Nearly 10 years ago, the 9/11 Tribute Museum in New York City reached out to SPICE following the donation of an origami crane to the Museum. This partnership led to a collaborative “Kamishibai Project” between the Museum and SPICE. The crane was folded by Sadako Sasaki, a girl who died in 1955 at the age of 12 of leukemia caused by exposure to radiation from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Sadako believed that folding 1,000 origami cranes would help her to regain her health. The origami crane was donated to the Museum by Sadako’s brother as a symbol of peace.

Illustration of the Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima, appearing in SPICE's “Sadako’s Paper Cranes and Lessons of Peace.” Artwork by Rich Lee.

In Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park there is a statue of Sadako raising a large paper crane over her head. Her statue stands as a monument to peace and commemorates the thousands of children who died from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Students from the United States and many other countries send thousands of origami cranes annually to the monument in a gesture of peace.

During his visit to Hiroshima last month, Rylan Sekiguchi had the chance to visit the statue of Sadako with Hiroshima Jogakuin Senior High School student Utako Hada, who leads tours of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. He learned from Hada and her teacher, Gerald O’Sullivan, that approximately 330 students from Hiroshima Jogakuin died from the atomic bombing. Hada informed Sekiguchi that those students were in morning chapel at the time of the blast. This had a profound impact on Sekiguchi and his desire to include peace education as a central part of Stanford e-Hiroshima, a new online course for high school students in Hiroshima that will be offered from September of this year. The online course is currently in development, and Sekiguchi will serve as the course instructor.

Sekiguchi had the honor of meeting with Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki of Hiroshima Prefecture, who in 2011 announced the “Hiroshima for Global Peace” initiative, a road map for nuclear abolition. Sekiguchi had the chance to discuss the development of the new online course with him. Commenting on Stanford e-Hiroshima, Yuzaki stated,

As Governor of Hiroshima, I see the value of engaging the “best and brightest” students in Hiroshima in an intensive study of U.S. society and culture that underscores the importance of U.S.–Japan relations. I believe that Stanford e-Hiroshima will encourage students in Hiroshima to study abroad in the United States as I did. As an alumnus of Stanford University (MBA, ’95), I feel strong ties to the university and to many of its faculty like Professor Daniel Okimoto, an advisor to SPICE.

Sekiguchi also had the opportunity to meet with Superintendent Rie Hirakawa of the Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education. Hirakawa noted, “As you know, the United States and Hiroshima have had a long important relationship and this new online course would help to ensure that the relationship remains a positive one.” With recommendations from Hirakawa, Sekiguchi visited seven high schools in Hiroshima Prefecture with several teacher consultants, including Rika Ryuoh and Nobuo Kawahara, and met with principals, teachers, and students who helped him further solidify the content and structure of Stanford e-Hiroshima. Two of the schools—Hiroshima University High School, Fukuyama, and Hiroshima Junior and Senior High School—have the designation of Super Global High Schools that “aim to foster globalized leaders who will be able to play active roles on the international stage.” This goal will align well with Stanford e-Hiroshima, which seeks to underscore the importance of helping high school students understand the interdependence between Japan and the United States. In addition to peace education, other course topics will likely include early Japanese immigration to the United States from Hiroshima, entrepreneurship between Hiroshima and the United States, and Hiroshima’s sister city relationship with Honolulu, Sekiguchi’s hometown.

As part of the online course, Sekiguchi also hopes to engage high school students in Honolulu with the Stanford e-Hiroshima students. Upon hearing this, I immediately envisioned these students as future messengers of peace between Japan and the United States, as I hope that Stanford e-Hiroshima will provide a platform for students to symbolically “share cranes” or messages of peace across the Pacific and seriously consider the goals of Governor Yuzaki’s “Hiroshima for Global Peace” initiative and their possible roles in it.

Stay informed of SPICE news by joining our email list or following us on Facebook and Twitter.

