D.A. Explores China’s Culture and Ideas

In late June, a group of Dominican Academy students traveled to Nanjing, China, for the culmination of a year’s worth of cultural conversation through the Ricci-Guangqi Young Scholars Program, an innovative partnership between Dominican Academy, Regis High School, and Nanjing Foreign Language School.

The two-week itinerary included visits to cultural institutions and schools, and a homestay with the families of the Nanjing scholars, giving students – all of whom had studied Mandarin at D.A., – the opportunity to fully immerse in the language. For Mairead P. ’24, even though conversing in a second language posed some initial challenges, by the end of her homestay in Nanjing she wished she could stay longer.

“My host family was incredibly welcoming,” she said. “They prepared dinners for me and helped me with my laundry. They also took me to a bustling night market, went shopping for traditional clothing with me, and I even made wontons with their grandparents.”

Academic highlights of the trip included the Ricci Forum, a July 2 panel discussion between eight program participants and undergraduate students at Kunshan Duke University that explored the technological decoupling between China and the U.S. Other cultural activities included multiple museums, a dragon boat race, a cooking class on Huaiyang Cuisine, and visits to farmers markets and gardens.

Each year, Dominican Academy students have the chance to take part in integrated coursework and immersive experiences that broaden their knowledge of the world. One trip brings students to Washington, D.C., to advocate for social justice at the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice. A separate trip brought students to Madrid, Spain, this summer for sightseeing and a homestay, with an additional group headed to Paris during the 2024-25 academic year.

The disruption of travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic had prevented the prior cohorts of Ricci-Xu Scholars from traveling abroad, but Ana Winston ’21, who was part of the first cohort of Ricci-Guangqi scholars at D.A., was able to join the current scholars on their journey as a Ricci Scholars Fellow, thanks to a scholarship from the One Fund. This year’s successful trip was hopefully the first of many, said Leslie Petit, Ed.D., P ’14, P ’19, Dominican Academy principal and one of the trip organizers.

“Since 2020, our three schools have been collaborating, and as soon as we were able to secure visas we launched the trip,” Dr. Petit said. “It is so important that we instill in this younger generation the importance of communication, friendship, and collaboration as they build relationships. We look forward to the Nanjing students visiting New York City in the future and finding the same generosity of spirit that we encountered there.”

The Ricci-Xu Young Scholars Program takes its name from Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit priest, writer, and astronomer who completed a five-year journey from Italy to China, and his collaborator, the Chinese scholar Xu Guangqi.

Together, they made pivotal contributions to the cultural exchanges between China and the West in the 17th century. The impact of their relationship inspired the core beliefs of today’s program: that personal connections and the exchange of ideas forms the most reliable cornerstone of world peace, prosperity, and development, and that cross-cultural understanding at an early age lays the foundation for a more interconnected global community.

Throughout the course of the school year, students from all three schools connected with one another on international Zoom sessions on topics ranging from climate change and global conflicts to the perception of American-born Olympic athletes like Nathan Chen and Eileen Gu, who chose to compete for different nations. The course at D.A. was offered for credit and co-taught by Dr. Petit and the school’s Mandarin teacher.

“The Ricci program taught me that feeling uncomfortable is okay,” Mairead P. reflected. “It’s a common human experience, regardless of background, and as a whole, taking part in the exchange of similarities and differences made the experience profoundly enlightening.”