A team of 11 students from Kuang Yaming Honors School, led by Qiao Weihong, the school’s party secretary, and Zou Dawei, attended a two-week exchange tour to Dunk University, the University of California, Berkley, and Stanford University from August 23 to September 3, 2017.

The first week of the exchange started as the team arrived at the San Francisco International Airport. The first stop was the University of California. The team was warmly received by Zhang Wenjun, an alumnus of Class of 1998, who showed the team to the laboratory where she worked and introduced her research.

The team carefully listened to Zhang’s introduction and she also answered their questions as well as expressed her appreciation and encouragement.

A photo taken in the laboratory hall after the tour

Zhang also treated the team to lunch in a local Chinese restaurant. In the afternoon, the team visit the campus and took photos with students who were on the long-term exchange program at UC Berkley in front of the Sather Tower.

The next day, the team arrived at Stanford University and met Zong Linqi, an alumnus of Class of 2012, who showed the team around the campus. Zong shared his experience in Stanford University and encouraged the students to actively devote themselves to research and study as well as to choosing their own path.

Zong Linqi was sharing his experience with team members

After San Francisco, the team took a flight to North Carolina on August 27 (local time) to begin their week-long visit to Duke University.

On August 28, the team was warmly received in the Physics Building by Warren Warren, chair of the Department of Physics, Duke University, and Connie Cox. Professor Warren made a briefing on living, studying and working at Duke University.

After the briefing, the team had group photo taken in front of the Physics Building.

Dozens of professors, teachers and students from Duke University had a welcome lunch in the Physics Building. In a relaxed atmosphere, which made students feel at ease, they could communicate with professors and learned a lot from them.

In the afternoon, they visited the Duke University Chapel and took photos with the KYM students on the long-term exchange program in front of the chapel, which was built in the 1930s.

Inside the Duke University Chapel

In the next five days, the team attended over ten lectures given by professors from different departments of Duke University. Several professors even took the team to visit their laboratories. Through what they observed in the lectures and on campus tour, the team members understood the research at the institutions outside China and got clearer about their own research interests in the future.

The team also had pleasant conversations with a few alumni who were studying in North Carolina. Yang Sheng, an alumnus who was working at Duke University Hospital, took the team to visit the hospital, showed the team the advanced medical equipment there and introduced his research in medical physics.

Team members and alumni

In the last evening of the visit, Connie invited the entire team to have a dinner together and the trip to Duke University ended in laughter and fun.

As the team returned to China by a connecting flight from Chicago the next day, the two-week visit came to an end. The team members not only experienced the research, study and life in an international university, but also met many excellent seniors and professors. Although the tour last only less than half a month, everyone gained a lot and became clearer about the goal of their future study and research.

September 6, 2017