Travel to China with ESU’s Study Abroad Program

This is one of the many places the students visited on the most recent trip. Photo Credit / Jamie Reese
This is one of the many places the students visited on the most recent trip. Photo Credit / Jamie Reese
This is one of the many places the students visited on the most recent trip.
Photo Credit / Jamie Reese

By Marisa Pagán-Figueroa
SC Staff Writer

Get on a plane and have an adventure this summer!

A few days after school ends, you can have the opportunity to board a plane flying to the other side of the world. ESU is hosting a trip to China this summer for interested students to study abroad.

Departing on May 23 and returning on June 14, the journey begins at Shanghai Normal University (one of ESU’s partner schools) with scheduled stops in the cities of Hangzhou and Beijing.

Leaving from Newark Airport, your adventure begins with a 14-hour flight to Shanghai, where you will spend the first two weeks of your stay. The voyage will finish up in Beijing before your return home on June 14.

While in Beijing, you will visit the Summer Palace, observe the Forbidden City, and climb the legendary Great Wall of China.

There is no specific number of slots for the trip, but trip organizer Michael Laffey, Coordinator of the Office of International Programs, hopes for at least 15 participating students.

Kacie Chern, a senior studying biology, went on the trip to China in 2013 and took Chinese I and Asian Politics. She encourages other students to take the opportunity to expand their own perspectives: “I don’t know how, but being immersed in a culture so different from our own puts everything into perspective. It made me see how much more there is to this world in a way you could never understand from reading a textbook or just hearing about it in class. You get it from experience.”

If you fear traveling by yourself to a new country, have no worries! ESU faculty members Dr. Wenjie Yan and Dr. Margaret Ball will be traveling with students every step of the way.

One class offered on this journey is Chinese I (GE: MLCH 116) taught by Dr. Yan, a communications professor here at ESU and native of China.

This will be the ninth time in the last 10 years that Dr. Yan is leading a group of students to China. With the most recent program based in Shenyang during the summer of 2013, this year’s trip marks the first based in Shanghai since 2012.

Also offered on the trip is a class in Asian Theatre (GE: THTR 325) taught by Dr. Ball, chair of the ESU theatre department. Dr. Ball has put on many of the theatrical shows at the Fine Art and Performing Arts Center.

The cost of the program is $2,390 plus ESU tuition, which covers roundtrip airfare, transportation within China, housing, most meals, cultural excursions within China, and medical insurance. Tuition cost will depend on the number of credits taken by the student.

Students are required to register for at least one of the two courses offered to attend the trip. Two payments in the amount of $1195 each are due on March 6 and April 3 to Enrollment Services in Zimbar. Make sure to get a receipt from Michael Laffey to have signed at Zimbar as your proof of payment and submit the receipt back to the Office of International Programs.

If you have any questions, contact Michael Laffey at mlaffey@esu.edu or go to his office in Stroud Hall 103.

Email Marisa at:
mpaganfigu@live.esu.edu