Bin Tu

Armed with a BA in English language and a BS in Psychology from Peking University, I worked for two years with ActionAid International in China prior to coming to the Stanford Graduate School of Education. My job entailed working in a poor county in Northern China on rural development projects and talking with villagers about their lives both days and nights. This experience pushed me to think more deeply about how to fulfill myself as an educational practitioner to lead social change. It was then that I decided to pursue a graduate degree in Education.

The ICE MA Program at Stanford offered me the opportunity to continually reflect upon my experiences from many different perspectives and to collaborate with other educators. ICE combines broad theoretical foundations and various practical orientations together. The Graduate School of Education has such a vast range of courses that I was even able to take a few classes that satisfied my interests in psychology and cultural communication.

Moreover, thanks to the diversity of the Bay Area, I encountered many interesting and creative educational projects beyond campus. One such project became the basis for the case study for my master's paper, which was titled "Becoming Intercultural through Service-Learning: Perspectives of Chinese Students in the United States." The founder of another project became my good friend and we have been cooperating on the development of that project ever since. My year at Stanford was truly vibrant in so many aspects of life, study, theory, and practice.

After graduating from Stanford, I returned to China to work for an intercultural leadership training program, where the international perspective I gained from ICE helped me to make meaningful dialogue happen between leaders from all different backgrounds. In September 2013, I decided to focus more on youth development in China and became an independent trainer working on projects to support social action befitting China's youth. The research skills, awareness of social issues, as well as the materials I had collected for my master's paper all enabled me to design various workshops and courses with unique perspectives.

My recent job involves leading a ten-week course titled “Cultural Communication in the Current World” in a top high school in Beijing. It is exciting knowing that I am practicing what I learned years ago at Stanford and am sharing this with young students. I am forever grateful for my experience at the Stanford GSE.