NOVA Student Lands Global Scholarship!
“I had no idea that a course at my local Northern Virginia Community College would expand my world so meaningfully.”
NOVA student Raven Witherspoon is right! NOVA’s world class Chinese course was catalytic in helping her land a prestigious scholarship—she is a recipient of the Schwarzman Scholars Program (Class of 2022). To put this into context, she was 1 of 154 candidates selected from a pool of more than 3,600 applicants from around the world; students represented 39 countries and 99 universities.
Designed in collaboration with leading universities to create an international community that bridges differences, the Schwarzman Scholars Program is specifically housed under the Schwarzman College residential building for Schwarzman Scholars to complete the intensive one-year master’s degree and leadership program at Tsinghua University in China.
As a Schwarzman Scholar, Raven will experience Chinese culture, commerce and community by living in China and being part of one of China’s most historical institutions—Tsinghua University was established in 1911. Raven will take flight to China in August 2021.
What ignited her passion for the Chinese language and culture? Raven began taking Mandarin in middle school. However, various challenges such as limited course options during high school and a constraining college schedule impeded her progress for about six years. After waiting for so long, Raven seized the opportunity to rekindle her love for the Chinese language by taking NOVA’s online Chinese course during the spring 2020 semester with Dr. Dali Tan, professor of Chinese at NOVA’s Alexandria Campus, while at the same time being a full-time student majoring in physics at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). In addition, Raven is minoring in international social justice, political science and mathematics.
Raven’s compelling NOVA experience opened doors for her to another world…literally. Through NOVA’s language exchange partnership initiative with Xingtai Polytechnical College in Hebei, China, Raven paired up with a Chinese student who wanted to improve his English proficiency. Despite her worries about being able to fully communicate in Chinese, Raven pushed herself beyond her boundaries. Through passion and dedication, they both talked and learned about each other’s culture, the histories of the U.S. and China, music, food, COVID-19 and other challenges. Even the 13-hour time difference did not stop them from getting each other’s sleep patterns and schedules down to perfection. Singing to one another also helped to ease and navigate through the tough times.
Raven would probably agree that she gained much more than a scholarship—she gained a friend, she found community and she developed a cultural connection–all benefits that learning a new language offers.
Gōngxǐ, Raven!
Please see the flyer below for more information about taking NOVA’s world language courses.
For more information about the Schwarzman Scholars Program, please visit: https://www.schwarzmanscholars.org/
Contact: Mohamed Ali, mmali@nvcc.edu