Related resources:

• Hiroshima: Perspectives of the Atomic Bombing
• Divided Memories: Comparing History Textbooks
• Examining Long-term Radiation Effects
• Nuclear Tipping Point (video)
• Sadako’s Paper Cranes and Lessons of Peace
• Reflections from an Atomic Bomb Survivor (video)

Nearly one year ago on August 10, 2018, SPICE honored the top three students in the 2018 Reischauer Scholars Program (RSP). The students gave presentations based on their final research papers and were honored by their instructor, Naomi Funahashi. One of the RSP honorees was Stacy Shimanuki, then a senior at Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton, California. While listening to her impressive presentation on the Pacific War, I recall continually having to remind myself that she was a high school student. After spending a gap year participating in a Mandarin language immersion program in Beijing through the Department of State’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth, Shimanuki is now working at SPICE as a summer intern.

For her internship at Stanford, Shimanuki is undertaking a list of tasks, which is growing steadily given her immense talents. As an RSP alumna and soon-to-be undergraduate student, she brings a unique perspective to SPICE’s work—especially in the area of curriculum development for high school students. Funahashi commented, “It is enormously rewarding to have one of my former students here at SPICE this summer, and I’m thrilled to have her as a colleague. SPICE is fortunate to have not only a brilliant student but also a person with exemplary interpersonal skills and tremendous focus. Stacy’s future is so bright. All of us at SPICE are excited to see the growth in her capacity for leadership in U.S.–Asia relations as she begins her undergraduate career this fall.”

Following her summer internship at SPICE, Shimanuki will be attending the University of Pennsylvania as a Huntsman Scholar. She will be enrolled in the Huntsman Dual-Degree Program for International Studies and Economics through the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Students like her make our work at SPICE incredibly rewarding.

This year, the Sejong Korean Scholars Program (SKSP) concluded its sixth year with its largest cohort of 22 students from across the United States. The SKSP is an intensive online course offered by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) at Stanford University for exceptional U.S. high school students who want to engage in an in-depth study of Korea, exploring its history, religion, culture, and relationship with the United States. Students who successfully complete the course earn credit from the Stanford Continuing Studies Program and a Certificate of Completion from SPICE, Stanford University.

Each year from March to June, students in the SKSP online course carry out rigorous coursework that consists of weekly readings, online lectures, assignments, discussion posts, and “virtual classroom” video conferencing sessions, where students engage in live discussion with each other and a guest speaker who is an expert-scholar on the topic of the week. As their culminating final project, students write independent research papers which are printed in journal format at the conclusion of the course.

The SKSP online course offers a unique opportunity for high school students to study Korea and U.S.–Korean relations in a college-level-type course that draws on the wealth of expertise and scholarship on Korean Studies at Stanford University. Top scholars, experts, and former diplomats at Stanford University as well as other universities in the United States provide thematically organized online lectures. The themes for each week include traditional Korean culture, religion, colonial history, the Korean War, post-war recovery, North Korea, modern South Korean society and its educational system, and Korea’s transnationalism. In addition to the recorded online lectures, the guest speakers for the weekly virtual classroom sessions engage in discussions with students and provide answers to their questions.

The co-instructors for the course, as well as guest speakers, often note the quality and maturity of students’ thoughtful insights and questions. Co-instructor HyoJung Jang has noted that “the talented and engaged high school students who participate in the SKSP online course bring their intellectual curiosity, critical thinking skills, and enthusiasm for learning about Korea and its popular culture. On top of their full academic load at their respective high schools across the country, these students go above and beyond to commit to SKSP’s demanding coursework and participate fully in the course as Korea scholars-in-training.”

“Over the past four months, our students have formed a community where they actively engage in intellectual discussions with each other—exchanging their ideas, thoughts, reflections, experiences, and perspectives on various topics,” commented co-instructor Jonas Edman. “For instance, some students contributed their own interpretations and explanations for the stark difference between the Taiwanese colonial experience and memory of Japanese rule and that of Korea. When discussing the issue of ‘comfort women’ during Japanese colonial rule in Korea, one student shared a personal story about his great-great-grandmother’s similarly painful experience under foreign rule in Eastern Europe and powerfully advocated for the importance of justice. Other students shared about their assessments of the roles of the U.S. and South Korean leaders—in addition to the roles played by North Korea, China, and Russia—on the outbreak of the Korean War and its aftermath.”

