Blue Ridge Community College professor Nell Tiller of Weyers Cave will participate in the month-long 2009 Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad: History and Culture in China Program in June and July, administered by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.
Blue Ridge Community College Professor Nell Tiller will join fifteen educators from across the country in the prestigious Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad program focusing on China’s history, culture, changing society and rapid economic growth. During the month-long seminar in June and July, the group will visit Beijing, Xi’an, Chongqing and Shanghai to gain first-hand experience of China’s dynamic society while learning about the history and culture of the country and focusing on their own areas of expertise. Participants will have an option to continue to Hong Kong for four days. The program will not only enhance the work of the educators, but will have a wider impact through curriculum projects based on their experience that each participant is required to develop and which will be made available for use by educators nationwide.
Tiller has taught Spanish at Blue Ridge Community College for 18 years. Ms. Tiller has also been actively involved in developing an international education studies curriculum at Blue Ridge. In 2007, she traveled to China on the People to People Ambassadors Program with other foreign language instructors to see how world languages are taught in universities, colleges, technical schools, and elementary schools.
The study program, for university and college professors from a variety of disciplines, will give participants the opportunity to learn about China’s long history, and the vibrant culture of contemporary China. The educators will experience the historic capital city of Beijing, now undergoing rapid modernization; centrally-located Xi’an, known as the “cradle of Chinese civilization”; Chongqing, a vibrant industrial center within visiting distance of rural villages; and Shanghai, where they will contrast colonial history with contemporary urban issues. The trip to Hong Kong will show them a fully modern Chinese city that is also a world financial center.
The Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad: History and Culture in China program is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and has been administered by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations since 1981. The National Committee on United States-China Relations is the leading national, non-partisan public affairs organization devoted exclusively to building constructive and durable relationships between the United States and China. The Committee’s continuity of experience and depth of associations in Greater China and the United States make it a national resource. The Committee creates opportunities for informed discussion and reasoned debate about the issues of common interest and concern to the United States, the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan.
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Tiller was the feature subject of an article in the January 2007 edition of The New Dominion Magazine.
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