What is the Youth Ambassadors Program?
The Youth Ambassadors Program is the BXSCC’s student leadership development program, which may include a trip to China. The chaperoned trip consists of site visits, educational classes, and cultural immersion. Baltimore / DC-area site visits may also be included as part of the program.
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Where Do We Go?
Every trip, we go to our sister city of Xiamen. Additional city visits may also be included as part of the itinerary.
For 2025, the trip will include a visit to the state of Maryland’s sister province of Anhui and China’s industrial and commercial center, Shanghai.
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When is the Youth Ambassadors Program?
Summer, between late June and mid-August.
For 2025, the group will depart Baltimore on July 15th and arrive back tentatively on August 1st.
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Who is Eligible?
All Youth Ambassadors trip student participants should be 14 to 18-year-old Maryland residents (or Maryland-based), with priority given to Baltimore City residents or students. Rising high school freshmen and graduating seniors are eligible.
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What Does the Program Cost?
The value of the program is over $7,000 per participant, inclusive of all transportation, lodgings, meals, and group activities. Actual program costs will vary from year to year*, pending fundraising levels. As a nonprofit organization, the BXSCC will do our best to make the program affordable through fundraising and grants. Leftover funds after the program has completed are refunded to the Youth Ambassadors. If you are interested in donating to this program, please follow the link below; specify the BXSCC and its Youth Ambassadors Program as the beneficiary.
*As a reference, the 2024 out-of-pocket cost per individual participant was around $2,500. Note that past costs are not a guarantee of future costs.
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When Do I Apply?
Applications are closed for the 2025 summer program.
If you are interested in getting involved in the Youth Ambassadors Program, please contact the BXSCC.
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Key Staff for the 2024 Program
Jeannette Felton is the BXSCC’s long-time Education Subcommittee Chair.
Justin Lipsky is the Treasurer of the BXSCC and the key staff handling financial matters for the program overall on the project team for the 2025 Youth Ambassadors Program.
Chelsea Nakabayashi is the BXSCC’s Vice Chair and a faculty member at Bard High School Early College–Baltimore. She is responsible for outreach to and support of the youth ambassadors and their families, and serves–for a second year in a row–as the lead chaperone of the program. Nakabayashi 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 Masschusetts–Amherst, and a PhD from Beijing Normal University. As a Maryland state-certified educator in Chinese, Nakabayashi enjoys providing Baltimore youth with opportunities to build friendly U.S-China ties.
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 manages strategic operations for a Maryland machinery manufacturer.
Sam Walczak is BXSCC’s Secretary and a key member of this year’s project team. In addition to his committee responsibilities, Sam maintains the BXSCC website and communications. Sam has previously lived and worked in China as a software engineering project manager and has an academic background focused on U.S.-China academic exchanges.
Fang Wu is a member of the 2025 Youth Ambassadors project team.
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Media Coverage of Past Trips
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
Blurb and video about our group’s time in Anhui from Xinhua News, in English: American students explore Chinese culture in Anhui Province
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
Article in China Daily Global Edition: “Baltimore students wowed by Xiamen”
Article in The Afro: “Baltimore Man Takes Students to China to Educate and Be Educated”
Article in Xiamen news: “Xiamen Shining in the Eyes of Two Baltimore Area Brothers”
Article in Xiamen news: “Baltimore Teenagers visit Xiamen in Sister-Cities Exchange Trip”
Article in Shanghai news: “Long Live With Our Friendship”
Article in 厦门网: “巴尔的摩学生代表团访厦 携手英文小记者体验厦门文化”
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Reflections from Past Program Participants
2024 Youth Ambassador Reflections (coming soon!)
2019 Youth Ambassador Elijah A.
9 Years of Chinese Studies
“[I]t was my first trip to China, and my first time out of the United States. This trip helped me learn more about Chinese culture. It taught me about the different foods, how to eat them and how to write in Chinese using a “mao bi 毛笔”. There were so many cultural activities every day that I couldn’t wait for the next day to come.”
“One interesting story is that the ice cream we had was the best ice cream I ever tasted in my life! Also, eating from a rotating table was so different, I wish I had one at home. Also, I hope the Baltimore and Xiamen friendship does not end. It was such a great opportunity, and I will always remember my time in China.”
2019 Youth Ambassador Madison H.
4 Years of Chinese Studies
“This was my first time in China. I was immediately and pleasantly surprised at how welcoming all the students were. They were a lot of fun to work with, and they had such excellent English skills. Xiamen was so pretty to visit. Every place we visited had trees and flowers, it was all so calming, even though the actual city was quite bustling with all the traffic.”
“Before I traveled to China, the only knowledge I had about China was from my history class textbook. However, this trip has allowed me to understand just what it looks like to be in a developing country, such as China.”
“Baltimore and Xiamen’s friendship is an excellent example for other cities in the US. Even when national ties are shaky, local connections can be the key to keeping things stable. If more cities in the US had relationships with cities in China, I think it would mean that country relations with China would slowly get better as well.”
2018 Youth Ambassador Alexander G.
4 years of Chinese studies
“The trip to Shanghai taught me that people are more similar than you think. I have learned and experienced so much this past trip to Shanghai. I met so many kids from different backgrounds and cultures on this trip: kids from Japan, Serbia, France, England and New Zealand all converged in one place. They taught me some of their languages, slang and culture. It gave me insight into how each of them lived and their cultures.”
2018 Youth Ambassador Kolby L.
9 years of Chinese studies
“My experience in Xiamen was amazing and I would love to visit again. Everything was so picturesque and there were even palm trees everywhere. The first day in Xiamen we went to see the 2017 BRICS XIAMEN SUMMIT venue, where some of the world’s most powerful leaders met. Later that day, we went to visit the Xiamen Youth & Children’s Palace and had dinner with members of the Xiamen Municipal Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office.”
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Thanks
The Youth Ambassadors Program staff, participants, & parents thank the following entities for their generous financial support of the 2025 program: Maryland Humanities’ Marilyn Hatza Memorial SHINE Grant, the Baltimore Community Foundation’s Van Buskirk International Exchange Fund, and Bard College.
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, Xiamen Airlines, the Xiamen Municipal Government’s Foreign Affairs Office, 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, 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 is providing special need-based funding for select participants under the “Arella Yan Liu Scholarship Program”.
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Profiles of Past Programs
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