Alongside their academic engagement with each other, students have also bonded over their shared interests in Korean food and popular culture, namely “K-pop, K-dramas, and K-movies.” Some students chose to write their final research papers on analyzing Korean popular culture. Other discussions on the modern Korean education system have even incorporated students’ personal observations of the education issues portrayed in a popular Korean drama. These interests are encouraged, as students are urged to creatively explore the topics most interesting to them for their final research paper.

One of the strengths of the SKSP online course is that it encourages high school students to consider different perspectives on various issues, think critically about those different perspectives, and develop their own informed opinions. Reflecting on her participation in the course, Chloee Robison, a high school student from Indiana, said, “SKSP was a unique opportunity to explore my interest in Korean history. Even though I am not of Korean heritage, I felt deeply connected to the course material, and I found the lectures to be quite informative and engaging. Coming from a region that is largely homogeneous, hearing the perspectives of diverse-minded students opened my eyes to issues and ideas that I would have otherwise been blind to. I am so grateful to everyone involved in the course, and I would recommend it to all students who wish to challenge themselves and expand their knowledge of Korean history and culture.” Chloee’s research project on Korea’s March First Movement earned first place in Indiana’s National History Day competition.

The popularity and demand for Stanford’s SKSP online course on Korea grows each year. Interested high school students are encouraged to apply early for the program. The application period is between late August and early October each year for enrollment in the online course the following year. The online application can be found on the SPICE website at sejongscholars.org.

To be notified when the next Sejong Korean Scholars Program application period opens, join our email list or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

The Sejong Korean Scholars Program is one of several online courses for high school students offered by SPICE, Stanford University, including the China Scholars Program, the Reischauer Scholars Program (on Japan), and the Stanford e-Japan Program.

Related article:

• SPICE welcomes back Dr. HyoJung Jang

The 2019 Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) Symposium brought together community college faculty and administrators from across California to discuss ways to prepare students for an increasingly globalized world.

“Today, more than ever, our students need to be equipped with the critical thinking, communication, socio-emotional, and language skills to work collaboratively with people in the United States and all over the world,” said Dave Dillon, a professor at Grossmont College, who is curating a textbook chapter on cultural competency for use in open educational resources.

Read the full article.

SPICE also offers professional development opportunities for middle school teachers and high school teachers. To stay informed of SPICE news, join our email list or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Related articles:

• The Stanford EPIC fellowship for community college instructors
• “From Cold War to Hot Peace: An Ambassador in Putin’s Russia,” a book talk for educators by Ambassador Michael McFaul
• 2018–19 EPIC Community College Faculty Fellows Program
• Integrating global issues into community college curricula

Applications open today for the Fall 2019 session of the Stanford University Scholars Program for Japanese High School Students (also known as “Stanford e-Japan”), which will run from October 1, 2019 to February 21, 2020. The deadline to apply is August 1, 2019.

Stanford e-Japan Program for high school students in Japan
Fall 2019 session (October 2019 to February 2020)
Application period: June 24 to August 1, 2019

All applications must be submitted at https://spicestanford.smapply.io/prog/stanford_e-japan/ via the SurveyMonkey Apply platform. Applicants and recommenders will need to create a SurveyMonkey Apply account to proceed. Students who are interested in applying to the online course are encouraged to begin their applications early.

Accepted applicants will engage in an intensive study of U.S. society and culture and U.S.–Japan relations. Ambassadors, top scholars, and experts from Stanford University and throughout the United States provide web-based lectures and engage students in live discussion sessions.

“[The Stanford e-Japan online course] was an exceptional opportunity to assimilate fresh insights on U.S.–Japan relations and produce my own ideas via active discussion,” reflects Anna Oura, a recent alum of the program. “Every week I would excitedly wait for Saturday 13:00, when I would meet my fellow scholars—virtually—and exchange opinions.”

Stanford e-Japan is offered by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), Stanford University. The Fall 2019 session of Stanford e-Japan is generously supported by the Yanai Tadashi Foundation, Tokyo, Japan.

For more information about Stanford e-Japan, please visit stanfordejapan.org.

To stay informed of news about Stanford e-Japan and SPICE’s other student programs, join our email list or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

SPICE offers separate courses for U.S. high school students. For more information, please visit the Reischauer Scholars Program (on Japan), the Sejong Scholars Program (on Korea), and the China Scholars Program (on China).

