The China Study Abroad Program

The China Study Abroad Program was established by the History Department in 2005. In collaboration with the Center for Global Education and the Cor Program, the History Department regularly offers an interdisciplinary Study Abroad course: HIST 310 China: Tradition and Transformation, which includes a summer trip to China. In addition, the History Department has sponsored other China study abroad projects. For example, our student-faculty China field study project in 2009-2010 won a $31,000 grant from the AsiaNetwork and the Freeman Foundation.


A group of students and professors standing atop a mountain in China

Past student participants in the program came from a broad range of majors, including art, biology, business, chemistry, computer science, education, foreign language, history, literature, mathematics, political science, psychology, and sociology. Several participants revisited China after their trip. Three of them went back to China to teach English language.


For more information about our China Study Abroad course and other China related research opportunities, please contact Jinxing Chen at jchen@edgewood.edu or 608-663-2286.

Past Student Experiences

"What I have learned from this experience that will be essential to my major is learning how best to interact with people of a culture that is so different than my own."

–– Olivia Bunz, Sociology

"Environmental conservation is something I am very passionate about... Talking with students of many ages, I learned that the environment was something that they are also passionate about, and this was a really powerful experience, to go somewhere so far away and know that they are concerned with and care about the same issues that I do, really makes me want to do something to help make a change, and this is something I plan to do throughout my life and career.”

–– Alexander Yeiser, Computer Science

“There was a point in time where even I had fallen into the trap of believing that the U.S. was the driver and all other countries were in the backseat. Going to China gave me a new perspective on just how big and dynamic the world really is. I am not referring solely to China’s emergence as the next superpower. While in China I realized just how many people there are out there with ideas…. The U.S. is not the pinnacle; the world is the pinnacle.”

–– Zach Uher, Business

“Before our research experience in China, I had a little bit of a negative view on China. As a history major, I found the history of China and the events that have led China to where it is today fascinating, but I was a little nervous about actually going to a country that is run by a communist government. But, when we arrived in China I could tell even after spending only one day in the city that my previous anxieties were quite misplaced.”

–– Patrick Meuer, History

“I feel, we were able to see past what Suzhou is to tourists, and grasp a more complex reality that most visitors are not able to see…. In the end, it’s not at all as much about the tourism or the government, as it is the people; and they are what affected me the most deeply, and they are who I will remember when I’m old.”

–– Ruthie Rolfsmeyer, Art