Sunday, September 27, 2009

Avoiding missed opportunities

Yesterday as I was in the library frantically trying to finish my term paper before the midnight deadline, I came across a frightening discovery. After turning in my paper at 11:58pm, I realized the importance of developing good communication skills. Here at MIT, most students stress developing technical skills over developing communication skills like writing and oral presentations. Like many of these students, before writing this paper I also felt that it was more important to focus on technical skills (like efficiency in a laboratory setting, extensive knowledge of theorems and formulas, and field experience). However, after I turned in my paper and began to walk home, I started to realize that good communication skills meant more than simply being able to write elegant essays, or delivering exciting speeches. During that walk I began to understand that being a good communicator meant going the extra mile to help other people understand an unfamiliar topic. Additionally, I realized that many scientists and engineers who don't posses good communication skills often miss out on opportunities, and end up doing a disservice to themselves. While it is true that the overall aim in science and engineering is to solve problems, effective communication is needed to help bring these discoveries from the world of science and engineering to the broader public. Just like the story of a researcher who was able to get funding for her lab simply by explaining a scientific phenomena to the head of a major corporate company on the elevator, often times good communication skills open up the door to different opportunities.

As a result of this revelation last night, I now see why so many people in the general public are unaware of many of the "discoveries" that take place in science and engineering. Rather than being uninterested in these discoveries, the fact is that too often, many of these discoveries aren't effectively communicated to the general public. As a result, I have a new appreciation for the presentation and public speaking workshops that we provide for our students here at LTI. While it is important that these students get trained technically in school, I am glad that our students are apart of a program like LTI that helps them become better communicators. Just like the researcher who was able to get a grant for her lab simply by having a conversation on the elevator, it is my hope that through these communication workshops, our students will be able to take advantage of all of the opportunities that life will present them with.

Your Public Relations Chair,

Walter Anazonwu

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

A New Year

Greetings!

As everyone is settling into the new school year, I thought that it would be a good time to reflect on all of the talk about "new beginnings." It seems that with the start of every new school year, people are always talking about starting anew, making changes, and discovering who you are. And this year was no exception, as President Barack Obama addressed students across the country. While President Obama's message had the usual slogans ("stay in school" and "do your best"), his message stood out when he said that "the overall success of this country hinges on the overall success of its students." Essentially, what Obama was saying was that if America was going to overcome the obstacles that we now face, everyone (including students) has to do his or her part. Likewise, now I realize just how important really LTI is. While we may only motivate a handful of students each year, the fact of the matter is that our efforts are making a difference not only in the lives of the students that we work with, but also on the nation as a whole.

Your Public Relations Chair,

Walter Anazonwu

CDI-SLP 13 and Reflections

August 28, 2009 + Aftermath




Students and Mentors Pose for One More SLP Memory!

My trip to Shenzhen, China this summer as part of the CDI-LTI’s Service Leadership Program was a phenomenal experience. LTI’s mission has always been to promote service by supplying young students with the resources and confidence to implement their own service or development project. In this program, we taught a range of students, from beginning middle school to high school graduates, the essential lessons of leadership, teamwork, and communication. In the scope of the overall project, the students gained the perspective they needed to initiate and develop their own leadership/ service initiative with a local elementary school.

Initially, I thought I was helping the students. In the end, I realized how much I had learned from this experience as well. Because there was a language barrier, I had to be extremely conscious of my communication methods and body language. Beyond more technical lessons, I learned what leadership meant. Sure, I had ideas about leadership before, and even when I was mentoring for LTI, I was certain I got the concept down. However, I was missing an essential ingredient to this mysterious leadership recipe. I failed to believe. My high school education and especially my few years at MIT have taught me to be skeptical. Okay, so I taught the students about leadership, but did I ever truly believe they understood me or would take it to heart and pass this lesson on? Honestly, as much as I would like to believe I did, I did not. I knew as soon as the lesson ended, life would move on to more realistic, concrete things, such as college applications, homework, and family life- certainly not initiating a new service. Not as often as I would like to admit, I was wrong. There were passionate students who truly cared about their community and took the lessons I taught to heart. Unfortunately, I saw those students as rare exceptions to the rule.

