Looking for adventure, fun, great food, a beautiful culture, and endless places to travel with so much to do it's impossible to count, Shanghai, China, is the perfect place to be. CET offers an amazing, well-rounded program for American university students to study abroad in one of the world's most impressive cities. Shanghai is so breathtaking and life-giving. It is an incredibly clean city with no smog and electric vehicles everywhere. Public transportation is smooth, efficient, and fun. Its population and physical size, visionary architects, complicated history, and rapid development make it a fascinating case for curious minds. You cannot spend just a week there to do Shanghai or China justice; studying abroad is a great bet.
The program coordinator, Jeremy Freidlein, was so knowledgeable and helpful. His orientation program put me at ease and gave me very applicable information. He was very professional, thoughtful, and easy to contact. He connected a student with a friend of mine with a rowing program, and that student consistently rowed during his time there and got to compete in a race with Olympians.
CET's program is robust and transformative. They encourage students to learn experientially and academically in ways that embrace challenge, rather than hiding. They seek to educate students who embrace creativity and innovate and become leaders in their fields. As global educators, they have a global perspective in their mission. Being part of something greater than myself gave my time there deeper meaning. CET's strength is cultural immersion and student support. I felt very supported with multiple layers of connectivity and support.
We had local roommates, CET provided a guide to potential internship opportunities, and helped form the initial connection for the internships we were most interested in. CET facilities are clean and very safe. The staff in the dorms are friendly and helpful. The program staff is incredibly knowledgeable and kindhearted, always open to meeting with students and hearing about our experiences. The professors are so thoughtful and caring. It is clear to me that they truly love their areas of expertise and love teaching American students studying abroad. I also felt the level of academic rigor was highly comparable to my top liberal arts college back in the US. The readings were challenging; the topics were difficult to navigate and thought-provoking. The assignments were demanding and meaningful. I truly feel one day in China was equivalent to three days in the US in terms of the amount of personal growth.
I studied abroad in Spring 2026 at Donghua University, located in the former French Concession; the food cafes nearby were exquisite, and there were so many great options available within walking distance. I had a roommate from Zhejiang province who became like a sister to me. We were movie-night pals, Ma-zhong rivals, and late-night conversationalists. I even interned at SASS (the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences), China's second-largest research think tank. There, I grew analytically and became a more effective communicator.
As I reflect on my time studying abroad, I cherish the food, the highly efficient public transportation, and the out-of-this-world architecture. I still cannot wrap my mind around the scale of China's infrastructure development.
What stands out most, however, are the connections I made with fellow students, CET staff, coworkers, neighbors, my roommate, and locals I met while traveling.
One particular Tuesday, I met a 97-year-old woman, a Donghua University alumna, who affectionately encouraged me to push myself outside my comfort zone and not be afraid to make mistakes when speaking Mandarin. I also remember the nights I spent studying with my classmates, where our fortitude, passion, and dedication shone brightly.
I am eternally grateful for CET! Their tenacity, extensive experience, and deep care for students translated into my experience being so special and amazing. I am glad to have been a part of something greater than myself, a link between our two countries.
Of course, my time spent abroad also came with challenges. I missed my family, friends from home, and pickles. I adapted to my new environment, learning how to navigate the many new apps, work through elements of culture shock, and adjust to life in an amazing place with 25 million people. Yet, these experiences have helped me uncover my inner confidence, trust my own strength and mental resilience, and be unafraid to ask personal questions.
What was the most nerve-racking moment and how did you overcome it?
I traveled to Xinjiang with a friend by plane from Shanghai. Neither one of us had been there before, though we both spoke Mandarin well and are experienced travelers. We are both very adventurous people and enjoy having fun. We arrived in Urumqi and were going to spend the night in Turpan (a desert oasis town). To get to Turpan, we needed to take a train for two hours. By the time we got onto our train, the sun was beginning to set, and we were exhausted. As my friend and I boarded the train, affectionately called a green-skin for its outer color, we noticed our seats were taken by a family. We gave up our seats and took the seats the mother ordered, so she wouldn't be separated from her children. For some context, the green trains were not the fancy and shiny high-speed trains, but their predecessors. This train transported people from West of the country to its East, all the way from Urumqi to Xi'an, so the people were just getting comfortable. I was seated in a row of two seats, facing another row of two seats, with a table in the middle. To my right was another column of people in the same setup.
My neighbors were 40- to 50-year-old men who were smoking, snacking, and playing cards. My anxiety grew the longer I spent in that seat. I was seated away from my friend, I had no internet connection on my phone, and I was concerned about my battery life running out. I was surrounded by a sea of strangers in what felt like the middle of nowhere in China. On top of all this, I needed to use the restroom, badly. In general, restrooms make me feel squirmy, even if they're the really nice Japanese ones with the bidet. The toilets in China on such trains were squat toilets, and because it was a moving train, I was quite uncomfortable (and I needed to go number two). Anyway, I was equipped with a bag of wet wipes, a face mask, and hand sanitizer for after. I physically felt much better after that, but I was still feeling on edge.
I took a deep breath and reminded myself of my strengths and experiences in past travels. I had been to Indonesia, where I had a two-month fellowship in a suburban area of a large principality. I made it through those two months, despite facing intense culture shock and physical discomfort due to not adjusting well to the food or drinking water. I also walked myself through the next step, which was to get off the train, get a taxi to our hotel, check in at the hotel, and sleep.
The biggest thing that ultimately calmed me down was talking to my neighbors; it was human connection. Sitting right across from me was a woman close to my age. I don't recall exactly how I started the conversation, though it didn't take long before she and I were hitting it off. It turns out I was the first non-Chinese person she had met, which I found so fascinating. I asked her about her dreams and future career goals. She mentioned loving writing and wanting to become a writer later. As a fellow writer, I connected with her on this and the transforming power that comes with expressing oneself through such a medium. Although we were born and grew up worlds apart from one another, I sensed we were kindred spirits with similar priorities. Talking to her soon became a conversation with her father, who was seated next to me. The father began telling me the surprisingly dramatic tales of watermelon farming and transport. He recommended I try the fruit in Xinjiang because it is the best. I was so impressed by their fortitude, which helped to shift my perspective. If they were going to endure the 14+ hour train ride, I could handle the two hours.
Once I had started speaking to them, I didn't want to stop. Although nothing physically had changed, the train I initially perceived as chaotic, messy, and unsafe became much friendlier. I started noticing smaller details, like the support staff who were doing their best to navigate placing passengers who wanted beds in available ones. Furthermore, I spoke to them about my takeaways and perspectives on China since arriving in the country. I shared with them what I was learning about in my Chinese literature class, the types of foods I liked best, and I told them about the first time I visited China as a middle-school student. It was gratifying to have this local, down-to-earth experience, as it is etched in such vivid detail in my mind.
After making it to Tulufan, we navigated our way to where their taxis were. My friend and I noticed a woman driver and decided to go with her, as that felt like the safer bet. She, also incredibly warm and welcoming, showed us photos of her son, who is a big fan of Harry Potter.
This long, nerve-racking train ride became something that I overcame and a memory I am proud of. I became more mature and worldly. I felt humbled, as I came face to face with how protected and sheltered I had been growing up in the US, driving around or taking planes, rather than taking trains for long distances. I had experience taking trains from New York City to Philly, though this was quite different indeed.
What other participants should know
- Program staff is great, don't hesitate to reach out to them as the application process is lengthy and visa stuff isn't easy to figure out for the first time
- You can't get a visa to leave and return, once you leave China, you would need reapply for a visa
- There's lots of us propaganda about what China will be like. Trust the program staff to prepare you well.
