Upper St. Clair senior recounts time in China
Upper St. Clair High School senior Anthony Abinanti had a summer to remember, spending six weeks studying in China as a recipient of the National Security Initiative for Youth scholarship for 2015-2016.
The goals of the NSLI-Y program include sparking a lifelong interest in foreign languages and cultures, and developing a corps of young Americans with the skills necessary to advance international dialogue and cross-cultural opportunities in the private, academic and government sectors.
Abinanti traveled to Xiamen, China, and attended Xiamen University while he was there. His daily schedule included cultural immersion, a history lecture, interest group, tutoring and buddy activities with local high school students. With the exception of the history lecture, Abinanti said the experience was a total and rigorous immersion in the Chinese language.
While in China, Abinanti stayed in the dorm at Xiamen University for three weeks, spent two weeks with an “amazing” host family, and had a week for excursions to Beijing and Shanghai.
During his trip, Abinanti had the opportunity to meet with delegates, officials and diplomats from the United Nations who had traveled to China. He was also asked to address the UN group – in Chinese.
Abinanti said some of the lessons he learned from his trip were: hard work pays off; sometimes you don’t understand, and that’s ok; write (his blog posts weren’t posted while he was in China, but he wrote every day and learned a lot during the process); the world is a small place; and take chances.
Taking chances and hard work have paid off for Abinanti, who was offered an internship at the UN in New York City next summer. While Abinanti plans to study international business in college, he wants to defer his college enrollment and spend his gap year studying Chinese in China.
Abinanti began his studies in Chinese during his sophomore year at USC High School under the instruction of his teachers, Mrs. Lixia Kang and Mr. Zan He.
Abinanti reported on his trip to China to the Upper St. Clair Board of School Directors at the Sept. 8 meeting. When asked about his overall impressions of China by one of the board members, Abinanti said he didn’t realize how much the Chinese people like Americans. He said people were very friendly and many people made it a point to talk with him.