I saw something different on my trip to Shenzhen. Every single one of these kids participated in every lesson. The voices and the hands never stopped rising to answer questions and lead discussions. These young adults took the glass and drank every last drop. They excelled at the activities, questioned every statement, and tightly grasped each concept. When we left, I had hopes, but realistically, I knew Chinese education would soon take over their lives, and the lessons and plans for the final service project might fade. BUT, it has not. They still take initiative and contact the SLP coordinators for help. During this trip, I found inspiring, intellectual, amazing students, but most of all, I found my own belief.

Jia

CDI-SLP Day 12

August 27, 2009

The students journeyed back to the middle school this morning. The day started off with official introductions to the selected middle school students. The finance team led the “Ting” energizer. As shown below, Eddie thoroughly enjoyed leading the students through this fun introduction game.



Elementary School Students “Ting-Off” while Student Mentor Eddie Cheers

The remaining teams focused on an activity with an underlying lesson, such as “Minefield,” shown below.



Student Mentors Lead “Minefield” with Elementary School Students

Each activity was followed by a discussion, similar to SLP curriculum. Here, Donald and Jay led a discussion on the importance of teamwork and communication in “Minefield.”



Donald and Jay Lead a Discussion

Both the mentors and students had a blast learning the importance of leadership through interactive games and in-depth discussions.

When the students returned to their own classroom, Mark, Ye, and Julian led their real-world entrepreneur scenario, Lemonade Tycoon. Mark programmed an original algorithm to determine the net profit of each entrepreneur group based on their supplies, prices, weather, and even special events, such as a local concert. Ye’s broadcast center and the busy supply store is shown below.





Ye Reports the Weather for “Lemonade Tycoon”



Students Bombard the “General Store” Before Closing Time

In this simulation, students learned the basics of starting a business, such as buying and trading supplies. Negotiation and adaptability were also vital skills. Students faced issues such as a lemon shortage, stimulus package, and even a population burst from a local concert. Teams worked within their team and with other teams to redistribute supplies and make the most profit.

Tomorrow, SLP will hold it’s official closing ceremony for students, parents, and Vanke staff.

Until tomorrow,

Jia

CDI-SLP Day 11


August 26, 2009


Today, the SLP group traveled to the original Vanke property. The house featured antique architecture and furnishings. The day started off with a quick teamwork activity, “Floating Stick,” led by Gloria from the Education team. The students must work together to steadily lower a long stick without losing contact with the stick. With this activity, the students must actively communicate, otherwise the stick has a tendency to continually “float” upward. As shown below, Shelby, Freizen, and Victoria’s team have difficultly lowering the stick.



Students Try to Control the “Floating Stick”

After the initial excitement, students split off into two groups to give a five-minute oral presentation. They were previously assigned a public speaking assignment. Each student was required to prepare an oral presentation on a topic of his or her choice. Presentation topics ranged from a how-to salsa dance to the history of the peanut. Students utilized their presentation and projection skills in this speech simulation. Shown below, Roy is presenting the founding and history of the world-famous Haagen Dazs ice cream brand.



Roy Present the History of his Favorite Ice Cream

After the presentations, students gather for team energizer. They must support themselves with one foot in a small square. This tests the students ability to creatively use a small space and persuade others to follow a plan. Below, Simba and Victoria look up from their strategic planning.



Simba and Victoria in the middle of Strategizing

Tomorrow, the students make a second trip to the middle school to practice their leadership curriculum with selected students. Each team is responsible for preparing and teaching one activity to the selected students at tomorrow’s official visit.

Until tomorrow,

Jia

CDI-SLP Day 10

August 25, 2009

The students kick-off the morning with a blind scavenger hunt lead by the International Relations Team. Three students comprise a scavenger hunt team. One student can only communicate with hand gestures to a second student who can only communicate verbally to a third student who cannot see. As a team, the students retrieve as many objects as possible within a time limit. In this activity, students must work together closely and combine their senses to gather the most “treasure.” As soon below, Doris, Jim, and Reuben are having trouble searching without their vision.



Students in the Hunt

Teamwork becomes the theme of the day as Paula leads the students to their next activity, “Pyramid.” In this activity each student in a group must hold onto a long string attached to a rubber band. Teams must use this device to pick up and stack paper cups into a pyramid. To make this task more difficult, the strings were all varying lengths, and the cups were scattered across the room in locations at all heights. Despite these additional obstacles, Lynn, Reuben, Donald, Rita, Chris, and J had no trouble stacking their pyramid.



Teamwork Pyramid

Teamwork and communication were essential for the final engineering challenge, “Paper Towers.” Students were supplied with limited sheets of paper and given fifteen minutes to build the tallest and most stable tower they could. The imaginative designs ranged from a card house to a space needle, shown below.




