A History of Calvin Connections to China
By Phil Holtrop '55

Calvin's Economics and Business department has also had impressive China contacts. In October 1996, Shirley Roels ('71) presented two papers at the China-Beijing Business Ethics Conference, sponsored by Professional and Education Services, International (PESI) in Beijing. Her presentations were on incorporating ethics in the business curriculum and pedagogical issues in teaching business ethics. In September 2000, she read a paper on business leadership at a conference on "Comparative Ethics in a New Century: A Sino-American Dialogue," held in Hangzhou. The sessions were sponsored by the CAC. In June 2002, she spoke on "Vocation and the Chinese Way of the Future" at the International Symposium on Religion, Ethics and Contemporary Society-West and East. The conference was also held in Beijing, at People's University, and was sponsored once more by the CAC.

Before joining the Calvin Economics and Business faculty in the fall of last year, Stacy Jackson taught leadership and organizational design and change in China at Fudan University, Shanghai. He worked in its Executive MBA program. Stacy now teaches in Calvin's management and organizational behavior field and continues to consult informally with a Chinese American semiconductor firm. Cynthia Moody was also on Calvin's business and econ staff for several years before returning to industry in 2003. While at Calvin she taught human resources management in a new Chinese Master's of Business Administration program associated with the Pacific Institute for Business Management, under the umbrella of ELIC. She was in Chongqing and Chengdu in the summer of 2002.

The Geology, Geography, and Environmental Studies department has been involved in China in various ways. Jan Curry lectured at Xiamen University in the spring of 2004 and Johnathan Bascom is visiting China this year to do a target study of Chinese geography. Don DeGraaf, in the Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Dance, and Sport department, has been involved in developing a youth recreational program in Hong Kong. Craig Hanson, in the Art department, is using Freeman funds this summer, 2005, to learn more about Chinese art. In short, a number of Calvin departments are starting to jump on the China bandwagon.

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