{"id":102127,"date":"2015-05-05T09:44:20","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T13:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=102127"},"modified":"2015-11-24T16:19:29","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T21:19:29","slug":"uconn-graduates-first-majors-in-chinese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2015\/05\/uconn-graduates-first-majors-in-chinese\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Graduates First Majors in Chinese"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"This<\/a>
This May, UConn will graduate its first students with majors in Chinese. From left to right: Erin DeMay ’15 (CLAS), economics and Chinese double major; Marc Schuman ’15 (BUS, CLAS), accounting and Chinese double major, and Yanyan Freitag ’15 (CLAS), mathematics-statistics and Chinese double major. (Bri Diaz\/UConn photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Erin DeMay \u201915 (CLAS) came to UConn with an interest in studying business and an affinity for learning languages. Though she had taken Latin and Spanish classes in high school, she decided to set her sights on mastering another language that would complement her economics major.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that I really liked languages and wanted to continue studying them,\u201d she says. \u201cChina was the second-largest economy in the world at that time, and now it\u2019s the first. So to me, studying Chinese was a no-brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n

This May, DeMay will become one of the first UConn students to graduate with a Chinese major, thanks to a new program track in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. This Chinese program allows students from across the University to closely examine the language, history, and politics of one of the oldest and most far-reaching cultures in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an important major to have at such a large university, and the language and cultural elements are critical,\u201d says Chinese and accounting double major Marc Schuman \u201915. \u201cTo be able to travel, live somewhere else, and be in the position of the immigrant gives you a lot of perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chinese Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n

Housed in the Department of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, the Chinese major and minor programs were approved by UConn\u2019s Board of Trustees in 2014. Less than a year later, the track has attracted more than a dozen majors and nearly as many minors, with three Chinese double-majors graduating in the Class of 2015.<\/p>\n

\"Assistant<\/a>
Assistant Professor of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages Liansu Meng leads a discussion in CHIN 3250W, an advanced Chinese writing-intensive course. (Bri Diaz\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Assistant professor of literatures, cultures, and languages Liansu Meng, one of the Chinese program\u2019s primary advisors, says that students had become increasingly interested in the introductory-level Chinese courses offered at UConn over the past few years. The new Chinese program track now allows her and her colleagues to offer a well-rounded collection of advanced language, literary, and cultural studies courses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese courses can not only help student become better businesspeople, but also just develop more sophisticated perspectives on life,\u201d says Meng. \u201cWe talk about issues like gender, class, diversity, ecology, and equality on a global level. These things help students become more thoughtful global citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the students in the program have complementary majors in business-related subjects, and for good reason: China is the most populated and economically influential nations in the world, and an important trading partner of the United States.<\/p>\n

Schuman says the curriculum is an excellent preparation for students who want to go into international business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learn about Chinese culture and issues like pollution, economic growth, and over-population, as well as about traditional culture, relationships between people, and marriage,\u201d says Schuman. \u201cI learned a lot about gender studies in these courses, and I\u2019ve found it very interesting. I never would have taken a course like that otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program also attracts students with a wide array of academic interests \u2013 ranging from molecular and cell biology to human development and family studies to engineering\u2013 and a mix of both second-language learners and native Chinese speakers.<\/p>\n

Yanyan Freitag \u201915 (CLAS), a double major in mathematics-statistics and Chinese, came to the United States in 2008 from Kaifeng, Henan, China. She initially took courses in Chinese to refresh her memory on the written language, but says that her additional major will be essential if she decides to pursue a career in mathematics education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say that Chinese characters are special. If you don’t use them for a long time, they can be difficult to write,\u201d she says. \u201cIf I really want to become a teacher or tutor, I will have more choices with this degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abroad and Beyond<\/strong><\/p>\n

Students in the Chinese program are also encouraged to travel abroad \u2013 an experience they say is essential for developing fluency and preparing them for life after graduation.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being in China and being in such a radically different culture from what I was used to was really a new and interesting experience,\u201d says DeMay, who studied at Fudan University in Shanghai in 2013. \u201cThe one big thing I can take away from study abroad is fluency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mathematics\/actuarial<\/a>
Mathematics\/actuarial science major Xiaoxuan Zhuang ’15 (CLAS) presents to classmates in his advanced Chinese writing course. (Bri Diaz\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Schuman visited China three times, most recently in 2014 to study at the University of Nottingham in Ningbo.<\/p>\n

During that trip, Schuman also interned with Moody\u2019s Corp. in Hong Kong. He landed the opportunity thanks to Thomas Marshella \u201979 (BUS), managing director of U.S.\/Americas corporate finance for Moody\u2019s Investors Service, whom Schuman met at a scholarship event on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was shocked that I was majoring in Chinese, so the major has already opened a lot of doors for me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Schuman plans to work for PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York City after he graduates, and hopes to one day find an opportunity to move to Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

DeMay has accepted a full-time position after graduation at Aetna, where she has interned and worked as a co-op student. There, she will work in a two-year consumer business professional development program, and hopes to keep her language skills sharp through her involvement with an Asian employee resource group.<\/p>\n

Freitag, who is currently studying to take the GMAT exam and is also interested in teaching, says that she is certain of the personal and professional benefits of her Chinese major.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been so many big changes in China since I left,\u201d she says. \u201cWe talk so openly [in our classes] about what\u2019s going on in China \u2013 about business, culture, modernization, and its relationships with different countries. Everything for me is so new.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her classmates also say that the major has helped shape how they view themselves in the global community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to be knowledgeable to a certain extent about other cultures \u2013 to understand more about the people you speak with and the world around you,\u201d says DeMay. \u201cThat\u2019s something that will stay with me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Class of 2015 includes the first UConn students to graduate with a Chinese major, thanks to a new program in CLAS. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":102133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,156,1862,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[63],"class_list":["post-102127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-profile","category-busn","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 07:09:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102127"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102136,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102127\/revisions\/102136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/102133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102127"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=102127"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=102127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}