A Truly Great Paper Tower


After the morning team-building activities, the students visited the middle school for the first time. They presented their ideas for their leadership and service project to the school officials and several representative students. As seen below, Roy introduces himself and the overall project to the school administration.



SLP Student Leader Group Presenting Final Project to Elementary School Administration

Until tomorrow,

Jia

CDI-SLP Day 9

August 27, 2009

After learning the techniques of negotiation and working together, Gloria, Dave, and Paula paved the path to teamwork and even some engineering fundamentals. The day started lightheartedly with “Zoo,” a game that tests communication and quick reaction rates.



A Game of “Zoo”

Once students felt comfortable communicating in a group, their skills were tested in “Elevator Pitch,” an activity in which students must sell or “pitch” a random object provided by the mentors to their group. With some imagination and excellent persuasion techniques, students verbally transformed a plain hair bow into an instant makeover machine, a webcam into a monster eater, and a watch into a time warping device. The students were able to practice their public speaking, persuasion techniques, and oral and physical communication methods by this simple activity.

Individual communication became important for the students’ first engineering challenge! Students were required to build a bridge from 4 sheets of newspaper and one feet of tape. Each team member was given a specific hint that would make their bridge more stable. Their task was to communicate this hint to their teammates in order to construct the most stable and creative bridge. Mentors provided various weights, such as books, markers, and even large vitamin bottles to test the weight capacities of each team’s bridge. A fully loaded bridge constructed by Chris, Roy, Charlie, and Jenny is shown below.



Student-Engineered Paper Bridge

From the bridge activity, students discovered that they can listen and persuade each other, but can they persuade potentially troubling students of their own? “Extreme Mentoring” tested each student’s ability to lead a discussion with several problem students. In this activity, three mentors were assigned to lead a discussion about an education topic, while the remaining three students in the group were assigned trouble personalities, such as excessively talking, persistently poking or bothering other students, and simply refusing to participate in the discussion. For the students’ final projects, they must teach a group of middle school students, who might have trouble focusing on topic. This activity taught them the methods and skills to deal with troubling issues and how to refocus an activity when they become the mentors. Although many students had trouble dealing with the troubled personalities, as a group, they were able to control their students and continue on with their assigned discussion.

After a day full of education, “Wind in the Willows” finished a full day. The activity tested the students’ trust for each other with a fun game. Students closed their eyes and fell backward into a circle of their classmates who caught and passed them along. Manie is shown below falling into the arms of her classmates, Lynn and Rita.




Trusting Each Other with “Wind in the Willows”

Tomorrow, the students visit the local middle school to present their project ideas in their teams. Students and mentors spent the remainder of the day finalizing their group and individual ideas and practicing their group presentation. The student leaders group will present a project focused on two ideals.

The first aspect of the service project is a leadership class focused on teamwork, communication, and problem-solving. The second aspect is a community service project developed and initiated directly by the middle school students.

Until tomorrow,

-Jia

CDI-SLP Day 8

August 26, 2009


After the students’ exciting Journey around the World, the International Relations team, Colin McSwiggen, Cassandra Xi, and Taylor Jay led the students through negotiation, communication, and presentation fundamentals! As the students continue to grow in the program, their parents were invited to view a day of SLP activities and learn a little more about the final project with the partner elementary school.



The Students and Mentors pose in front of a Vanke Property

The day began with a game of International Relation themed charades. This exercised introduced the students to key vocabulary and expression techniques necessary in not only international negotiations, but also in common disagreements. Since, charades is not a common game in China, the game was an exercise solely in body language and clear non-verbal communication.

After the brief charade introduction, the students shifted to verbal communication exercises. Students presented several lines of recited text to small groups. Passages ranged from Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, performed by Jordan, to lines from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, performed by Michaela. Students focused on different methods of presentation context, such as persuasion, entertainment, and emotional connection. Many students who previously shied away from group discussion came out of their shell and showed their potential in this activity. Eye contact, speech fluency, and body gestures were key points in suggested improvements.



Students Simulating the Prisoner's Dilemma

Despite a day of communication exercises, a fundamental International Relations exercise relied on no communication at all. The students were presented with their own Prisoner’s Dilemma, (shown above) in which they must choose to act in the interest of themselves or each other. After rounds of resolved dilemmas, students, including partners Charlie and Francica, realized the maximum amount of reward came with cooperation, when they both acted in the interest of each other- a vital aspect of successful international relations.

