Sweet Briar launches Women’s Leadership Program for exceptional Chinese students
Sweet Briar College, in partnership with the Beijing- and Washington, D.C.-based National Center for Sustainable Development, is adding a new international program for Chinese women students. Driven in part by the Chinese government’s goal of preparing Chinese women for leadership roles in government, business, industry and education, the College’s new Women’s Leadership Program will bring highly qualified young Chinese women to Sweet Briar to study liberal arts as well as STEM. Sweet Briar President Phillip C. Stone announced the program after a recent trip to China, where Sweet Briar and NCSD prepared to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese Ministry of Education’s Dongfang International Center for Education Exchange. “While in China, I was thrilled to learn of the enormous interest in women’s college education, even though higher education dedicated solely to women is rare,” Stone said. “And there is recognition that while engineering, technology and science education is important, immersion in the humanities prepares young women for deeper, broader leadership. This will be especially important as tomorrow’s leaders navigate China’s relationship with the United States.” Through the program, Chinese students will live and study at Sweet Briar’s historic 3,250-acre campus in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Home to one of only two programs at a women’s college granting an ABET-accredited engineering degree, Sweet Briar offers STEM studies as well as pre-professional programs in pre-law, pre-medicine and pre-veterinary medicine. Like all Sweet Briar students, Chinese women can major or minor in these programs and at the same time benefit from coursework in traditional liberal arts areas such as classics, creative writing, art history and dance. In total, Sweet Briar offers more than 40 programs for academic credit. In June 2015, at the seventh U.S.-China Women’s Leadership Exchange and Dialogue, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong called on China […]