My name is Austin Yao, 姚奕洋, and I was one of the 9 students who took part in the “1000 Mile Initiative”. In this editorial, I will be constructing my narrative and opinions about the adventure, as well as some things to take into account if you are planning on undertaking something similar. However, before we begin allow me to introduce myself, as it will hopefully give you some context about the journey and its connotations. I taught Music, American History, and Daily Life in Shennongjia along with my co-council Alex, who I have been friends with since early in my childhood. In fact, many of the students involved in the initiative I had been at least cordial with. For example, I went to pre-school with Brandon and Emily and had a Chinese class with Grace. Thus, this meant that there wasn’t a lot of ice to break and we got along well almost from the get-go. Personally, I am engaged in many musically-oriented activities such as Marching Band. I had also been to China about every other year since I was 3 and have gone almost every year since the beginning of middle school. Therefore, I was already very accustomed to the Chinese culture and domestic habits.

Before we move onto the actual trip, I want to discuss planning as that was a key component of our success abroad. We started meeting around March, where we decided on subjects and groups. The next meeting we had was about a month later, in which we gave a presentation on a rough layout of how each day would go. The next meeting was where groups actually demonstrated a mock lesson and got feedback from other groups and parents. The last meeting was where groups again went through a mock lesson with the application of their feedback.

At the meetings, you did not know what to expect at the actual school. Thus, when it actually came time to teach at Shennongjia, we had to adjust our teaching style and approach.