Related articles:

• Spring session of Stanford e-Japan online course begins
• Winners announced for the Spring 2018 Stanford e-Japan Award
• Japan Day 2018: Recognizing future leaders in the U.S.–Japan relationship

Since joining SPICE in 2005, my annual calendar has revolved around not spring flowers, caterpillars dangling from trees, and falling leaves around the beautiful Stanford campus, but the schedule of the Reischauer Scholars Program (RSP), Stanford’s online course on Japan and U.S.–Japan relations for U.S. high school students. As the manager and instructor of the RSP, I have had the pleasure (and truly, the honor) of teaching this online course for 14 years. We accept applications beginning in August, outreach efforts ramp up in September and October, and new cohorts of talented U.S. high school students are selected every November. With January comes the updating of the syllabus with new readings, topics, and video lectures, and identifying and inviting guest speakers for the virtual classes. And the highlight of my year—every year—is on February 1, when the new cohort signs into our online learning platform ready to engage in this new community, connect over shared interests, learn from their differences, and to embark upon the RSP journey together.

It is now early June, and the 2019 Reischauer Scholars Program is, unbelievably, soon coming to an end. This year’s RSP journey has led us through explorations of tales of samurai, the modernization of Meiji Japan through the lens of filmmaker Ozu Yasujiro, comparative perspectives on colonial and wartime legacies through textbooks, and lessons on civil liberties as told by someone who was sent to a Japanese American internment camp with his family as a 9-year-old boy.

While this online course has always approached the study of Japan and U.S.–Japan relations with an intense academic rigor befitting Stanford University, I also wanted to offer students access to the personal stories of practitioners who play an active role in Japanese society and the U.S.–Japan relationship that we study. One of the wonderful aspects of teaching online is that for our weekly virtual classroom sessions—where all students meet synchronously using Zoom video conferencing software—we are able to welcome guest speakers to join us from anywhere in the world.

As we explored the U.S.–Japan security relationship this year and the controversies surrounding the presence of U.S. military bases in Okinawa, for example, students met with an Okinawan native who works on the U.S. Air Force Base in Kadena. Learning about how her experiences and perspectives inform her own efforts to enhance U.S.–Japan relations gave the students new insight into the impact of international policy upon individuals and the communities in which they live.

For our module on U.S.–Japan diplomacy we were joined by the Principal Officer of the U.S. Consulate in Sapporo, Rachel Brunette-Chen, who talked about how her interests in connecting the U.S. and Japan have informed her career in the U.S. State Department. RSP students often cite international relations and diplomacy as two high-interest fields for their future undergraduate studies and career aspirations, so they made the most of this opportunity to ask thoughtful questions about careers in Foreign Service. Given the diverse career tracks available in the State Department, students were inspired to learn that they could take their multidisciplinary interests and apply them in an international context for years to come.

As we grappled with the various challenges facing modern Japanese society during the last few weeks of class—including students mired in a test-centric system, the demographic realities of an aging population and declining birth rates, pervasive issues of gender inequality, and minority rights, among others—it was important to gain an understanding of how these issues are being addressed and experienced by real people. Our final guest speaker for the 2019 RSP, a Japanese American entrepreneur and educator living and working in Tokyo, shared his first-hand perspectives on the state of entrepreneurship and innovation in contemporary Japan.

Perhaps the most memorable of the online video conferencing sessions this year were the two joint virtual classes with the students of the Stanford e-Japan Program. Stanford e-Japan is an online course that engages Japanese high school students in the study of U.S. society and U.S.–Japan relations, and is comprised of students from across Japan. The rich, open discussions and friendly international camaraderie fostered during these joint sessions are always a delight to observe. I know that many of my RSP students—and many of the Stanford e-Japan students, as well—will treasure these experiences and relationships for years to come.

