Crossing borders in transnational education

Anna Kendrick organised an event in Shanghai on transnational education.

I wanted to put the Gates Cambridge alumni community into dialogue with likeminded leaders interested in ‘improving the lives of others’ through education because I believe we all gain from such collaborations.

Anna Kendrick

Nearly 100 people attended a recent event on transnational education in Shanghai designed to connect Gates Cambridge alumni with other alumni and NGO communities.

The Crossing Borders in Transnational Education was organised by Anna Kathryn Kendrick at the Harvard Center Shanghai on 3rd March.

The event explored how founders and directors of innovative start-ups and NGOs have managed an array of cross-cultural, political and other challenges. All the speakers, including Gates Cambridge scholar Greg Nance [2011], are involved in providing some form of international education in China and all have a concerted focus on access and outreach in their work.

Anna, the Gates Cambridge Alumni Association’s Director of Membership for Asia and Australasia, says: “The mission statement of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship is to create a global network of young leaders committed to improving the lives of others. How are we living this in our own lives and communities? I wanted to put our alumni community into dialogue with likeminded leaders interested in ‘improving the lives of others’ through education because I believe we all gain from such collaborations.”

The event was co-sponsored by the Harvard Center Shanghai, Harvard Club of Shanghai, and the Oxbridge Society of Shanghai. 

The keynote was given by Professor Joanna Waley-Cohen, Provost of NYU Shanghai, who spoke about the challenges of setting up the first Sino-US joint-venture university. This was followed by a paneldiscussion chaired by Corinne Hua, founder and executive director of Stepping Stones, a Shanghai-based NGO which coordinates volunteers to provide free oral English classes to children of migrant workers in Shanghai and across rural China. Participants included Greg Nance, founder and CEO of Dyad.com, which provides mentorship and support for Chinese students seeking higher education opportunities abroad, Hong Liu, co-founder and executive director of Peer Experience Exchange Rostrum (PEER), a Beijing-based NGO dedicated to promoting liberal arts education to secondary school students from low-income and rural areas in China, and Meijie Tang, Programme Director of the Rhodes Scholarship for China and Founder of the Harvard Summit for Young Leaders in China, a conference that serves as an intense forum for cultural and intellectual exchange between American undergraduates and top Chinese high school students.

Anna,  who is currently Director of Global Awards and Visiting Assistant Professor of Literature at NYU Shanghai,  spoke about the Gates Cambridge Scholarship at the beginning.

Anna [2011] completed her PhD in Spanish intellectual history, with a focus on early 20th century childhood and education reform, at the University of Cambridge.