Applications are open for the China Scholars Program, an intensive, college-level online course on contemporary China for U.S. high school students. The China Scholars Program (CSP) is offered by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), Stanford University, and is open to rising 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. Due to the pandemic, for 2021 only, students who are taking a “gap year”—who have graduated from high school but are not yet enrolling in college—are also eligible to apply.

Stanford University China Scholars Program for high school students
Fall 2021 session (late August through December)
Application period: April 28 to June 15, 2021
 

The CSP’s goal is to offer high-achieving high school students across the United States a comprehensive distance-learning course on contemporary China, with an emphasis on how the United States and China have influenced and understood each other in recent history. Current issues are placed in broader historical and cultural contexts, and both American and Chinese viewpoints are represented.

Accepted applicants will explore China from different disciplinary perspectives, spanning politics, economics, social issues, culture, and the arts. In real-time conversations with leading scholars, experts, and diplomats from Stanford University and other institutions, participants will be exposed to the cutting edge of U.S.–China relations and scholarship. Students who complete the online course will be equipped with a rare degree of expertise about China and international relations that may have a significant impact on their choice of study and future career.

“The CSP has opened up my eyes to China and its role in the world,” says Angela Li, a recent alum of the program. “While we were examining multiple facets of China from experts in the field, we were also encouraged to make connections and think critically. The class structure forced me to take the basic facts and examine them to create my own conclusions in ways I had never experienced in the classroom before.”

The Fall 2021 cohort of China Scholars will comprise high school students from across the United States. The diversity of student backgrounds and experiences will create an especially rich exchange of ideas and perspectives among the young scholars—a crucial and invaluable component of the learning experience.

“My classmates were truly brilliant students who brought various perspectives I would not have seen anywhere else,” reflects Li. “I thoroughly enjoyed the CSP and hope other students can too learn about the wonders of China.”

More information on the China Scholars Program is available at http://chinascholars.org. Interested high school students can apply now at https://spicestanford.smapply.io/prog/china_scholars_program/. The deadline to apply is June 15, 2021.

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The China Scholars Program is one of several online courses for high school students offered by SPICE, Stanford University, including the Reischauer Scholars Program (on Japan), the Sejong Korea Scholars Program, the Stanford e-Japan Program (on U.S. society, offered to high school students in Japan), and the Stanford e-China Program (on technologies changing the world, offered to high school students in China).