C.Y. Tung Program on Sino-U.S. Relations Scholarships

The Spring 2010 voyage of Semester at Sea will depart the Pacific Coast just south of San Diego on January 17 and travel to Hawaii, Japan, China, Viet Nam, India, Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana, and Brazil before returning to Florida on May 5. Students will take classes aboard the ship while it sails between ports, stopping for five days of educational field trips in each country.

The voyage will mark the inaugural C.Y. Tung Program in U.S. Sino-Relations, which will be led by distinguished faculty in residence and include rigorous courses on Chinese and American relations, history, culture, economics and diplomacy; visits from distinguished Chinese and American lecturers; excursions to educational and cultural sites in China; and scholarships for Chinese and American students.

A special course focusing on China-US relations will be co-taught by Prof. John Israel (University of Virginia emeritus) and Prof. Shen Dingli (Fudan University, one of China's foremost experts on American studies, with a particular focus on US-China relations). In addition, Jonathan Spence from Yale University will be delivering special lectures for the full shipboard community. Learn more about the C.Y. Tung Program in U.S. Sino-Relations and the inaugural program faculty.

Two students will be awarded $20,000 C.Y. Tung scholarships and will be expected to enroll in this course (in addition to three others) and participate in Asian field programs, but otherwise would be treated like any other student on the voyage. Five Chinese students from Fudan will also be participating in this program with the assistance of C.Y. Tung scholarships.

Application Procedure:

Students interested in being considered for this scholarship should contact Prof. Leonard Schoppa at the University of Virginia at [This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots; you need JavaScript enabled to view it]  and provide the following items by October 26, 2009: 1) a letter of interest; 2) an unofficial transcript; 3) and the name of a China Studies professor who has agreed to supply a letter of recommendation.

Please ask the professor to email a letter of recommendation directly to Prof. Schoppa. If you are selected, you will be notified, by email, by November 1. At that point, you will need to apply to the Semester at Sea program, being careful to satisfy all of our admissions requirements, along with the procedures of the Study Abroad Office at your home institution.