between their first and second year, and for many people that’s enough. B...

Hailey McGleam ( 刘霖 ) is a first year MAIS student and ERE concentrator at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. She is a ’21 Boren Fellow and currently based in Taipei, Taiwan. In addition to her HNC courseload, Hailey is also taking courses at Taiwan National University (NTU).    Why China, the HNC, and the Boren fellowship?   Coming to the Hopkins-Nanjing Center was by accident. I was originally a marine biology major and my best friend was Chinese and I started taking Chinese to talk with her mom. I realized at some point that I understood Chinese better than chemistry and thought, “Maybe I should keep taking Chinese.” When the HNC admissions representative came to our school, and they said the HNC had an ERE concentration, it blew my mind. I was taking four classes on Chinese culture, and was also an environmental science major, so what you find with that is that China is always coming up. It’s such a big polluter and in the West, they’ll say, “You can’t solve global climate p...