During orientation week for the Fall 2023 semester, Hopkins-Nanjing Center students gathered to elect their student representatives, a group of four students known as the Banwei (班委). Now fully back in an in-person setting for the first time in three years, Fu Jiapei, Liu Yufan, Tess Yu, and Mike Donmoyer were selected to lead an exciting new semester.
Meet the Fall 2023 Banwei
傅佳沛 Fu Jiapei (MAIS 2024)
From Xiamen, Fujian, Jiapei graduated with a major in French. After discovering a passion for the social sciences, Jiapei came to the HNC to focus on the energy, resources, and environment concentration.
刘宇帆 Liu Yufan (MAIS 2025)
Yufan majored in broadcasting at the Communication University of Zhejiang and came to the HNC to focus on international politics He is an ENTP and is passionate about meeting other people.
Tess Yu (Cert+MAIR 2025)
Tess is from Ellicott City, MD and was an economics major at Johns Hopkins University. In undergrad, she was president of the Sigma Omicron Pi sorority and interned at USAID.
Mike Donmoyer (Cert+MAIR 2025)
Born and raised in Maryland, Mike studied international relations at the United States Military Academy and served as an Army officer for five years. After leaving the Army, he moved to New Jersey where he worked as a management consultant before coming to the HNC.
Why did you choose to come to the HNC?
Fu Jiapei: I came to the HNC primarily because of the student-interaction atmosphere. Students at the HNC are dedicated to their studies, but more than that, they are thinkers. I like the fact that we can all communicate well in this cross-cultural context and share ideas in and out of the classroom.
Liu Yufan: My undergraduate major was in broadcasting and I have felt drawn towards learning about international policy, and over the last 3 years, so much has happened both domestically and internationally to learn from. I raised my interest by finding out why these things happened and how they’re projected to evolve. So I spent two years studying for the master’s entrance exam and am excited to be at the HNC!
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| Fu Jiapei |
Tess Yu: At SAIS, my functional focus is international economics and finance and my regional focus is China. I’m currently in Johns Hopkins’ BA/MA direct matriculation program and I was free to choose between DC, Nanjing, and Bologna for this year. I chose Nanjing because I hope to work in a field related to US-China relations in the future and I feel it's important to get the perspectives of Chinese professors and students on not only US-China issues but also domestic issues in China as well as issues affecting the global community.
Mike Donmoyer: Coming to HNC has been a long-term goal of mine since I found out about the program through my undergraduate Chinese Government and Politics professor, who is a SAIS alum. I believe we are at a pivotal moment in history when China and the US, who trace the origins of their social and political philosophies to separate international systems, must cooperate to manage the global challenges we face today. As I hope to pursue a career in foreign policy, I came to the HNC to understand China’s role in the future of global governance from a Chinese perspective.
What inspired you to join this semester’s Banwei?
Fu Jiapei: To be in the Banwei at HNC is not easy, because not only do we have to organize a lot of activities at an intense pace of learning, but also do this in the context of different backgrounds and language environments. I was in the Banwei last spring, I enjoyed the challenge, and am looking forward to this semester to plan more creative ways to help the HNC community thrive.
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| Liu Yufan |
Liu Yufan: As I said before, I am willing to help others and meet different people, so I really wanted to go for being on the Banwei. More importantly, my classmates think I am really good at finding good restaurants and organizing events. They nominated me to the position, so I thought: why not!?
Tess Yu: I primarily joined because I felt this would be a really good way to get as involved as possible at the HNC and to meet new people. I also wanted to help facilitate more opportunities for both international and Chinese students to spend time together and get to know each other. This was a unique semester in that everything is finally back in full swing after being virtual for 3 years and I wanted to be part of the process of bringing back traditions, making new ones, and overall breathing life back into the campus.
Mike Donmoyer: Part of what motivated my decision to join this semester’s Banwei was the desire to push myself out of my comfort zone and build relationships with as many of my classmates as possible. I had experience leading close-knit teams while I was in the Army, but I worked remotely for the last two years, which isn’t the best environment for building lasting connections. The second factor that motivated my decision was an experience I had over the summer volunteering as a career mentor for a young man who had resettled in the US. Although we are from completely different backgrounds, he is also an Army veteran and is preparing to apply to university. Finding common experiences and interests is a great way to build community while considering unique ways to develop our careers. So, I hope to use my time on the Banwei to help foster these types of connections among my classmates.
What goals do you have for the fall semester?
Fu Jiapei: This is the HNC's first full offline semester after Covid, so I want to bring back HNC traditions like walking the city wall in a day. I also want to help students create more spaces for interaction, such as interest groups, where I think students often have more interesting surprises in informal activities. Certain things like this couldn’t be duplicated in a virtual environment, so this year is sure to have more in store.
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| Tess Yu |
Liu Yufan: I hope I can create more conversations between different groups of people, whether they’re in different programs or from different nations. What I want most is to make this one of the happiest semesters for current students! Work hard, play hard!
Tess Yu: I hope that everyone comes out of this semester with both Chinese and international students they can call their close friends. It's a really broad goal, but between all the official and unofficial events we hold, I am confident this goal is achievable.
Mike Donmoyer: Of all the places I have studied, worked, and lived over the past 10 years, HNC is the ideal place to connect community and opportunity. Besides reviving all the incredible HNC traditions (particularly the Halloween party) as the first class fully in-person since the pandemic, I hope to encourage students to share their unique skills and experiences to form career-focused and special topic interest groups. I also want to find ways to establish a relationship between these groups and their counterparts at Nanjing University and the SAIS DC campus. Mostly, I want to help make my class’s HNC experience memorable and leave our mark on the center, whether it’s by redecorating the student lounge, vlogging our weekend trips, or creating entirely new traditions to pass down. This way, we can make HNC the destination of choice for more SAIS and Nanjing University applicants!
Other than your Banwei responsibilities, what are you looking forward to this year?
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| Mike Donmoyer |
Liu Yufan: I hope I can have huge achievement in academic performance. My background is in art and broadcasting, so I have little knowledge of the social sciences. I sometimes find that I cannot fully understand what foreign students and philosophers are saying, so I also expect this time at the HNC to help improve my English.
Tess Yu: I'm looking forward to playing my role in preventing ducks from flying out of Nanjing alive (i.e. Chinese duck dishes are very tasty).
Mike Donmoyer: Although I have studied Chinese for years, I have only spent a total of one month in China over multiple trips. I plan to see as much of the country with my classmates as possible this year. So, I am very excited about our upcoming weekend trips! This winter, I hope to get a group together to go skiing and snowboarding. I think this will be a great way to see parts of the country (and maybe even an international destination) to which we might not normally travel. Finally, I must have my daily coffee, so I plan to write a future blog post about all the best coffee shops around the HNC and Nanjing University once I discover them!
Written by Sam Trizza, Certificate+MAIR 2025
