Jasmine Wilson

This is a photo of me with a group of students from SNA International school that I had the opportunity to teach a lesson to about landmarks. This was a TOEFL class with 10th, 11th, and 12th graders.
This is a photo of one of my classmates and I with a Chinese citizen that we met strolling down Tongli in Suzhou, China. Tongli is on of the most ancient water towns, here we were able to go to a few shops, take a boat ride, a meet a few of the local citizens that live close by.
A photo of my classmates and I at the Pearl Market in Beijing, China. This market had five floors. The fifth floor with the most expensive pearls and the first floor with the cheapest trinkets to barter.
This is a photo of myself and Erin on the Great Wall of China. Erin was a Beijing Royal School representative who accompanied our group while we were in Beijing, We took this photo after taking about an hour to reach the Great Wall.
A photo of my partner teacher and I in front of the Beijing Royal School. My partner teacher was a NC State Alumni where she got her masters degree. This photo was taken after a dinner we had with other teachers who were also Chinese NC State Alumni.

Jasmine's Experience in china:

Award recipient in Summer 2019

Recently I had the opportunity to visit three cities in China: Shanghai, Suzhou, and Beijing. This was an extraordinary experience. Each city had so much to offer and I learned a lot about each city in such a short time being there.

During this experience, I was looking to gain cultural competence, a deeper understanding of another culture, and use what I learn to benefit my professional goals. This experience allowed me to achieve all those goals as a participate in the China study abroad program. I participated in different excursions such as visiting the Pearl Tower, Shanghai museum, French Concession, Jade Buddha Temple, Humble Administrator’s Garden, the three international schools in two cities, and more. This gave me a greater understanding of the history of China as well as their beliefs and traditions. I learned to communicate with people who didn’t speak English, I put myself in a position to embrace the daily lifestyles of the people of China. I went outside of my comfort zone to immerse myself in another culture trying different foods and exploring the history of China. I learned to be flexible and adaptable, which was really the theme of the trip for my classmates and I. This study abroad program allowed me to gain a different perspective to take back to the States to denounce stereotypes. It gave me a new definition of empathy to use in my personal and professional life to be more compassionate toward people who aren’t from the United States. I learned it is important to embrace the diversity we have in this country and use that to benefit, connect and relate to my future students.

From visiting the three international schools, as a future educator, I learned that it is vital to learn about the backgrounds of my students and find meaningful ways to include their culture in the classroom because the connection I build with them will directly impact their education. China has basically the same educational goals that we have in the United States, so this experience allowed me to make connections with some of the Chinese teachers to collaborate in the future or just discuss and share ways to improve our teaching practice.

Being able to teach at two of these schools was beneficial for me as a future educator. I co-taught a lesson about body parts to a first-grade class. It was very challenging for me because of the language barrier. This experience allowed me to reflect on myself as a future educator to support students in my classrooms that may be from another country or just don’t speak English. It was different having a whole classroom full of students who speak little English, rather than just one or two students who do not. It allowed me to value their cultural differences. And because English was not the dominate language in this culture, I got to walk in a student’s shoes, coming to a country knowing no English. It was a very humbling experience for me.

Overall, this experience will contribute to my personal and professional development, by learning the true meaning of cultural competence. Also, being able to experience the Chinese education system will absolutely be beneficial for my professional development. It was very inspirational to see how hard these schools are working for education reform. One of my big take aways is supporting English language learners in the classroom. This experience gave me a chance to reflect on myself as a future educator by finding ways to support ELL as well as working on other weaknesses in my current practice that can be improved. I am very grateful for the opportunity to visit China. It was such a fulfilling and eye opening experience that has benefited me greatly.