91�Թ�

The stars have finally aligned to enable 91�Թ� to launch its first online course in China, —an interactive, virtual class for Chinese high school students. Many factors now make this venture possible: access to China’s education system via partners on the ground in country; capable virtual technology; compelling student interest among Chinese high school students to study abroad at universities like Stanford; and the identification of a highly qualified instructor.

The inaugural Stanford e-China online course, , will start in Winter 2020, open to enrollment of high school students throughout China. Students will explore cutting-edge technologies that are defining the future and providing exciting areas for academic study, professional opportunities, and entrepreneurial innovation. Focusing on the fields of green tech, finance tech, health tech, and artificial intelligence, students will engage in live discussion sessions (“virtual classes”) and real-time conversations with 91�Թ� scholars, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, as well as American high school students.

Carey Moncaster, 91�Թ�, and Julia Gooding, BE Education, at the International Association for College Admissions Counseling (ACAC) Conference 2019, London, Canada

As a final project, Stanford e-China students will delve into an area of personal interest in one of the technology fields, applying aspects of the Design Thinking framework, to develop a prototype pitch. The top three students from each course will be invited to 91�Թ� to present their pitches and sharpen Design Thinking skills with Stanford practitioners in person. Design Thinking is a very hands-on, interactive, team-based experience that is dependent on critical feedback from other people. Translating the Design Thinking concepts online, with students, scholars, and practitioners virtually scattered across the world presents an exciting opportunity to create curriculum that effectively introduces the skills and mindset.

91�Թ� is drawing on the expertise of Mariko Yoshihara Yang and Rie Kijima, co-founders of SKY Labo and long-time collaborators with 91�Թ� and the Stanford Graduate School of Education. The technologies explored in this course—green tech, finance tech, health tech, and artificial intelligence—have timely, global impact. The contributors to the Stanford e-China’s development span the world as well—from Stanford to Britain, China, and other countries of Asia. The Stanford e-China course is informed by over 16 years of 91�Թ� online course offerings for high school students in other countries in Asia as well as throughout the United States. 91�Թ� scholars will also play pivotal roles as lecturers and guest speakers on the course’s leading technological fields and related pressing issues.

91�Թ� Director Gary Mukai recently noted, “The roots of 91�Թ� date back to the establishment of the Bay Area China Education Project (BAYCEP) at 91�Թ� in 1973. Since then, 91�Թ� has produced curriculum materials on China and hosted teacher professional development seminars on China for teachers in the United States, and more recently has offered an online course on China for high school students in the United States—all with the goal of helping Americans better understand China. I am delighted that 46 years since the establishment of BAYCEP, Stanford e-China has become a reality and for the first time in its history, 91�Թ� will be working formally with students in China. 91�Թ� is grateful to be collaborating with BE Education in this initiative.”  

The inaugural 10-week course will be offered in Winter 2020. Shorter 4- to 6-week courses will be offered in Summer 2020. Course details and application deadlines are available at . The online course is offered in English. Stanford e-China students should expect to allot 3–4 hours per week to complete the lectures, virtual classes, discussions, readings, and assignments. Although participation in virtual classes (held on Saturday mornings) is mandatory, students will be able to structure the other work around their individual schedules.

Carey Moncaster is developing the course as the Stanford e-China instructor. After graduation from U.C. Berkeley, Carey lived and worked in China throughout the 1990s as the country embarked on monumental economic changes. This experience was followed by graduate studies in East Asian Studies at 91�Թ� and her initial work with 91�Թ�. She has launched educational programs for U.S. high school students throughout Asia, and most recently returns to 91�Թ� from Seattle’s high-tech world of start-up ventures.

For more information, please contact Carey Moncaster, Stanford e-China instructor, at cmoncaster@stanford.edu.

To stay informed of 91�Թ�-related news, and follow 91�Թ� on and .

How does a community college instructor begin to tackle a lack of global awareness exhibited by her students? She spends an afternoon at Stanford with leading faculty and experts, as well as other community college faculty, to discuss issues of importance to the global community.

The Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (91�Թ�) and are offering exciting professional development opportunities to help community college instructors internationalize courses by incorporating recent area studies research and materials. The Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) is funded by the National Resource Center Program of the U.S. Department of Education under Title VI.

Held on Friday, March 6, 2015 at Stanford, the first EPIC community college workshop focused on Global Food Security. Twenty community college instructors attended from 16 community colleges, with disciplines ranging from English composition to math, economics, nutrition, sociology, anthropology, biology and political science. EPIC and 91�Թ� organizers chose food security as the topic of their first workshop because it combined interdisciplinary appeal with international content.

At the half-day workshop featuring lectures by , an agricultural economist at Stanford, participants learned how every individual’s access to an adequate supply of high-quality food—that is, the individual’s food security is affected by very complex processes of production, distribution, and consumption. And how, despite decades of progress in agricultural technology, economic development, and poverty relief, food security continues to elude hundreds of millions of people around the world. 

Some topics covered and highlights from Dr. Falcon’s lectures include:

• Two world problems: the need to double food output this century without destroying the environment; and providing economic access to the billion plus people who are food insecure, not because there is a general lack of food, but because they are poor.
• Supply and demand issues: the importance of the green revolution’s significant impact on the supply of grains.
• The GMO debate: there are legitimate controversies and important arguments along with irrational extremes, and there is an important discussion to be had in the middle.
• The importance of development strategies in poor countries to reach the poorest half.
• Imports and exports: an international orientation on the part of a nation-state is generally good; often the worst thing is to close an economy, particularly in a badly governed nation.
• Redistributive land reform: it is not done usually in an evolutionary way, but usually revolutionary and the results are varied.
• The second half of his Dr. Falcon’s presentation was an in depth analysis of Indonesia, the world’s 4th most populous country, and the focus of his work for 30 years. Some of the insights from his experience include:
• Good advice often starts with the word “Don’t.” It’s easy to write a catalogue of the things that would be nice. In a good year you can do two or three things. Policy advice turns out to be finding a sequence of good things that should be done to improve various aspects of food systems.
• There are good folks in bad governments and there are bad folks in good governments. You can sometimes do good things even within corrupt governments.
• Most of what food policy is about is adjudicating the tension between producers, who want high prices, and consumers, who want low prices. It involves improving storage and roads and keeping consumer prices down while still benefiting producers.

The final part of the workshop, led by 91�Թ� Curriculum Writer , discussed how instructors can incorporate more international content into their curriculum. All attendees were given online access to a copy of the curriculum unit developed by 91�Թ�, Feeding the Poorest Billion: Food Security in the 21st Century, and a copy of the book, The Evolving Sphere of Food Security, edited by Rosamond Naylor. 

Through group activities, participants then collaboratively explored pedagogical practices for incorporating the material into their particular courses. Some of the ideas shared included:

• A creative fictional short story writing assignment demonstrating the connection between agriculture and health
• “Make a Meal” food security card game incorporating math and nutrition
• Having students share about the cities and countries they come from followed by a multicultural potluck for community building in the classroom
• Having students survey their families

As the workshop concluded, an English instructor with 40 years’ experience expressed her concern about students’ lack of global awareness, even basic geography, and Edman answered that this is the reason we have Title VI funding.

The next EPIC workshop for community college instructors, to be held on Friday, May 8, will be focused on Global Health. More information on this and other Global Studies community engagement activities is available at .