Wesley International Academy Students Study in China

Sixteen of Wesley International Academy’s best students spent a month traveling and studying this summer in China, the first such trip from a school that puts Mandarin front and center in its academic curriculum.

The sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders visited Nanjing University and other sites. About a dozen of these students have attended Wesley since kindergarten. The school is now raising money to send another set of students next year.

This trip is supported entirely by the students’ parents and by donations from the public. If you would like to donate, even a small amount helps, please go to this page: http://www.wesleyacademy.org/support/.

Wesley, a K-8 charter school, has grown tremendously since it opened.

“To imagine that one day, 16 of our best students would have the opportunity to study in China was beyond what we had imagined in 2007,” said Anthony Chung, who has been Chinese Department chair for seven years. “It’s very hard to believe.”

Boasting one of the largest foreign language instructional teams in the metropolitan Atlanta, Wesley employs seven full-time Chinese teachers, six of whom are native speakers. Each of the more than 750 students receive 50 minutes of instruction daily from the team.

PTSA President Lexie Hautau remembers when there were only two teachers and the curriculum consisted of worksheets and whatever else could be scrounged up. Lea Durdin was one of those teachers, whose connections at China’s Nanjing University set the study abroad trip in motion.

Each year, Wesley administers the Dakao Exam, an end-of-semester teacher-made assessment of students’ written and oral Chinese proficiency. Those who score well on the Dakao are given the option to take the more rigorous, Youth Chinese Test (YCT) administered annually by Kennesaw State University during the third week of January.

In the four years that Wesley students have participated in the YCT, their performance has been stellar. In fact, high scores have remained constant even as the number of students taking the exam has grown many times over.

Last year, Mr. Chung applied his demanding style to intensely scrutinizing student applicants who were eager to be selected for the school’s inaugural study abroad trip. Those selected were chosen after meeting baseline academic requirements and successfully completing a panel-based interview and maturity screen.

Student’s Reflect

Wesley seventh-grader Skylar Walker, whose father was also instrumental in coordinating the trip, knew immediately that she wanted to participate. “The experience, she said, “will help me get into a tougher college.”

Skylar, who wants to attend the University of Michigan and eventually become an attorney, is like many of the other students who travelled to Nanjing this summer. Carlisle Devane-Schneider, also a seventh-grader, spoke of her increased personal growth and maturity. “I thought I was independent before, but I returned with a better sense of what college might be like.” Her classmate David Lee agreed, mentioning the challenge of balancing both schoolwork and dorm life as a part of his daily routine.

While in China, Wesley students visited historic landmarks and travelled to other cities throughout the country. Isaiah Anderson and Anaia Johnson fondly recalled their visits to the Great Wall and the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall.

During every new experience, Mr. Chung was filled with moments of pride for his students. “They now have a legacy that the next group of Wesley students travelling to China must uphold.”

For more on the Wesley International Academy Chinese Department: http://wesleychinese.blogspot.com/p/curriculum.html

Wesley International Academy is tuition-free and located in the former Ed S. Cook Elementary School on Memorial Avenue near Hill Street. Wesley provides an academically rigorous curriculum including an authorized International Baccalaureate Programme and single-gender classroom instruction. The school offers enrollment to students living anywhere in the city of Atlanta.