* Upon returning from China, in their letters to Mr. Freeman, student participants of 2002 program expressed their gratitude to The Freeman Foundation and Mr. Freeman for providing funding to the American Forum For Global Education that makes this precious experience possible for them Due to the limited space on this site, we decided to take a few lines from each letter and complied them here as one collective letter to Mr. Freeman.*

Dear Mr. Freeman:

"Words cannot express how much this trip meant to me...You not only helped me gain insight about China but also allowed me to find a better understanding about myself."

- Chris Williams, New Rochelle High School, Westchester County

“Thanks to you…my outlook on life has been forever altered form visiting this amazing country. It has opened my eyes to the many things we take for granted here and how different other countries live.”

- Allison Inga, Susan Wager High School, Staten Island

“I learned that the goals of the average teenager in Beijing were similar to mine. Seeing how they had the same pressures to study harder than I do, it inspired me to work harder. As a person I grew and my interest in international affairs as also grown.”

- Alexander Sokol, Susan Wager High School, Staten Island

“Relaying what a Chinese graduate student said to me, ‘What is needed among nations is communication. People should go abroad and look with their own eyes. You are lucky to have [had] such a good opportunity.’ I could not agree with this statement more, and would like to thank you for providing me with this opportunity.”

- Shahbaz Alam, High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology, Brooklyn

“I am grateful to you for funding such an endeavor. My greatest lesson gained from the trip is that China actually is not a different world. Rather, it is a different part of the same world, and is in fact much closer to America than any atlas might indicate.

- Peter Rocco, Poly Prep Country Day School, Brooklyn

“I want to humbly thank you for the opportunity you have given me…to learn and experience a culture so rich in history and diverse. …This experience has no doubt deepened my understanding of and reshaped my thinking towards Chinese culture. I now, more than ever, plan on studying international relations in college.”

- Hirantha Bandara, New Rochelle High School, Westchester Count

“I would like to thank you for giving me this chance to see and so things that would never be possible through any other venue. Thanks for giving me the chance to learn so much from this once in a life time opportunity.”

- Kingson Man, Stuyvesant High School, Manhattan

“This program gave me the opportunity to spread my wings beyond the boundaries of my everyday life. Aware as I was there was a world beyond the U.S., the China Project 2002 gave me an incredible opportunity to feel, touch, and taste that world. My trip to China has made me a better person, more confident in my ability to achieve anything that I set my mind to, regardless of fear, lack of knowledge, or experience.”

- Aneicka Bookal, Edward R. Murrow High School, Brooklyn

“The incredible opportunity you afforded me has not only changed my view of China, but the world. My view of America today is as a member of the global community, not just a singe entity acting within it. If not for your generosity, I would still be wallowing in East Asian ignorance.”

- David Herbert, Poly Prep Country Day School, Brooklyn

“I would sincerely like to thank you not only for the opportunity of going to China, but also for all that I have gained from it; the experiences, the memories, knowledge, and friends.”

- Fiona Tyson, Marymount School, Manhattan

“The trip allowed me to come to an understanding of the Chinese people and their culture far deeper than anything I could ever have deduced from quick visits to Chinatown or history lessons. It has left me with a clear sense of the country China is today and how it came to be this way.”

- Alexis Schaitkin, Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua

“Your support of the China Project 2002 allowed me to have the most eye opening three weeks in China. Thank you for believing that high school students could earn the opportunity to explore China and Chinese culture.”

- Katherine Schlosser, Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua

“I would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to travel to China this summer. I had never experienced a foreign culture as intensively and first-handedly as I did in my three weeks in China. I felt intrigued and challenged as the things I studied in class became ‘real’ before me.”

- Manuela Baldovino, Marymount School, Manhattan

“The experience of these monuments and historical sites will be with me forever and have forever opened my eyes to the importance of history. I look forward to sharing their importance with others in my school and allowing them to share in the joy I have gained from them.”

- Derek Betts, Baldwin Senior High School, Long Island

“I speak for all of us when I say that we ‘pay it forward’ – the gift you gave me will be given, in turn, to the students at my school. You brought me to a new plane of existence as well a new continent.”

- Joshua Sucher, Edward R. Murrow High School, Brooklyn

“Learning China’s history in school placed a desire in me to go to China some day. It didn't take too long before it came true, for you played a major role in helping me visit the wonderful land of China and experiencing it almost inside out.”