In our virtual class on diplomacy, one student asked, “How can we, as high school students, make a real impact on the U.S.–Japan relationship?” “By taking the initiative to be active participants in courses like the Reischauer Scholars Program,” replied Ms. Brunette-Chen, “you are already on your way. In sharing what you learn about Japan, you are also raising awareness about the importance of the U.S.–Japan relationship among your peers and school communities.” Indeed, these 2019 Reischauer Scholars are already on their way. As the spring flowers, dangling caterpillars, and fall leaves continue to come and go in the years ahead, I am eager to see the different ways in which their impact upon U.S.–Japan relations will continue to take shape. Who knows? Perhaps a few will return to the RSP years from now—this time not as students, but as guest speakers who coach and inspire the Reischauer Scholars of the future.

To be notified when the next Reischauer Scholars Program application period opens, join our email list or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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

Related articles:

• Japan Day 2018: Recognizing future leaders in the U.S.–Japan relationship
• SPICE’s Naomi Funahashi receives 2017 Elgin Heinz Teacher Award

We are thrilled to welcome Dr. HyoJung Jang back to the SPICE team! Jang holds a Ph.D. in Educational Theory and Policy as well as in Comparative and International Education from Penn State University, and an M.A. in East Asian Studies from Stanford University. She has returned to SPICE as an instructor for the Sejong Korean Scholars Program, an intensive online course on Korea for high school students across the United States.

Prior to pursuing her doctoral studies, Jang worked at SPICE developing extensive lesson plans for high school and college classrooms. She is co-author of several East Asia-focused curriculum units, including Inter-Korean Relations: Rivalry, Reconciliation, and Reunification, China in Transition: Economic Development, Migration, and Education, and Colonial Korea in Historical Perspective.

“It’s so wonderful to be back at SPICE, where my passion for education issues was sparked,” reflects Jang. “And it’s always inspiring to work with our young Sejong Scholars. Their sharp, inquisitive minds and sincere interest in Korea make me feel optimistic about the future of U.S.–Korean relations.”

Stay informed of SPICE news by joining our email list or following us on Facebook and Twitter.

At the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on April 22, 2019, Secretary Norman Mineta was interviewed on stage and Rylan Sekiguchi shared SPICE’s soon-to-be-released set of free lesson plans, “What Does It Mean to Be an American?” Special guests included Louis Cannon, senior White House correspondent for The Washington Post during the Ronald Reagan administration and biographer of President Ronald Reagan; Joanne Drake, Chief of Staff and Official Spokesperson in the Office of Ronald Reagan; Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War II; and teachers and students. Partnering with the Reagan Library on this special event were Facing History and Ourselves, The Mineta Legacy Project, and the Japanese American National Museum.

“Could you tell us about the flag that you wear on your lapel just above your Medal of Freedom?” This was one of the questions that was asked to Secretary Norman Mineta during a recent interview at the Reagan Library. Mineta—after a pause—replied that he wears the U.S. flag pin because some people still treat him like a foreigner, even as an American-born citizen. During the interview, Mineta touched upon different aspects of his life, including being incarcerated by his own country as a 10-year-old boy in 1942, serving in the U.S. Army, and participating at the highest levels of U.S. government. Following the interview with Mineta, Rylan Sekiguchi gave an overview of several forthcoming lessons from SPICE that will use key themes from Mineta’s life to explore the central question, “What does it mean to be an American?”

Rylan Sekiguchi gives an overview of “What Does It Mean to Be an American?”

Megan Gately, Associate Director of Education at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, conducted the interview. Her opening question, regarding Mineta’s family, prompted Mineta to note, “I very carefully chose the family that I was born into”—a response that drew laughter from the audience. This was the most lighthearted moment of the interview. He then recounted a familiar American family narrative—that of his father, who immigrated to the United States seeking a better life. Mineta’s father emigrated from Japan in the early 20th century as a 14-year-old who boarded a ship in Yokohama, Japan, not knowing anything about the United States. He initially worked in farm labor camps in the Pacific Northwest and worked his way south to California.

Mineta continued by describing the shocking news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. During an emotional segment of the interview, Mineta shared that his father “couldn’t understand why the country of his birth was attacking the country of his heart… He came to love this country very, very much.” He described the resulting confusion and chaos in the Japanese American community, and how placards suddenly appeared on his neighborhood’s utility poles after Executive Order 9066 was issued on February 19, 1942. He recalled reading the placards that stated “All Japanese persons, both alien and non-alien, will be evacuated” but being puzzled by the term “non-alien.” His older brother had to explain to him that it meant “citizen.” Reflecting on that memory, Mineta emphatically stated, “That is why today I cherish the word ‘citizen,’ because the United States government—my own government—wasn’t willing to describe me as a citizen.”

