Ni Hao! Chinese Educators Visit MCC

Middlesex County College (MCC) welcomed a group of educators from the other side of the world to show off its programs and practices.

About two dozen educators, mostly school administrators, from the Chinese province of Shanghai visited MCC on Thursday as part of a tour of the U.S. education system.

Gu Bei Lei, Section Chief of the Education Bureau of Chongming Shanghai, said the group wanted to visit schools outside of major cities, as their home district is located in a rural part of Shanghai.

Speaking through translator Chiang Kao, President of the Edison Education Service Association USA, Lei said that Shanghai Chongming has 115 schools and 70,000 students.

The group's visit will span 10 days, in which they will visit schools all over the East Coast. On Thursday morning, the group was in Boston, before coming to MCC. Their trip also includes stops in Washington, Philadelphia, and Manchester, Mass.

The most impressive part of their visit was learning that the individuality of each student plays a big part in their education program, Lei said.

Speaking in both Chinese and English, Ronald Goldfarb, Interim Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs thanked the educators for their interest in Middlesex County College.

"Our two countries will grow closer for the benefit of our students," he said.