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Kaelyn Lowmaster, HNC Certificate 2010 and SAIS MA 2013, reflects back on her time at the HNC and her experience working for the Asia-Pacific branch of the Department of the Army's International Affairs Division. Tell us about your current role. I'm working as a contractor at the Department of the Army, in the Asia-Pacific branch of their International Affairs Division. My office handles the U.S. Army's engagement with countries throughout Asia at the institutional level, so that means we spend a lot of time managing bilateral dialogues and senior leader visits, as well as being the go-to office for political-military advising to Army leadership. My portfolio includes China and Taiwan issues, as well as Philippines, Malaysia, and basically anywhere else in the area as new events come up.   How did your experience at the HNC help prepare you for what you have done since? Very well, is the short answer. From my first day on the job, having HNC on my resume came with the reput...

Brandon Yeh, HNC Certificate/SAIS MA student currently in DC, competed in the Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge on the Johns Hopkins SAIS team with fellow HNC and SAIS students. The team advanced to the final stage of the competition in Hong Kong. Read on to hear about their proposal and the competition.  For 6 years running, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and Morgan Stanley have hosted the Sustainable Investing Challenge. The competition seeks to inspire students of business and economics to develop innovative and scalable investment ideas that have positive social and environmental benefits, while also generating real financial returns for investors. The first stage of the competition required teams to submit an investment prospectus that addresses issues of social and environmental impact, while detailing their impact of their idea, the generated cash flow of their project, and the key risks associated with implementing their idea. Thi...

Byron Meinerth, MAIS 2014, reflects back on his time at the HNC and his experience working as a Global Supply Analyst for Tesla Motors. Tell us about your current role. Right now I'm working as a Global Supply Analyst at Tesla Motors. Our job in global supply management is to support engineering to identify suppliers available for sourcing, and then review, analyze and clarify quote packages from those same suppliers. We either lead or support the sourcing process, which starts with prototype parts and continues all the way through production tooling. Once parts are in a stable status and are being produced production, we then move to negotiating commercial cost reductions.  How do you think your experience at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center prepared you for this work? What the Hopkins-Nanjing Center did prepare me for is being comfortable in environments where one doesn't yet know everything that s/he wants or needs to know. Most of my coworkers have engineering and supply chain ba...

Hello Everyone! First of all, congratulations to all the recently accepted HNC students! Can’t wait for you guys to come here and experience life at the HNC! Now on to a few new developments both inside and outside HNC. First of all, within the past few weeks, two new international restaurants have opened up near HNC. One is a pizza and sandwich restaurant and the other is a Mexican restaurant. One of the biggest things that international students get nostalgic for is the food they are accustomed to eating in their home countries. But due to many new restaurants like this, even in a very Chinese city like Nanjing, we can still find many of the comforts we are used to fairly easily. Secondly, we are getting some new dumbbells for the gym at HNC, which is great for the third point. HNC is really abuzz with people signing up to take part in a Dragon Boat race in early June (for Dragon Boat Festival.) Myself and a few other students have put together a training program (including weight li...

Jonathan Papish, HNC Certificate 2013, reflects back on his time at the HNC and his experience working as an analyst for the China Film Insider. Tell us about your current role. I am currently an analyst for a new venture called China Film Insider . I work with a team of journalists and writers in New York City, LA, and Beijing to cover the people and companies making films that help to bridge the gaps in understanding between China, the United States, and the rest of the world. My current role includes following trends in the booming Chinese film industry, and I formulate reports for industry insiders, studio execs, and other firms interested in doing business between China and Hollywood. How do you think your experience at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center prepared you for this work? Taking classes in Chinese studies, politics, and economics solely in English from a Western perspective surrounded by only American students limits your understanding of this vast country so the experience of s...

Hi Everyone! Today’s post will feature an interview with Lauren Barney about her spring break travels. Every year in between Fall and Spring Semesters at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, we have a two month long break for Chinese New Year. During this time some students will find short-term internships, while others will instead visit home or travel. Lauren is a HNC Certificate/SAIS MA student currently studying at the HNC. This semester she is also serving as a representative on the student body’s Class Committee! Chelsea : Hi Lauren! Thanks for meeting with me today. I was wondering if you could share with everyone where you went and what you did over the HNC’s long spring break for Chinese New Year (Chun Jie)? Lauren : Over break I went many places. I went to Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Beijing, and then Hong Kong before coming back to the HNC. First, I joined eight other SAIS students from Washington, D.C. for the Frontiers in Energy, Science and Technology trip in Bangladesh where we ...