TODAY AT BRECK
summer 2012
dots are now connected through the Wong Laoshi network.
“But I wouldn’t trade the experience for
“There must be six or seven hundred of us by now,” he says.
anything.”
“She never forgets a detail. She’s like our own personal LinkedIn.”
She didn’t start Chinese until she came to Breck as a freshman, but she was instantly excited and motivated to get ahead quickly. She worked hard to skip a year and was thrilled to be accepted into the University of Oregon’s Flagship Chinese program for college and its education program for a master’s degree in teaching with a
34
Katie Hektner ‘04
Chinese emphasis.
Logistics coordinator, Singapore
“Looking back on it, I think starting Chinese was a somewhat
Katie Hektner ’04 has enjoyed almost
random choice,” she recalls. “I remember [former Dean of
everything about her life in Singapore
Studies] Mr. Ruby telling me what languages I could choose
… except the weather. “It’s really hot,”
among. Little did I know how much that choice would
she explains, “which, in addition to
change my life.”
the spicy food, can be really hard physically. We’re right on the equator, so going from air conditioning inside to the heat outside can be a challenge.” A Chinese major at Washington University in St. Louis,
After returning to the Pacific Northwest, which she fell in love with during college, Simons plans to prepare for a career as a high school Chinese teacher. “I don’t just want to appreciate Wong Laoshi,” she laughs, “I want to be her.”
Hektner says she really wanted the experience of living abroad. She began in Shanghai as a translator for a medical device company, came back to Minnesota to look for something new, and ended up finding a position with a different medical device company with facilities in Singapore. It’s a great base for traveling, both professionally and personally, and a place where she can use her Chinese with coworkers. And it’s exciting work. “I deal with regulations for export,” she explains, “which is very complicated, high-
Andrew Upjohn ‘06 Teacher and Entrepreneur, Nanjing With his academic background of
risk stuff. There are big penalties for doing it wrong.”
international studies, sociology
But, like every other alum we interviewed, she volunteers that
and Chinese at Kenyon College and
she couldn’t be more appreciative of the start she got at Breck.
international economics at the Johns
“I am so fortunate to have had the opportunity to study Chi-
Hopkins University Nanjing University Center for Chinese and Ameri-
nese for 13 years at Breck. It’s the reason I’m where I am today.”
can Studies, a musical ear from years of playing the viola, a strong Chinese foundation from Breck and an entrepreneurial streak, Andrew Upjohn ’06 says China is right where he wants to be. In a few short years, he’s already been an AP English teacher, a college admissions consultant for Chinese students want-
Maggie Simons ‘07 Graduate student, Nanjing Finishing up a stint as a teachers’ assistant at Nanjing Uni-
ing to study in the U.S., a translator for entities including Jaguar and the Nanjing Police Department, and the published author of an article about commodity pricing (written in Chinese) and a textbook on the TOEFL English test.
versity when we met her in March, Maggie Simons ’07 was looking forward to life back in the States, at least for a while.
When we met him in March, he was contemplating a move
“I don’t know if I’ll ever come back to live in China,” she says.
to Shanghai to pursue some entrepreneurial opportuni-