- Samuel Parshoyam, Evander Childs High School, Bronx

“The experience has opened my eyes and left me with a new understanding and appreciation of China as well as Asia…Visiting China first hand has washed away any old stereotype and preconceptions that I might have had about the nation and its people and replaced them with genuine understanding based on personal observation and experience.”

- Emilie Curran, Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua

“The many experiences I gained on this trip have given me a new perspective and will prove valuable in my future. The China Project opened my eyes to a different world and helped me open my mind to a different way of thinking.”

- Alec Rivers, Stuyvesant High School, Manhattan

“Traveling to China has truly been an unforgettable experience. After being there for three weeks, not only did I learn about its history, but also I was able to meet many wonderful people. It was a unique experience that helped me to obtain knowledge as well as grow as a person. Thank you.”

- Elizabeth Guevara, Academy of American Studies, Queens

“Although I have not met you, I would like to thank you for your generous grant to the China Program. The trip exposed me to another way of life, that I knew little about.”

- Owen Serra, Poly Prep Country Day School, Brooklyn

“This letter seems so inadequate in comparison with the great opportunity you gave me. My trip to China has brought so much to my life, and I am thankful to you for helping me enrich my knowledge of the country.”

- Kathryn Aberlin, Poly Prep Country Day School, Brooklyn

“I would like to thank you for making an unforgettable summer experience possible for my fifteen group mates and me. On a more personal level, for me, as a Chinese American who had never been too sure where to stand on the scale of Chineseness/Americaness, I learned about my own identity.”

- Lei Vicky Yuan, Stuyvesant High School, Manhattan

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for making my trip to China possible. I am honored to have been part of this program, which has greatly influenced the way I view Chinese culture.”

- Marcela Pirlogea, Academy of American Studies, Queens

“I came to this project hoping to impress my family, to show that their son had finally been to their homeland coming back a little more knowledgeable about China. The reality of concluding this trip is that, even though I impressed my parents through this journey, it is more that China impresses me. It wiped out so many stereotypes that I have heard and presented me with a new culture that is uniquely distinct from any found in the states. Meeting Chinese people face-to-face and experiencing the place is the real way to learn about that culture. Thank you, Mr. Freeman for generously giving so much. Your contribution of educating the 32 of us will be extended greatly when we take the culture we have absorbed and spread it into the other youth of our generation.”

- David Ye, Baldwin Senior High School, Long Island

“Reflecting on this past summer, I am still in awe of the fact that I went to China. I have come back with a variety of experiences to share with others. This trip has also made me want to major in East Asian Studies when I get to college. Thank you so much for opening my eyes to a new world.

- Liz Dempsey, Bard High School Early College, Manhattan

“I would like to express my most heartfelt thanks for giving me the unique and incredible opportunity to participate in The China Project. I feel that visiting China, along with learning a great amount about it, has truly made an impact on my life and my goals for the future. Now, having visited this wonderful country, I desire to pursue a career in International Relations more than ever.”

- Allison Reddy, Poly Prep Country Day School, Brooklyn

“[As I was about to tell friends my upcoming trip to China] I started getting a tight feeling in my stomach, for I knew I was about to see the stupefied expressions on my friends’ faces…. The fact is that I had never dreamed I would ever be going to China at the age of sixteen. People think of China as a radical change in life, something totally not what [many] Americans are accustomed to…. [However,] My trip to China has given me new perspectives on things I took for granted such as buying a pair of Nike shoes knowing that someone in China made them for 5 yuan an hour. It made me realize that our American way of life is not the only culture and that I must be respectful of other cultures. For that reason, I want to thank you greatly for allowing me to travel halfway across the world for one incredible summer. Thank you.”

- Jonathan Schwartz, Stuyvesant High School, Manhattan

“It would be impossible to enumerate every fact and belief that I learned during my three weeks in China, but together, they have given me a new perspective. My experience in China has taught me to respect cultures for their difference as well as for their similarities.”

- Risa Chubinsky, Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua

“I would like to thank you for providing us with the opportunity to travel to China and to learn its culture and language. I have always wondered about the country and the people that my parents had grown up around. I was given a chance to explore much of it during my time there and had a wonderful time doing so.”

- David Tsang, Bard High School Early College, Manhattan