As students begin the new semester. Some are going back to school with fond memories from their Spring Festival holiday. Fourteen students and one teacher, Ms. Einhe He, were the first-ever participants of the Ameson Foundation’s latest exchange program the Sino-American Youth Ambassadors program, or SAYA. Their excitement and appreciation is reflected in some of the featured essays the participating students wrote.
MK Smith
Dec 03
|03:18 AM
Following President Obama's recent trip to China, the Ameson Foundation has launched a new program for high schools students, the Sino-American Youth Ambassadors, or SAYA, program. To help promote cultural and educational exchanges between the U.S. and China, the SAYA program will bridge Chinese and American students for one-week exchanges and will offer students the opportunity to build language skills and cultural understanding.
Read more: Obama, Hu Jintao and Ameson encourage Sino-US exchange programs
In addition to Ameson's highest number of students taking AP Exams, the 2009 AP class now also has the most students from Ameson to receive awards from the College Board. Eleven of the 16 students who took AP exams in 2009 received awards and special recognition based on the number of tests taken and their scores. Tests taken include English literature, economics, calculus and even physics.
Ameson Institute students usually take three or four AP courses per year. On average, they achieve a score of 3, which would qualify them for the admission to undergraduate studies at US universities. Recently, Ameson Institute student Gong Kaiji achieved six 5s in his Advanced Placement tests – perfect scores in every test taken. His scores are believed to be the highest among all students who took the AP tests in China. On the basis of his results, Kaiji was accepted by UC Berkeley, one of the leading universities in the US. 
The Head of Student recruitment from the University of Oxford Dr. Paul Teulon and the Vice Provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admissions of Vanderbilt University Dr. Douglas L. Christiansen recently came to China to meet with elite Ameson students (and others, interested in sutdying abroad at top-tier schools) and parents at a series of seminars in Shanghai, Suzhou, and Nanjing. Both spoke in-depth with Ameson reporters about their schools' interest in China, and the types of international students they hope to attract.
This year, accompanying Dr. Richard Barnes (Chair of the Committee of Directors of Preclinical Medicinal and Veterinary Studies from the University of Cambridge) and Mr. Vu Tran (UCLA’s Director for Undergraduate Admissions & Relations with Schools) on a 'minified' version of ACEIS was Hanqin Zhang, aka 'William', an undergraduate student of Economics at the University of Cambridge. In this exclusive report, William speaks with Ameson reporters to discuss his impressions of studying at one of the finest universities in the world.
Thirteen students were accepted to Bocconi University’s undergraduate programs, with seven students nominated for full scholarships. In March 2009 at an event organized by the Ameson Foundation, elite students from all over China met with Bocconi recruiters. 