The final International Relations activity focused on a student skit designed to feature and demonstrate one of seven persuasion techniques, including bandwagon, emotional appeal, and hyperbole. Student skits were absolutely phenomenal! Not only did they focus on their assigned technique, they produced intricate plot lines filled with surprises, humor, and artistic performances. They featured a karaoke performance, moonwalk, and even a hip hop rap. Most importantly, the students presented memorable and entertaining methods of remembering and using persuasion techniques in presentation and debate.



SLP with Prospective International MIT Students

After an exciting day with the students, SLP met the Shenzhen alumni network and prospective MIT students over signature hot pot (shown above). MIT alum, entrepreneur, and CEO of his own software company, Mike Freedman, shared his views on opening his own business in foreign countries, managing multiple branches, and potential expansion into developing countries.

Until tomorrow,

Jia

CDI-SLP Day 7



August 22, 2009


On the second official day of our program, I feel as though we have already gotten more comfortable as a program. The main activity of the day was a sort of world tour foreign cultures lead by our Cultural Differences team: Jia, Michaela, and Julia.

The day started with a very fun name game that we call, “Ting!” The students and mentors then had a chance to get to know each other better through a game called “Walk About, Talk About.” Another notable game included “Chaos and Change” where our students had to complete a task, but we gave the students certain disabilities and restraints. For example, some students were no longer allow to use their hands, while other students could not talk, and still others were blindfolded and not allowed to see. Through this game our students learned to deal with adversity and change while still obtaining their goals.



Lined up during Walk About, Talk About:
Meeting and Greeting, Walking and Talking

During our break and lunch time, we happened upon an open basketball court and started a pick-up game. This was a great impromptu bonding activity for both the students, both with each other and with the mentors. Spectators and competitors alike cheered when Eddy, one of our shortest students, scored the first basket of the game.



An exciting game: Doris with ball

We ended the day with a five staged cultural fair, “Journey Around the World.” Students were spilt into four teams and we asked them to each construct a team passport. We had some very creative passports ideas, including the toilet displayed below.



A passport for all your traveling needs

At each station of “Journey Around the World,” mentors shared their knowledge and experience about a different country. The countries included USA, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and Kenya. At the USA stations, Jia taught us all a hip-hop dance. In Mexico, I taught our students to salsa. In Brazil, Julia shared some typical Brazilian drinks and snacks. Colin and Wesley taught Japanese and had sushi. Finally, Julian spoke some Swahili and shared his experience in Kenya with us. This activity and this day was a complete success. Big thanks to the SLP Cultural Difference team for two fantastic opening days.



Julia welcoming us to Brazil

~Dave

CDI-SLP Day 6

August 21, 2009

Today was a very exciting day- the beginning of our program! Jia, Michaela, and Julia had organized the curriculum for the day and were leading the activities. They did a fantastic job.

It was really interesting to see how some of the old classic activities, Anatomy of a Leader, worked differently with students from the Chinese culture. In the activity, students first trace the body of one of their group members and then draw things on the outline which represent different qualities a leader needs. For example, one group drew big ears because leaders need to listen to the people they represent, while another drew a liver because leaders need to be able to take a difficult situation with someone and prevent bad blood from ruining their relationship. The students started out with very literal suggestions, but I was really impressed with their creativity in the end.



Students presenting their leader

Later in the day, we told the students that they were the audience of a game show. We had a four of our mentors stand at the front of the room and sets of three facts were listed off that belonged to one of the mentors. The students then had to guess which facts belonged to which mentors. Most of them used assumptions and stereotypes to guide their choices and because many of the facts defied what one would assume from first impressions, most of them misidentified at least half. Jia lead a great discussion for the students about first impressions and how to avoid making wrong assumptions. Our group of students is extremely insightful and most are also very willing to participate.



Another classic activity: Chocolate River
(Careful: DON’T TOUCH THE FLOOR!)

It's a great combination and it made for a wonderful day full of many more fun, didactic activities. The students were also split into their final project groups. In order to provide aid to the migratory-worker elementary school we hope to help through this program, we created 4 groups: finance, internal relations, external relations and implementation to work on different aspects of creating a mentorship program for high school and the elementary school students there as well as completing a project to improve the school. In their groups, the students used brainstorming skills they learned during the day to come up with a lot of possible projects they could work on. Many commonly shared ideas included creating a leadership program similar to the one we're doing here, teaching the students other skills like English, how to study effectively and prepare for their futures, and music or art classes.



