YOUNGSTOWN — Plenty of school districts offer international exchange programs for their students, but they have to be something special to draw the attention of foreign diplomats.
Lewiston-Porter Central School District welcomed Chinese ambassador Chen Li, from the Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China in New York, on Tuesday in celebration of the exchange programs the district has with Chinese schools.
After a reception in the middle school library, where Li gifted the district a silk scroll with panda artwork, the delegation also observed Chinese language classes in the middle school and Intermediate Education Center. Afterward, they traveled to Niagara University to review the partnerships the college has with Chinese institutions.
“Our programs from Tianjin to Western New York to Lewiston are rooted in the belief that when people connect face to face, learn together, and share their stories. It will lay the foundation for mutual understanding,” said Superintendent Paul Casseri.
Casseri’s son, Anthony, a University of Buffalo senior who has studied the Chinese language, acted as the translator for the ceremonies.
Lewiston-Porter has had exchange programs with Chinese schools for the past two decades, with participating students going to Tianjin Number Two High School. That exchange has led to teacher exchanges, summer camps, student travel programs, and other professional development programs for Lew-Port students and faculty and their Chinese counterparts.
The district’s Chinese language courses go from kindergarten through the 12th grade, with a Regents-level Chinese language and culture course offered.
This past July, Lew-Port students attended the Circle of Friends Summer Camp at Tianjin Normal University, meeting other students from around the world to gain language fluency and understand other cultures. The district will start an art-focused exchange program with Jingdezhen Ceramic University, about a five-hour drive southeast of Wuhan, for advanced art students this spring.
The district is even taking part in the annual Chinese language educators conference taking place this November in Buffalo.
Niagara University’s Chinese partnerships include exchange programs with schools in Tianjin, Nanning, and Shanghai, a dual-degree program with Hunan First Normal University, and collaboration with Lew-Port on the district’s F-1 Visa Student Program. Between 2014 and 2021, that program brought 65 tuition-paying students from China to Lew-Port to get a high school diploma and go to college in the United States.
This visit comes during even more heightened tensions between the United States and China, with both countries placing increased tariffs on each other’s imports.
Li said that during his travels in the U.S., he met many ordinary people and felt no hostility from them. He said it is only the highest levels of government that are creating these feelings.
“We realized that we have a lot of common aspects,” Li said, as translated by Anthony. “We all embrace our traditional cultures, we all work hard, and we all love each other.”
He noted that with this past August marking the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII, when the United States and China were allies in defeating Japan, it is not worth putting the bad sentiments toward each other today onto future generations. The fact that many American students are learning Chinese, and Chinese students are learning English, shows that the two countries can prevent this and improve relations.
“As long as we can understand each other’s cultures, there’s definitely going to be a path for us to create a better future,” Li said.