Trip Overview
July 21st to August 5th, 2024.
Seven students and four adults from the Baltimore region traveled to our sister city of Xiamen, Maryland’s sister province of Anhui, and China’s capital Beijing for over two weeks.
View the detailed itinerary from 2024.
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Media Coverage of the 2024 Program
Video from our group’s time in Xiamen courtesy of the Xiamen People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, with English audio and bilingual captions: Youth Ambassadors in Xiamen 2024 “Moments”
Blurb and video about our group’s time in Xiamen from Xinhua News, in English: “American students charmed by Chinese culture in Xiamen, China”
Video from our group’s time in Xiamen from Xiamen Star, with English audio and Chinese captions: 2024美國「青年大使」鷺島行圓滿舉行
Article about our group’s time in Xiamen from People.cn, in Chinese: 2024美国“青年大使”鹭岛行：Citywalk鹭岛走透透
Article about our group’s time in Xiamen from Fujian Daily, in Chinese: 美国青年来厦City Walk！2024美国“青年大使”鹭岛行在厦举办
Article about our group’s time in Xiamen from Fujian Daily, in Chinese: 2024美国“青年大使”鹭岛行活动举行
Article and video about our group’s time in Xiamen from Xiamen TV, in Chinese: 感知中国·趣淘厦门：2024美国“青年大使”鹭岛行在厦举行
Video from our group’s time in Xiamen from Xiamen News, in Chinese: “歪果仁” 学习李白的诗
Blurb and video about our group’s time in Anhui from Xinhua News, in English: American students explore Chinese culture in Anhui Province
Blurb and video about our group’s time in Anhui from Xinhua News, in Chinese: 美国高中生在徽州山水间续写中美友谊
Article about our group’s time in Anhui from China News, in Chinese: 美国青年“徽游记”：迎客松前续友谊
Article about our group’s time in Anhui from China News, in Chinese: 感登黄山、访宏村 美国师生领略世界遗产之美
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Key Staff for the 2024 Program
Chelsea Nakabayashi is a faculty member at Bard High School Early College – Baltimore. She holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, MAs from the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, and a PhD from Beijing Normal University.
Jeannette Felton is the BXSCC’s long-time Education Subcommittee Chair.
Xin (Cindy) Wang is the BXSCC’s Chair and responsible for overseeing the organization’s overall structural support for this program. Cindy is a past recipient of the Gates Millennium Scholarship for high-achieving students with significant financial need, studied abroad during college through the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), and has served as a volunteer English-language lecturer in rural Jiangxi Province, China. She presently handles international sales operations for a Maryland machinery manufacturer.
John Facelo is the President of Baltimore Sister Cities, Inc. and a long-time officer of Constellation Energy’s Asian American Resource Group.
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Appreciation
The Youth Ambassadors Program staff, participants, & parents thank the following entities for their generous financial support of the 2024 program: The Baltimore Community Foundation‘s Van Buskirk International Exchange Fund and Bard College. Financial support was also provided by Jeannette Felton and Xin (Cindy) Wang.
We also thank the Office of Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott, the Office of the City Council President of Baltimore, the Maryland-Anhui Province Sister State Committee, the Office of the Secretary of State of Maryland, the Embassy of the United States in Beijing, Xiamen Airlines, Xiamen University, the Xiamen Municipal Government’s Foreign Affairs Office, Huangshan University, the Anhui Province Foreign Affairs Office, the Anhui Province Department of Education, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United States, the Nakabayashi family, and many other individuals and organizations for their support including in-kind donations.
In honor of our late treasurer and Youth Ambassadors program co-founder Arella Yan Liu, the BXSCC provided special need-based funding for select participants under the “Arella Yan Liu Scholarship Program”.