GLEN RIDGE, NJ — Twenty-nine Chinese tenth- and eleventh-grade students and their teachers arrived at Glen Ridge High School on Monday morning, Sept. 25, luggage in tow.
The group, from GRHS’ sister-school, Shanghai Nanhui, are participants in a student-exchange program initiated in 2014 by GRHS Chinese language teacher Shihong Zhang.
The visitors were to spend four weekdays at the high school attending classes. On Thursday, they were to visit a private high school, Mount Kimberly Academy, in Montclair.
While be in the area, nearly all of the students be staying with GRHS host-parents. They were also to visit Columbia University, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., during a 12-day itinerary.
They were greeted at the high school by Principal Louis Melchor when they arrived. While not necessarily English-proficient, the Chinese students have studied the language and could probably understand much of what he said. Last year, GRHS students studying Chinese with Zhang visited Beijing, Shanghai, and other locations.
“Be yourself and pay attention,” Melchor told his guests in a small auditorium. “The teachers know they are going to involve you.”
He told them the building had students from the seventh to the 12th grade so they could expect to see students of all sizes.
The Chinese students were then handed a crisp $20 bill by one of their teachers, separated into three groups, and set off for a quick tour.
Some of the questions they were asked by their student tour guides were whether they wore uniforms in school; what were their English names — their teachers assigned them English-speaking names — and what did they like to do in their free time for fun.
“Study,” one girl responded.
What did she like to study?
Mathematics, she said. One Chinese boy said his English name was Jackson.
Zhang said the idea for an exchange program began in 2014 when she attended the National Language Chinese Conference. She met Jing Han, the president of the International Partnership of Education Research and Communication Foundation. This is an organization from Ohio State University that sponsors the program. Han was also at GRHS when the students arrived.
According to Zhang, of primary importance to the creation of the exchange program with China was the decision by the GR School District to make Chinese a core language along with French and Spanish. Students were then able to begin studying Chinese in seventh grade. By the time they were high school sophomores and juniors, it was anticipated they would have acquired the proficiency to be American exchange students in China.
In 2016, GRHS students went to China for the first-ever trip of the exchange program. The GRHS Chinese language department has the only exchange program at the high school, Melchor said.
He said the significance of the program is that it helps Glen Ridge students to become globally aware, develop a sense of global empathy and build a bridge between cultures.
“We’re always trying to develop our children’s leadership,” he said, “and also learn the language in a real-life setting.”
He said he and his wife, who is Chinese, were to meet with the student on Friday, Sept. 29.
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