Mineta and his family were initially incarcerated at the Santa Anita Race Track in Southern California and then in an internment camp in Heart Mountain, Wyoming. While in camp, his Boy Scout troop leader sent an invitation to troops outside of camp to invite them to join the Japanese American scouts in the camps. The initial replies were “no” because those on the outside thought that the camp was a POW camp with its barbed wire fences, guard towers, and machine guns. Eventually a Boy Scout troop from the town of Cody visited the internment camp. This is where Mineta met fellow Boy Scout Alan Simpson, who later became a U.S. Senator while Mineta was a U.S. Congressman. Simpson and Mineta have remained lifelong friends since then.

After World War II, Mineta served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He first entered elected office in 1971 when he won the mayoral race in San Jose, California. After serving a four-year term, he successfully ran for Congress. He won re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives ten times before returning to the private sector in 1995. Later, he joined the cabinets of two presidents: first, in 2000, as Secretary of Commerce during Bill Clinton’s final six months in office; then, in 2001, as Secretary of Transportation for George W. Bush.

August 10, 1988, President Reagan shaking hands with Norman Mineta after signing the Civil Liberties Act of 1988; courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

This reply led to a smooth transition to Sekiguchi, who shared an overview of the free online lessons that are being developed for high school and college students. The lessons, explained Sekiguchi, consist of six independent learning modules that each examines a key theme from Secretary Norman Mineta’s life and career: immigration, civil liberties and equity, civic engagement, justice and reconciliation, leadership, and U.S.–Japan relations. The lessons have been developed in consultation with Mineta and the Mineta Legacy Project team, including Dianne Fukami, Debra Nakatomi, and Amy Watanabe. Fukami and Nakatomi are the producers of the documentary film, Norman Mineta and His Legacy: An American Story, which will air on PBS on May 20, 2019. The event ended with a book signing of Andrea Warren’s biography, Enemy Child: The Story of Norman Mineta, a Boy Imprisoned in a Japanese American Internment Camp During World War II.

The six free lesson plans will be released in Fall 2019. For project updates, sign up at whatdoesitmeantobeanamerican.com and/or join the SPICE email list.

• Secretary Norman Mineta and SPICE’s Rylan Sekiguchi highlight National Council of History Education conference in Washington, DC

Tomorrow marks the 150th anniversary of the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. The tracks of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads met at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869. In a ceremony, Central Pacific Railroad President Leland Stanford drove the last spike, now usually referred to as the “Golden Spike,” at Promontory Summit. What has largely been left out of the narrative of the First Transcontinental Railroad is the estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Chinese laborers who worked on the Central Pacific Railroad. They were paid less than the white workers and as many as a thousand lost their lives, and they eventually made up 90 percent of the workforce that laid the 690 miles of track between Sacramento, California, and Promontory. In a recent Stanford News article, Olive H. Palmer Professor in Humanities Gordon Chang, one of the lead scholars of Stanford’s Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project, noted that “Without the Chinese migrants, the Transcontinental Railroad would not have been possible. If it weren’t for their work, Leland Stanford could have been at best a footnote in history, and Stanford University may not even exist.”

Provost Persis Drell with SPICE Director Gary Mukai and SPICE Instructional Designer Jonas Edman

At the event, SPICE Curriculum Consultant Gregory Francis and I gave an overview of the curricular component of the Project, which helps to make the Project’s findings and materials accessible to teachers and students. The four free lesson plans that SPICE developed bring all of the Project’s “bells and whistles” to high school students and help them understand this often-overlooked part of U.S. history.

The Chinese Railroad Workers Project lessons touch upon many key issues in the high school U.S. history standards, including the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, immigration to the United States, challenges faced by immigrants like the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the growth of the American West. SPICE worked closely with Chang, Fishkin, and Dr. Roland Hsu, Director of Research at the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project, to plan and write the free lesson plans, which are available for download from the SPICE website. Each lesson incorporates the Project’s scholarship and primary sources.

