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translation of Confucius... Appearing in her native costume, Miss Tazu Shibama, Wesleyan’s first student from Japan, drew laughs and applause...” Genevieve Vasset Sannie graduated in 1932 and returned to her native France, but she kept Wesleyan on her mind long after commencement. She sent letters, donations, and photographs of her wedding day, children, and special trips. In 1945, she wrote with concern, “How did Wesleyan get on these last years? I often thought of the happy and profitable times I spent there, among friendly people. It is such a beautiful souvenir for me.” After the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center Towers attacks, Genevieve responded, “I just want to tell you how horrified I have been, like everybody else here....That a country who has welcomed so many people from all over the world has had to suffer such an awful aggression is beyond understanding.”
1 international student from Panama enrolls, joining two younger Soong sisters.
1910
1909
Ai-ling graduated and promptly returned to Shanghai, where she secured a post as secretary to Sun Yat-sen.
During the 1930s, Wesleyan had more students from China than any other country. Ada Lee ’30 and Tsoo Yi Zia ’33 were two of many graduates of the McTyeire School in Shanghai that attended Wesleyan. Tsoo Yi also studied at Scarritt College and earned a master’s degree at the University of Chicago before she returned to China to become general secretary of the Shanghai YWCA. Later she taught English at Cheloo University and in a Shanghai high school. After the Communist takeover of China in 1949, Wesleyan’s long tradition of educating Chinese women was interrupted. Thirty-five years later in
18 Wesleyan missionaries are listed in the Zig Zag as serving 7 foreign countries.
1905
1904
Ai-ling, Chingling, and May-ling Soong, the first Chinese women in history to receive an American education began their Wesleyan journey.
In December of 1930, a newspaper clipping documents a lecture given by a group of Wesleyan international students at a Rotary Club meeting in Macon. “Miss Joan Pendergrast, native of Canada now living in Havana, told of the beauties of Cuba; Miss Maria Schmidt of Austria told of life in her country; Miss Tsoo Yi Zia of China sang a song illustrative of the music in her country; Miss Er Tsau Loh, also of China, spoke of education at home and read a
Missionary Mary Houston Allen spent seven months crossing the Pacific in a sailboat to reach China. In 1892, she and her husband helped Wesleyan Missionary and 1864 alumna Laura Haygood (pictured below) found the McTyeire School for Girls in Shanghai.
1859
1848
Wesleyan Missionaries Julia Jewett Hartwell and Eliza Jewett Hartwell traveled into “Darkest Africa.”
Although the Soong sisters are considered to be Wesleyan’s first international students, five students from Shanghai were enrolled at Wesleyan in 1891, all daughters of American foreign missionaries serving the McTyeire School initiative. During the
A Registrar’s report from 1930 lists two students from China and one from Brazil, but other records indicate that Wesleyan’s international student population was much larger. Four additional students from Shanghai appear in the Veterropt yearbook, and twenty-eight students are featured in a 1931 photograph of the Cosmopolitan Club. According to the caption, the club comprised students from foreign countries and distant states and its purpose was to bring together those girls who did not belong to state or district clubs.
Young Women’s Foreign Missionary Society was organized at Wesleyan.
Despite the challenges of international travel at the time, Wesleyan students of the late 1800s were focused on global issues and foreign affairs and were passionate about Christian mission work. In 1881, the Wesleyan Foreign Missionary Society was organized and was recognized as the first juvenile mission society of the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church. By 1905, eighteen Wesleyan missionaries were serving in seven foreign areas including India, China, Brazil, Mexico, Korea, South America, and Indian Territory. The 1905 Zig Zag, as Wesleyan’s yearbook was called then, boasts, “Wesleyan stands not only as the Pioneer college for higher education of women; more than thirty years before there were such organizations as the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, the mother of colleges had trained her daughters and sent them to the uttermost parts of the earth with the message of peace and love. For years, women of Wesleyan Ministries have traveled to far away lands to bless the world in their efforts to uplift humanity.”
early twentieth century, many international students enrolled at Wesleyan for just a year or two. Their goals were to learn English or study the Bible rather than to earn a bachelor’s degree. A few students traveled from Panama, China, Cuba, Korea, and Brazil during the 1920s. In the 1930s, the international student population grew to represent Brazil, Cuba, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Panama, and China. They were well-received, active in the community, and enjoyed a bit of notoriety. They formed strong bonds with their American sisters.
1881
In 1892, Dr. and Mrs. Allen along with Miss Haygood founded the McTyeire School for Girls in Shanghai. Early graduates of the school who advanced to Wesleyan College were Ai-ling, Ching-ling, and May-ling Soong, the first Chinese women to be educated in the West.