East meets West
Lyndon Institute’s Shaoxing China campus celebrates first commencement On June 21, 2013 sixteen students enrolled in the Lyndon Institute/Shaoxing Number One High School Branch dual-high-school program graduated in a ceremony that blended Eastern and Western traditions. Students and faculty wore traditional Western “mortarboard” caps, for example, with academic robes adorned with Chinese embroidery and ornate knotted fasteners.
Music for the program included the Chinese national anthem and, in a move that surprised and delighted American faculty, the theme from Rawhide, chosen as a typically “Western” composition.
The ceremony including speeches by the American and Chinese headmasters, a student representative, a parent representative, and American teacher and Chinese teachers; the presentation of awards, certificates, and diplomas; and a recitation of poetry in both Chinese and English. On June 9, Lyndon Institute Headmaster Rick Hilton had spoken to 131 Lyndon Institute graduates in Lyndon Center, all of whom had earned their LI diplomas in a recordsetting year. In Shaoxing he spoke in English, pausing for a translator to repeat his words in Chinese for the benefit of parents and others who might not speak English. He told
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the audience of several hundred, “Cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America is vitally important to the future of our world. Our countries are leaders, and these young men and women are now better prepared to take their place as leaders in the next generation’s businesses and professions.” He also praised Shaoxing Headmaster Jin’s “courage and dedication in making this dream a reality,” calling him “a true colleague, what we call in English a ‘kindred spirit.’”
The graduating students had completed both Chinese and American high-school programs since enrolling as tenth-graders in the 2010-2011 academic year. Housed in a dedicated wing of the 3,500-student Shaoxing school, the students have been taught by Chinese teachers and by American teachers and advisors selected by Lyndon Institute but paid by the Shaoxing school. Unlike some international programs in China, the LI program has seen continuity among its faculty. Several, including St. Johnsbury Academy Alumnus Brendan Mold, have actually made the transition from the Shaoxing program to Lyndon Institute’s Vermont campus. “Ours was one of the first two high schools permitted to offer a true American high-school program in China along with the Chinese program,” explained Hilton. “It makes Alumni newsletter