Mentors and students engaged in a brainstorming exercise

We also got our mentor / mentee pairings today and everyone is so excited about the students they're working with. We had half an hour to discuss the day, but I was having such a good time talking with my mentees that we only got through the first few activities. After session, some of the mentors went to one of our student's homes to bake in preparation for a cultural "Journey Around the World" activity tomorrow, and the rest of us went to a conference room (with a beautiful, distracting view) to debrief about the day. Everyone felt it went really well and we were also able to offer some suggestions for improvement for the rest of the week. After that, we had some free time for dinner and preparing for the rest of the week. More exciting adventures tomorrow!

-Taylor

CDI-SLP 4+5

August 19, 2009 to August 20, 2009

Greetings!

The moment is finally here! Yesterday, LTI + SLP journeyed to the Vanke headquarters in Shenzhen, China’s largest Real Estate firm to greet the final twenty-eight students for the first time. The session started off with an introduction to China Development Initiative’s purpose and motivation for the 2009 Summer Service Leadership Program. This year’s students include Roy, an upcoming biomedical entrepreneur and Amy, a passionate upcoming mathematician and professor. One student, Roben, even expressed his professional dream of becoming the next International Diplomat for China. The students and mentors proceeded to introduce themselves and mingle before initial icebreakers started.
The activities commenced with a simple name and fact game called Big Wind Blows. One student stands in the center and relays an interesting fact about himself or herself. Throughout the course of this initial icebreaker, the students and the mentors bonded over many commonalities.



Students Rising from “Back-to Back” Icebreaker

As the students became more comfortable around each other and the mentors, Elephant was introduced. In this activity, a student in the middle of a circle calls out another student’s name and a noun. The selected student as well as the students directly surrounding him or her must act out a specific task within an allotted amount of time. Elephant not only extended the name game, but it also taught the students to let loose and have fun.



Sandra, David, and Jia demonstrating “Elephant” Ice Breaker

The Human Knot completed the activities as students worked closely together, both physically and mentally, to untangle themselves from each other. The Knot cleverly and subtly introduced fundamental themes for LTI, communication and teamwork.
The day concluded with a tour of Vanke. We learned about their extensive program to engineer facilities specifically for the ease and comfort of senior citizens, as well as the average Chinese family. The company is hosting the project and donating a total of $10,000 yuan to aid in the students’ final project, a service initiative for a local elementary school, composed primarily of migrant workers’ children.
Although the day may be over, SLP was not! The first group, Cultural Differences, continued to run through the activities to prepare for the first official day of the program August 21st, 2009. More to come about the class then!

For the last day before the festivities begin, we journeyed to Hong Kong for a day of sightseeing and meeting with the MIT Hong Kong Alumni Club. We toured the famous Street Market, visited the Hong Kong History Museum, and strolled through the Walk of the Stars Harbor. We concluded the day with a ferry ride to Hong Kong’s financial district to meet with the Alumni in the Hong Kong area over drinks and snacks. Martin Tang, the president of the MIT Hong Kong Alumni Club and grandson of the famous Jack C. Tang, whom the Tang Center/ Wong Auditorium is named after, also made an appearance.



SLP at the Hong Kong History Museum

Well, the time has finally come. In less than six hours, the project will commence, and new leaders will emerge!

-Jia

CDI- SLP Day 3

August 18, 2009

Hey guys, this is Dave Zou and I’m the last member to round off the LTI blogging triumvirate (although we are hoping to have guest bloggers throughout the week). I just noticed we have yet to mentioned all the members of SLP, so besides myself, Taylor, and Jia; the SLP crew in China includes: Wesley, Sandra, Cassandra, Michaela, Julia, Gloria, Julian, Mark, Colin, Paula, and Ye.

The day’s been both relaxing and productive. Today, each team met to really hammer out the details of each day they will be responsible for during the program. But after a rigorous morning of preparation and nice lunch together, we all indulged in an hour of professional Chinese massages. Authentic and oodles more inexpensive than its America counterparts, this massage were just what my knotting back needed (although Julia did mention some rather painful sounding chiropractic moments).


