Our Department is very pleased to announce that Samantha Spagnoli, Senior in Global Studies, has been selected for the International Youth Leadership Program, hosted by Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China, Summer 2015.

Samantha completed four years at Hofstra University and will acquire her BA in Global Studies and English with a concentration in Publishing Studies in August 2015. She maintained a GPA of 3.96 and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Having been born and raised in France, and being extremely attracted to international relations, she has traveled widely notably in South Korea where she spent the Spring 2014 semester. Subsequently, she completed an Honors Dissertation on a “Comparative Analysis of Subways and Commuter Rails in Three major World Cities: Paris, New York and Seoul.” This project, which was awarded High Honors, increased her interest in the obstacles facing local transportation policies on a global scale. It is her intention to return to live in New York on completion of her studies in China.

The International Youth Leadership Program, hosted by Beijing Normal University, is a three-week course taking place on both the University’s Southern Zhuhai campus and its Northern Beijing campus. During their stay in China, international students attend lectures given by a distinguished academic faculty on various topics such as leadership training, cross-cultural communication, modern Chinese politics, issues and strategies of Chinese social organizations. Students from different backgrounds are grouped together to partake in workshops and fieldtrips. These activities allow students to develop a research topic that they must present at the end of the program. Topics range from the country’s issues regarding social work, rural-urban migration, child welfare, social inequality, environment and development, and NGO leadership. This program is funded by BNU; Hofstra has awarded Samantha a grant to cover the airfare to Beijing.