A group of students accompanied by two teachers spent two weeks interning in China this summer at the Shanghai office of the Parthenon Group and the Lieuhe office for the Venture Capital Company.

Jed Kronenberg ’17, Hannah Wilen ’16, Theo Velaise ’17 and Jon Nelson ’16 conversed with the workers of Chinese companies about the stock market and investments in China.

“Being in Shanghai for most of June and working in Chinese companies allowed us all to better understand Chinese culture not just from the perspective of a student, but as someone in the Chinese workforce,” Velaise said.

World Languages teacher Tiantian Wang, history teacher Lauren Nichols and the four students all lived with host families that had children their age attended the World Leading Schools Association International School affiliated with Fudan University.

“The whole trip was great, but my most memorable experience was getting to stay with a host family and talk with them every day,” Kronenberg said. “Getting to live in Shanghai with people who are actually from there was an amazing experience.”

Every day after their internship work ended, the group went sight-seeing, visiting cities like Haiyan in the Zhejiang province where they could practice their oral skills outside the office.

“The trip helped my Chinese skills a lot, as I always spoke Chinese with my host family and teachers,” Kronenberg said. “Getting to practice speaking Chinese on an everyday basis was hard, but definitely helped me improve my Chinese skills.”

Wang offered this chance to her Chinese III Honors and AP Chinese students in the hope that her students would take the opportunity to practice their Chinese speaking skills with co-workers and local students.

“They have a lot of communication with the local Chinese students, and that helps their language proficiency,” Wang said. “They gained better understanding of Chinese culture and history and gave them more motivation for their future language study.”