The Robert & MeiLi Hefner Foundation welcomes the “Hefner Initiative – USA/China/Asia” 2016 USA winter program participants!

January 23, 2016
By Metra Nichols

The Robert & MeiLi Hefner Foundation, under the “Hefner Initiative – USA” program, welcomes four high school students from Beijing High School No 4 in Beijing, China to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma this month.
The Hefner Awardees will attend classes and board at the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics for duration of two and a half weeks and join in activities with mentor students and teachers of OSSM. Through the Foundation’s partnership with OSSM, the Hefner Awardees will experience an American high school classroom setting and participate in extracurricular activities around the city in learning about the history and the community of Oklahoma.

The Hefner Awardees for this year’s program to the USA are: Yixian Fu, Haoxuan Li, Zhoujie Li and Shukai Liu. The “Hefner Initiative – USA” program will include a tour of the Oklahoma History Center, Norman High School, Oklahoma City Community College’s Film & Video Department, Oklahoma University Campus, OU National History Museum, Oklahoma Museum of Art, and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum among other academic and historical activities. The program will also include one home-stay weekend with their OSSM student mentors to lend cultural insight into an American-Oklahoman family’s lifestyle.

Each Beijing High School Awardee will compose a reflection essay upon their return to China, describing their personal experience in Oklahoma and how they view the importance of the US/China relationship after having visited. They will also present their experience to their school, friends and family, and community in effort to promote long-term, positive relationships between the two countries.