HAUSCR Summit For Young Leaders In China 2006

2013-10-08

PRESS RELEASE

HAUSCR SUMMIT FOR YOUNG LEADERS IN CHINA 2006

TO TAKE PLACE IN SHANGHAI

23 JUNE 2006 - The Harvard College Association for US-China Relations (HAUSCR), The Goldman Sachs Foundation and the Xiwai International School today announced a collaboration to launch the innovative Harvard AUSCR Summit for Young Leaders in China 2006 (HSYLC 2006), a unique academic and leadership conference that will help talented Chinese students prepare for the challenges of global leadership by helping them develop critical thinking skills and hone their abilities to communicate with people from across the world.

Over three hundred of the most promising Chinese high-school students from diverse geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds will attend the event at Xiwai International School in Shanghai in August 2006. Fifty Harvard College students, fifty Chinese college students, and prominent figures in politics, business, and academia from the U.S. and China will instruct and mentor the participants. These high-school Students will explore topics that they rarely encounter in their formal education, learn from distinguished speakers in daily lectures, improve their English language skills in writing workshops, practice their public speaking skills in United Nations simulations and debates and work collaboratively in challenging academic seminars.

“What we are doing here serves as a catalyst in China’s paradigm shift in the way that the next generation of leaders is being developed,” said Ziwang Xu, co-founder of Xiwai International School, which is a K-12 private bilingual school located in Shanghai.

The Goldman Sachs Foundation will provide funding for this event. “We are delighted to be working in collaboration with the Harvard College Association for US-China Relations and the Xiwai International School. Developing well-prepared global leaders for tomorrow is a driving goal of our Foundation and the HSYLC 2006 is a wonderful opportunity to help young talented Chinese students acquire critical skills that they will need to succeed in a global society,” said Stephanie Bell-Rose, President of The Goldman Sachs Foundation.

The Foundation supports programs to develop high-potential youth and promote leadership in young people worldwide, and over the past five years has made grants to advance this mission to other institutions based or operating programs in China, including Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, Junior Achievement and World Links.

“We hope that by participating in HSYLC 2006, students will have a richer academic experience today and become better leaders tomorrow,” commented Meijie Tang, President of the Harvard College Association for US-China Relations.

HSYLC 2006 participants are selected through a rigorous application process. HSYLC follows a need-blind admission policy, offering financial aid to ensure the inclusion of high-potential young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

HSYLC 2006 will be the first youth conference of its kind in China, bringing together some of the brightest students from China and the US. The objective of the event is to promote scholarship, citizenship, leadership, and entrepreneurship through, research and discussion-based learning that contrasts with test-driven education prevalent in Chinese schools.

“In an increasingly interdependent world, there needs to be leaders who can think critically, come up with innovative solutions to ever-changing challenges, communicate effectively with people from different backgrounds, and have a global vision and multicultural perspectives,” stated. “We believe that HSYLC will help students develop these abilities.

Harvard College Association for US-China Relations was founded to promote the interchange of ideas and opportunities between Harvard College students and their Chinese peers. It is the only student-run organization on the Harvard College campus focused solely on US-China relations. Its advisory board includes Mr. William C. Kirby, Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard College and soon-to-be Director of Harvard’s John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Mr. Anthony Saich, Director of the Harvard University Asia Center, and Mr. Stephen A. Orlins, President of the National Committee on United States-China Relations.

The Goldman Sachs Foundation is a global philanthropic organization funded by The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. The Foundations mission is to promote excellence and innovation in education and to improve the academic performance and lifelong productivity of young people worldwide. It achieves this mission through a combination of strategic partnerships, grants, loans, private sector investments, and the deployment of professional talent from Goldman Sachs. Funded in 1999, the Foundation has awarded grants in excess of $72 million since its inception, providing opportunities for young people in more than 20 countries.

Xiwai International School, a K-12 bilingual school affiliated with Shanghai International Studies University, is the major Chinese institutional partner of HAUSCR for HSYLC 2006. HAUSCR and Xiwai work closely on the planning of HSYLC, from the overall vision to logistical details. The educational philosophy of Xiwai is to emphasize character building, to encourage active learning and to nurture a global perspective in its students, a vision well-aligned with that of HSYLC.

For more information on HSYLC 2006, visit http://www.hsylc2006.org.