UIndy Faculty-Led Trip Profiled on Chinese Television During Spring Break

A group of University of Indianapolis students and professors made the news for their cultural trip to China over spring break on state-run CCTV.

A group of 19 students, led by Dr. Kristine Newton, instructor of English, and Dr. James Willis, assistant professor of practice of philosophy and religion, went to Huzhou in the Zhejiang province. Huzhou is a city of more than 3 million people, near a large freshwater lake called Lake Tai, about 100 miles west of Shanghai.

The “Cultural Horizons: An Immersive Exchange in China” trip was at the invitation of Huzhou Vocational and Technical College and took place from March 9 to March 16. It included day tours of Hangzhou as well as Shanghai.

Students and professors experienced many unique opportunities while on their trip. Among the cultural opportunities were: Chinese opera, Chinese lion dance, tea art, calligraphy, basic Mandarin lessons, silk art painting, taichi and other partial arts, pottery making, eating Chinese hotpot and Asian-style karaoke.

A local news crew filmed and profiled the group when they toured the ancient town of Nanxun. The story was then reaired as a news segment on national news and state-run broadcaster CCTV, with a viewership of 1.4 billion people.

“The news segments serve as powerful testaments to UIndy’s presence on the international stage,” said Dr. Newton. “I am incredibly proud that our group had the opportunity to represent the University of Indianapolis as global ambassadors.”

Click on this hyperlink to watch the news segment for yourself. Joanna Fields ‘25 (Psychology) was interviewed by the Chinese reporter who translated her words into Chinese.

There are five faculty-led international travel programs currently listed for the Spring Term, including trips to Costa Rica, Iceland, Italy and Cyprus. If you are interested in one of these trips, you are encouraged to meet with the study abroad advisor for the trip as soon as possible.