“After this trip our teachers will be able to bring Chinese history and culture to life for our local students,” says Jack Bareilles, the grant administrator for Northern Humboldt Union High School District.
Bareilles, an HSU alum (BA ’89, MA ’05), worked to secure the grant in partnership with Consultants for Global Programs, a nonprofit based in Eureka.
The trip will cover four destinations – Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Nanning and Xiàn – with a visit to Xi’an International Studies University, with which Humboldt State University has a bilateral exchange program. The group will stay a week in each city.
“This is an opportunity to participate in the educational exchange program, to learn about Chinese history, culture and politics,” says Cliver.
Participants selected for the excursion are local middle and high school history teachers, experts on history and politics, and HSU student-teachers and undergraduates who plan to teach history. The trip will be a foundation for the teachers’ future curricula on Chinese history.
Cliver will lead the participants on their course to learning and understanding more about China. “I hope to be more than just a glorified tour guide,” he says. “I hope everyone comes away with some knowledge about what life is like in China in the 21st Century.”
Megan Watson, who will be student teaching at Fortuna High School as part of the HSU teaching credential program, looks forward to this unique opportunity. “I will hopefully get experience that I couldn’t get through textbooks, video, and regular lectures on Chinese topics,” says Watson. “As an aspiring educator in history, this trip will only serve to make me more aware and adequately prepared for my future classroom.”
The travelers leave for Shanghai on Saturday, June 20. This is the first time students and professors from Humboldt State have made this trip, but Cliver, who speaks Mandarin and will act as the bilingual scholar for the group, hopes it won’t be the last. “Now that we were able to get funding for this trip, we hope to do it every year,” he says.