Lesson 1 focuses on the use of primary sources to understand and interpret the past. Students review resources and artifacts on the Project website, discuss whether each is a primary or secondary source, and postulate what questions the resource could help them answer. Students then read and discuss excerpts from Maxine Hong Kingston’s classic book China Men.

One of the political cartoons (Harper’s Weekly, April 1, 1882) that students examine in the lesson “Challenges to Chinese Immigration and Assimilation”

Lesson 2 focuses on racism and discrimination broadly and in the specific context of discrimination directed toward early Chinese immigrants in the United States. Students learn the history of Chinese Americans and attitudes toward them during various periods of immigration. They analyze U.S. political cartoons on Chinese immigrants from the 1870s and 1880s and read four short documents from different periods of time regarding issues of immigration, discrimination, and assimilation of Chinese Americans.

Lesson 3 uses photos to show students the physical and natural challenges to building the Transcontinental Railroad and asks them what they can infer from these photos about life building the railroad. Students then work in small groups to read oral histories of descendants of the Chinese railroad workers. They then write and perform a mock script for an interview between the Chinese railroad worker they read about and a group of reporters.

The final lesson explores the historical and cultural background of San Francisco’s Chinatown and its significance to the Chinese community in the United States over time. Students compare descriptions of Chinatown written by Chinese residents with those from non-Chinese visitors, view historical photos of Chinatown, and watch a lecture by Chang on the interdependence of Chinatown and the Chinese railroad workers. Finally, students encapsulate the legacy of the Chinese railroad workers by designing a memorial in their honor.

Since 2012, SPICE has been proud to collaborate with Stanford Global Studies (SGS) on Title VI-funded initiatives aimed at internationalizing community college curricula. Initially conceived as the Stanford Human Rights Education Initiative (SHREI)—which focused strictly on international human rights issues—in 2014 the initiative evolved into the Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) with a broader focus on international topics relevant to the community college classroom.

SPICE is involved with EPIC primarily in three ways: working directly with community college instructors taking part in the EPIC fellowship program; helping organize the annual EPIC symposium on international curricula for community college instructors; and coordinating educative workshops on international topics for community college instructors.

Each year, 10 community college instructors are selected to participate in the EPIC fellowship program. As part of the program, fellows work with Stanford faculty and staff on projects aimed at internationalizing course curricula and producing innovative curriculum materials for use in the community college classroom. The current 10 fellows hail from seven different community colleges in California and Texas. They represent several different disciplines, including business, psychology, law, and English as a Second Language (ESL). 

Applications are currently being accepted for the 2019–20 EPIC fellowship program. The fellowship is open to all California community college faculty and academic staff. Beginning with a three-day summer intensive workshop at Stanford University, fellows will then meet for real-time online seminars each month during which they will explore cutting-edge research in global studies with Stanford faculty and staff and develop innovative curricular materials and extra-academic programs to implement in their classrooms and at their home campuses. The application deadline is May 5.

The fellowship culminates with the annual EPIC community college symposium at Stanford University where fellows present their projects. The symposium brings together faculty and administrators from community colleges and four-year universities committed to fostering global studies on their campuses. Registration for this year’s symposium on May 18 is currently open. The event is free and open to all community college faculty, administrators, librarians, and counselors. Registration is required by May 5.

In addition to working with EPIC fellows and helping to organize the annual EPIC Symposium, SPICE and SGS offer half-day professional development workshops at Stanford University for community college instructors who wish to internationalize their courses by incorporating recent global studies research and materials into their teaching. The workshops feature guest speakers from Stanford University and participants typically receive books and curriculum materials suitable for community college classrooms. Recent workshops have covered topics such as Russia, North Korea, immigration, and governance. Guest speakers have included leading scholars and experts such as Michael McFaul, Francis Fukuyama, William J. Perry, and Tomás Jiménez. The workshops are open to all community college faculty and staff.

For information on future EPIC workshops, please sign up to the SPICE mailing list or visit the K–14 workshops page on the Stanford Global Studies website.

Related articles:

• “From Cold War to Hot Peace: An Ambassador in Putin’s Russia,” a book talk for educators by Ambassador Michael McFaul
• 2018–19 EPIC Community College Faculty Fellows Program
• Integrating global issues into community college curricula