Masters Welcomes Exchange Students From China

3/26/2025

It wasn’t just the beautiful campus and welcoming community that made an impression on the visiting exchange group from the Tsinglan School in China — it was the whole experience.

As a member of her school’s Chinese drama club, tenth grade student Selena Huang enjoyed stepping into Masters’ Advanced Acting class. “One thing that’s different from our school that I found interesting is how expressive the acting students are in their art and how they’re not afraid to do awkward things when performing,” Huang said.

When Huang got her first taste of the hot chocolate and mac and cheese at Masters, she was hooked: “I thought, ‘Wow, everything is very good.’ The salad bar was great, and I really liked the American Chinese food too!”

Tsinglan math teacher Ray Embry, who observed a math class, was also wowed. “I’ve heard of the Harkness table concept and have always been skeptical about how well it would work in a math classroom but then I was blown away,” he said. “But I don’t think the effectiveness all came from the table. I think a lot of it came from the culture in the classroom and in the school as a whole.”

Tsinglan ninth grader Frank Zhang couldn’t get enough of the chemistry and forensics classes he visited. “It was really fun because I’ve never seen a forensics class before and in that moment, I was a police officer,” he enthusiastically explained. “We learned about DNA, fingerprinting experiments and the scientific knowledge you use in real-life situations.”

Penny Peng, upper school Mandarin teacher, and Rob Fish, dean of global studies, hosted the group from March 3 through 8. The 18 ninth and tenth graders and two staff members were from the Tsinglan School, a K-12 international school located near Shenzhen, sometimes referred to as China’s Silicon Valley.

“Everybody here is really open and very kind,” Tsinglan ninth grader Audrey Lee shared. A volleyball player, she was excited to attend practice at Masters. “It’s off-season for girls volleyball so I joined the boys’ team practice. I really enjoyed it.”

Meng Li, Tsinglan’s high school director, who met with faculty and administrators throughout the weeklong visit, echoed all the sentiments of her students, saying they felt “that warm, friendly Masters community spirit from the very start.” Li also noted, “The fact the faculty get to live on campus is definitely a plus and adds to the sense of community here.”

Last spring, a group of Masters students had the opportunity to visit Tsinglan School during an educational trip there and experience a homestay. For some of this month’s visiting Tsinglan students, the gesture was returned.

Ella Liu ’27 and her family hosted Cherie and Wendy. “I think the best part was being able to make new friends and seeing how different and similar our lives were,” Liu shared. “I got to learn about their hobbies and interests, which were actually very close to mine, which made it fun to talk with them.”

For Sasha Williams ’27, she and her family thought “it was a joy” to host Selena at their home. “I enjoyed getting to know someone from another culture,” Williams said. “There are a lot of things that are done differently, and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to get to know the country through the eyes of a student my age.”