Project Pengyou Leadership Fellow Katie Keith (above, third from right) was recently interviewed by Lewis & Clark College’s student-run news organization, the Piolog, about her participation at the Fall 2014 Leadership Training Summit and the new Project Pengyou Chapter at Lewis & Clark College.

She had this to say about her experience at the summit: “We were in training from about 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day for the four days I was there. [The program] was a lot of developing public speaking habits, learning how to build a leadership team, learning how to essentially mobilize people for social change, and that was really exciting.”

Katie also talked about how her alma mater fomented her interest in China: “The East Asian Studies department as a whole really opened my eyes to this whole new culture that I had never been exposed to in high school, and that’s a huge problem in the U.S. We emphasize European and Western history, and yet, we’re missing this whole component of the world…”

With her new chapter behind her, Katie is planning to host an event on Pengyou Day, on November 20, when Project Pengyou Chapters all over America will hold simultaneous events to promote U.S.-China exchange.

Why is hosting such an event important? We’ll let Katie tell you herself: “The more American students know about China now, the more likely we’re going to have policy-makers in the future who are going to understand Chinese language, culture and history and be able to implement policies. [These policies] are going to be mutually beneficial to both countries.”

加油 Katie!