Since the October Leadership Training Summit at Harvard, our Leadership Fellow Nicole Burke has been busy building a Project Pengyou Chapter at New York University to bring more exposure to Chinese language and culture to her university as well as encourage NYU students to study abroad. Along with her team, Katie Maleski  and Alessandro Potsios, The NYU chapter team has been building on the efforts of inaugural fellow, Sara Monteabaro who started chapter-building efforts after the first summit in March, 2014 and are working to provide fun and engaging events to deepen understanding between Americans and Chinese people.

After a highly successful Pengyou Day event which included a tour of New York’s Chinatown as well as a night of Karaoke, the team was interviewed by their school news organization, NYU’s Washington Square News, a student-run news organization, who lauded them for their efforts.

Nicole and Maleski explained the goals of their chapter, including changing misconceptions many Americans have of China as a one-faceted culture of only old traditions. Instead, Nicole stated “It isn’t just the traditional culture people assume it to be. Especially when you go to Shanghai, I think the city is really pushing the limits.”

The team wants to “create real change” by reaching out to people interested in studying abroad as well as alumni of study abroad. They want to emphasize that although study abroad is important, the most important thing is to keep students engaged and utilize that experience to continue making connections.

We’re glad to see our NYU chapter getting some well-deserved recognition for their achievements! Jiayou NYU!