US Department of State Presents Certificate of Appreciation for Xu Bo NSLI-Youth Program

In May, 2010 Xu Bo program director Jessie Duanmu was honored to accept a certificate of appreciation from the United States Department of State. The presentation was made by Ms. Maura M. Pally of the US State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). As Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Professional and Cultural Exchanges, Ms. Pally oversees a broad range of professional, cultural, youth, and sports exchange programs designed to increase mutual understanding between Americans and people around the world.

The certificate was presented at a meeting in the Shanghai offices of the United States Consulate and intended to show the United States government's "...heartfelt thanks and appreciation" to Xu Bo Art & Culture Exchange"... for promoting mutual understanding between the United States and China through its support of the NSLI-Y program in Shanghai and ZhengZhou." NSLI-Y is the ECA program that provides full scholarships for American high school students to study Chinese in China. Xu Bo hosted it's China students in Shanghai during the summer of 2009 and will host two more groups in 2010, one group in Shanghai and a second group in ZhengZhou.

Dr. Anthony Kane, China Program Manager for American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS (www.americancouncils.org), the Washington DC based NGO that administers the NSLI-Y program, also attended the meeting in Shanghai. Dr. Kane has worked closely with Xu Bo over the past year to help develop a rich program for NSLI-Y's China participants.

A copy of the certificate of appreciation is shown below.