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HU administrators visit China to seek out partnerships

Huntington University President Sherilyn R. Emberton, along with Dr. Luke Fetters, professor of ministry and missions, and Shoshannah McKinney, the international admissions counselor, are in China this week to seek possible partnerships with various schools.

"We are going to talk with them about the possibilities of us establishing a stronger relationship," Emberton says, "which may be recruiting some of the students to come here."

Emberton says this will be her first time visiting China. She will be mainly staying in the southern cities of China. While there, she will talk to leaders from middle schools, universities and institutions.

"We will be visiting Zhuhai No.1 middle school, Doumen No.1 Middle school, China-Hong Kong English School, a private IELTS (International English Language Testing System) prep school called Global IELTS, UIC (United International College) and Jilin University," McKinney explains.

As for partnerships with middle schools, McKinney shared about the potential of working with both teachers and students.

In Doumen No.1 middle school, the group will be talking about HU's international program for students and the Master of Education program to teachers. Meanwhile, they will explore the possibility of giving teachers more training and more education by providing various programs such as a TESOL (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification program.

In Zhuhai No.1 middle school, they are seeking a partnership for this summer. Students will possibly have an English summer camp locally, which opens a door for them to come to Huntington in the future.

Private institution like Global IELTS have also shown interest in having a summer camp on HU's campus and sending students to HU in the future.

In China-Hong Kong English school, the HU group pans to work on an agreement that will allow students who graduate from that middle school to spend their first year in China and complete their degrees at Huntington later. That program could launch this fall.

In addition, HU representatives plan to discuss the possibility of an exchange student program with universities such as UIC and Jilin University's Zhuhai campus.

"I am excited that Dr. Emberton is coming on the trip," Fetters says. "One school in particular that we are going to visit, we've been talking with them for a couple years, and they said, ‘Well, bring your leaders.' And that's the reason why Dr. Emberton is coming with us. "

After a one-week visit, McKinney will spend several days in Shandong province and Beijing city to work on more partnerships while Emberton and Fetters head back to the United States.