On July 15, 2015 the NSLI-Y Shanghai program students participated in the opening ceremony of a two-week event entitled "Face to Face: A Sino-American Student Educational and Cultural Dialogue", where they participated in various educational activities and events with their Chinese peers.
The ceremony featured a school design competition where students were divided into three groups: an all Chinese group, an all American group and a group of Chinese and American students together.
Each group made a presentation in Chinese about the school name, mission, curriculum and unique features as if they were recruiting new students. The Chinese-American joint group won the final prize for designing a school featuring magic teaching across cultures.
The event featured a four-person MC team with two NSLI-Y students and two Chinese students, who came up with the scripts and helped finalize the performance agenda. The students wrote their speeches and poems based on what they have learned in their Chinese classes, talking about the cultural activities with the Chinese students over the two week-period when they were fully immersed in Chinese society through interactions with their Chinese peers and host families.
The event concluded on July 25, 2015 with a student-led performance featuring dance, traditional and modern Chinese poetry, speeches about host family experiences, and cross-talk (Chinese stand-up comedy performed by two people).
