Delaware’s Governor Markell is working to turn Delaware into America’s most bilingual state! On top of announcing the World Language Expansion Initiative, which will offer K-8 students the chance to learn half of their subjects in Spanish or Chinese in a push for early language proficiency, Markell also signed an agreement with the Wanxiang Group to send 24 students and 4 teachers to Hangzhou to study in 2015 and 2016.

Governor Markell says of this agreement:

This partnership provides an amazing chance for our young people to not only dramatically improve their fluency in a second language, but also become more familiar with a different culture in the world’s second-largest economy. I strongly encourage students taking Chinese and their families to consider this opportunity.

In addition to supporting Obama’s 100,000 Strong Initiative, the Wanxiang Group would also like to see an increase in student interest in Chinese language and the STEM fields. The partnership, dubbed the Delaware Summer Chinese LInCS (Language Initiative for Communicating STEM) program, has pledged $450,000 to cover all of the students’ study, travel, living, and educational expenses while in China.

Delaware students, apply in March to be considered for this year’s late-June departure!

It’s exciting to see leaders from the US and China advocating for language learning and cultural exchange! We hope that this program will be highly successful and spread to other states, cultivating the next generation of US-China bridge builders and leaders across the nation.

Image Credit: Jack Markell’s Facebook page