Hopkins-Nanjing Center Blog

Professor Gaye Christoffersen Ian Weissgerber, a current HNC Certificate/SAIS MA student and regular contributor to the SAIS Observer , recently sat down with Gaye Christoffersen, a leading scholar in Asian energy security and Resident Professor of International Politics at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center.  Below is a partial transcript of their discussion on energy security and the future of renewable energy: I am sure there are individuals who are unaware of the role energy security plays within modern day society, so I was wondering if you could just very briefly touch on that. Very simply put, it is a reliable and stable supply of energy at a reasonable cost. Why is energy security important in the world we live in today? Industrialized countries require a lot of energy for their factories and transport sectors. In addition, there are also residential and commercial uses. However, there are many different forms of energy for each of these uses. For example, the transport sector...

Li Shuo HNC students learn about global issues from their peers’ perspectives by living, eating, and studying together while working in their target language, meaning that Chinese students take courses primarily in English, while international students take most of their courses in Chinese. Many of these students immediately impact their communities, like Li Shuo HNC’10, who joined Greenpeace after leaving the HNC and in 2013 led an unprecedented environmental investigation of one of the largest Chinese coal producers and politically powerful state-owned enterprises, Shenhua Group . Asked about the HNC’s impact on him, Li says, “Many of the key skills and knowledge required in my daily work now find their roots in the HNC. This could not be encapsulated anywhere better than in the HNC’s library and its role in developing my fascination with books - even after three decades of reform and opening up, the HNC's library still is one of the few places in Mainland China that host...

The Hopkins-Nanjing Center recently held its annual Career Day in Shanghai. Read on for student Nanfei Yan's impressions of the day! Hello All, Last Friday was the annual HNC Career Day, undoubtedly one of the most exciting events at the Center. Career Day starts off with a keynote speaker luncheon, followed by a dozen panels covering a dozen industries, ending with a dinner reception for all the participants.  Career Day Luncheon This year’s keynote speaker was a managing director from Deloitte China. He spoke on the qualities of leadership and quoted past leaders from both China and the US. Afterwards, students were given a chance to ask questions. When asked about lessons learned from past challenges, the speaker shared a memory from working with multinational clients and having to recognize the importance of cross-cultural communication.  Keynote Speech at Career Day For the panels, students were given a choice of 3 from a list of industries including consul...

Students recently had the opportunity to participate in an HNC-sponsored Saturday outing to Gaochun, where they were able to pick strawberries, enjoy lunch with their classmates, and take a study break.  Check out some of the pictures from the outing below!

Most of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center student body is in Shanghai today for our annual Career Day.  We hope to feature pictures from Career Day in a future post, but in the meantime we have taken a look back on another opportunity offered through HNC's career services office: the Asia Career Trek.  Current HNC Certificate/SAIS MA student Dennis Hong reflects on the five day trek to Shanghai and Hong Kong: Upon the conclusion of the first semester at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in January, I had a chance to participate in its annual Asia Career Trek, one of the most informative and educational career development oppor tunities available at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. Annually organized by Johns Hopkins University SAIS and HNC, the 2015 Asia Career Trek brought 20 students from all three locations of SAIS - Washington DC, Europe (Bologna), and Nanjing - to Shanghai and Hong Kong for the five-day meetings with representatives of various organizations. During my visit to these...

We often focus here on this blog on the "target language" experience students receive in the classroom, but the HNC is truly a bilingual community and student life is a perfect example of that unique aspect of our program.  Several student initiatives demonstrate this, including a public speaking group focused on practicing public speaking skills in both native and target languages, as well as a Chinese-English movie interest group that screens two movies per week.  Check out the pictures below from some of these activities!  Buttons indicate which language to speak in when practicing public speaking skills One English and one Chinese movie are screened each week in the student lounge    Chinese and international students also work together to run a weekday coffee counter in the student lounge Buy 10 cups of coffee in the student lounge and get one free!

An e-newsletter was sent to all admitted students yesterday, but we've heard from few of you with Gmail accounts that it has been filtered into Gmail's "promotions" folder.  If you have not yet received this newsletter, please check that folder.  Once you open the email, you can click on the tags/labels icon and uncheck the promotions box so hopefully future emails are filtered into your main inbox.  The joys of Gmail... Every Monday from now until the decision deadline of April 20, we will be sending an e-newsletter with information on preparing for graduate school and making the decision whether to attend the Hopkins-Nanjing Center.  Each issue will feature topics ranging from academics to career services to student life.  If you have any questions, please contact us at nanjing@jhu.edu.