Richard M. Daley - Honorary Chair, CSCIP
Robert W. Karr, Jr. - Chair, CSCIP
William Spence - Committee Co-Chair
Raymond Chin - Committee Co-Chair
Education Subcommittee
The purpose of this subcommittee is to increase mutual understanding between Chicago and China. To this end, we develop projects that augment resources at all levels of education in Chicago (elementary, secondary, and post-secondary) about China, Chinese language, and Chinese culture; and projects that increase education about Chicago, American history, and American culture in Shanghai and Shenyang schools.
Subcommittee Co-Chairs
Judy Curry - University of Illinois at Chicago Robert Davis, Jr. - Confucius Institute, Chicago Public Schools Jenny Guo - Mid-America China, Inc.
Judy Curry Deputy Associate Chancellor (retired) University of Illinois at Chicago jcurry@uic.edu Co-Chair, Education Subcommittee
Robert Davis, Jr. Director, Chinese Language Program Director, Confucius Institute of Chicago Chicago Public Schools rdavis@cps.k12.il.us Co-Chair, Education Subcommittee
Ted Foss Associate Director, Center for East Asian Studies The University of Chicago tnfoss@uchicago.edu
Jenny Guo Vice-President Mid-America China, Inc. jennygjx@yahoo.com
Co-Chair, Education Subcommittee
Dali Yang Chairman, Political Science Department The University of Chicago daliyang@uchicago.edu
Activities, Events & Initiatives
The Education Subcommittee is pleased to report there have been wonderful advances in Chicago in the study of Mandarin language. With the support of the Confucius Institute, the Chicago Public Schools have added 12 new schools offering Mandarin – making Chicago the largest public school Chinese language program in the U.S., with 10,000+ students studying the language.
With Department of State funding, 28 CPS students participated in a full-immersion six-week summer language institute at East China Normal University in Shanghai. Also, the Office of Language and Cultural Education, CPS, and the University of Chicago offered a four-week summer language program in Mandarin for high school students from the Chicago Public Schools.
Continuing projects include expanding the Sister Schools Abroad Program and developing opportunities for Chinese college students to tutor Chinese in the Chicago Public Schools.
Sister Schools Abroad Chicago Sister Cities’ program to develop partnerships between schools in Chicago and in our Sister Cities’ countries.
The Confucius Institute in Chicago This center, open to the public, is a partnership between the Chicago Public Schools and the Peoples’ Republic of China Office of Chinese Language. The Confucius Institute offers Chinese language instruction, tutoring, cultural programs, and a lending library. It is one of only four such centers in the country, and the only one housed in a K-12 school system, rather than a university.
