It was worth it to come!

I'm Annalisa. I'm 29 years old from Chicago, and I'm enrolled in a graduate program through Johns Hopkins in managing. I chose to come to China for the internship because I'm going to grad school in the fall and not James, so I wanted to come to China this summer to learn more, be immersed in the Chinese culture before starting graduate school. I chose to come to China GAC because I knew that they would be able to help me take care of all of my arrangements, like my accommodation, my Chinese classes, and helping me find an internship, so I just wanted that extra support while I was here.

I was looking for CYB, the Center for Youth Business Facilitation, and my job was really like an innovation consultant.
So I helped them organize, create curriculum,organize a lot of activities for students around youth entrepreneurship,and teaching entrepreneurship, which I already have a lot of experience in.

I live with a family, so I've lived with three families now, two in Shanghai and one in Beijing. I moved back and forth with my internship, and I really have enjoyed staying with different kinds of families because I've learned a lot about how Chinese families live in different ways.

I've attended a lot of GAC activities. I did some ceramics, I did Tai Chi, I did dragon boat racing in Beijing. I think I like dragon boat racing the best because it was a very unique experience. And I really like China, Beijing and Shanghai. I think I enjoyed Beijing the most because it's very historical, but I really like China because I've been learning the language, I can appreciate it more now that I've been here for the summer. And then after my internship, I'm going to go to Nanjing and study at the Drum Natural Machine, which has some cooperation with Nanjing.