We even got these really cool matching pajamas

(In picture from left: Dave, Michaela, and Julia)

Rejuvenated; Wesley, Gloria, Sandra, Michaela, Julian, and Cassandra set out to purchase and collect necessary materials for our program activities, while the rest of us remained at the hotel to work on additional program planning.

After a logistics meeting and some quality team bonding through a game called “Spotlight On” (a nightly ritual), we dispersed for bed. Tomorrow, we will finally meet our mentees for the first time. We’re all so excited—I’ve been giddy butterflies ever since I heard we would have to doing introductory activities with them. So here’s to a successful tomorrow!

Cheers,
~Dave

CDI-SLP Day 2

August 17, 2009

We began the morning as we begin every morning here, with a delicious Chinese breakfast. Dave and I ate at the hotel, and Jia ventured out into the world in search of bubble tea. After everyone ate, we boarded the bus for a fieldtrip to "Splendid China," a theme park featuring miniatures of all the great sights of China and different shows by a variety of Chinese minority groups. So, we got pictures with us conquering the Great Wall, traipsing through the Forbidden City and having a dance party with some ancient Chinese warriors.



LTI crew with a miniature pagoda

Jia also braved a horse-ride on one of the war horses involved in a reenactment show and Dave danced with the Uyghers during their cultural dance performance. We also had fun, and got soaking wet right before our journey home, at a water splash show, an event whose only goal was to get everyone involved as wet as possible.



Fellow SLP member, Julian, mimicking a statue

On our way home, we took a short tour through the financial district of Shenzhen and took a stroll through the largest park in the city. The park was beautiful and also full of people exercising in whatever way came naturally to them. Some were swinging umbrellas as they paced back and forth in the shade, others exercised their minds through Chinese chess and yet others played a hacky sack / badminton combination sport. It was the coolest sport I've seen in a long time and Dave was so inspired that he bought the equipment to take home with him.

We grabbed some Congee for dinner, from what I understand, the Chinese version of IHOP at midnight, and then had a team meeting in which teams planned out more specific plans for their assigned days of SLP and everyone had a chance to reflect on the purpose of the activities and the flow of the week. I was concerned when I heard that we'd be having one less day than expected, because of a trip to the migratory school for which the students are preparing their final service projects, and that we'd have about an hour more than expected each day. But after everyone presented their plans and the teams worked together to redistribute the activities, we came up with what I think will be a fantastic curriculum that fits into the time we have and hopefully with the needs of our group of students as well. All of the planning got me really excited for the program, so while I greatly look forward to these next 3 days of seeing the sights of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, I'm also looking forward to meeting our students day after tomorrow and beginning the actual program on Friday.


-Taylor

CDI- SLP Day 1

August 16, 2009

Approximately 36 hours ago, the LTI crew, David Zou, Taylor Jay, and Jia Zhu arrived at Hong Kong International Airport ready for the adventure ahead of us. After 5 hours of miscellaneous travel, we finally arrived at our Inn, ready for LTI’s partnership with MIT’s China Development Initiative (CDI) to commence as the 2009 Service Leadership Program in Shenzhen, China.



Members of SLP at Their First Dinner Together

The first night and day centered on mentor and SLP coordinator bonding. We got to know the main coordinators, Wesley Koo, Jack Chen, and Naisi Gao all the other SLP members over our first Chinese meal. David Zou even ventured to ingest a silk worm pupa, which was certainly an acquired taste. Taylor and Jia abstained.



A Bowl of Deep Fried Silk Pupas... Mmmm

After meals and a brief introduction to Chinese karaoke, the groups got down to business. The Service Leadership Program is composed of 4 teams based on four emphasized themes of leadership and service, Cultural Differences, International Relations, Education, and Technology and Entrepreneurship. Each team is responsible for leading icebreakers and other activities adapted from LTI’s spring student curriculum for 2 out of the 8 total days of the program. Today’s meetings focused on generating a schedule for intense course preparation and program logistics.



The Karaoke Lounge

In the following couple of days, the SLP group plans to venture to Vanke, the largest real estate development firm in China. Vanke’s student selection process was held three days ago. Seventy-five finalists from around the Shenzhen area competed in a final selection process that consisted of a written English application, English speech, and a talent competition recorded and broadcast by the local media. Twenty-five finalists were selected by a panel of judges, who included CDI’s Naisi Gao and Jack Chen.

Tomorrow, the SLP team will embark on a local Shenzhen cultural adventure followed by intense curriculum revision and presentation. More to come!

-Jia