On the afternoon of April 12, 2016, Mr. Stephen Claborne, the newly appointed Chief Representative of the US-China Friendship Volunteers Office, and Mr. Xie Xiaoyu, the Project Manager, visited our institute. Secretary Jian Lu warmly welcomed Mr. Stephen and Manager Xie in his office, commending the efforts of the three US-China Friendship Volunteers who had been teaching at our institute since 2011. He acknowledged their contributions to our English teaching and campus cultural development and affirmed the project's role in promoting people-to-people exchanges between the United States and China. He also expressed his commitment to continuing the US-China Friendship Volunteers program at our institute.

Subsequently, an exchange symposium was held in the conference room on the third floor of the college. Attending the symposium were Deputy Party Secretary Chen Zhihai, the heads of the International Affairs Office and the General Courses Department, the cooperating teachers for the volunteers, and other relevant staff members. The meeting was chaired by Ms. Huang Xiaoli, the Director of the Party (Institute) Office and the International Affairs Office.

At the meeting, Deputy Secretary Chen Zhihai extended a warm welcome to Mr. Stephen and his colleagues. He reviewed the cooperation between our institute and the US-China Friendship Volunteers program since 2011 and expressed gratitude for the support the program had provided to our English teaching. He also praised the teaching work of our current volunteer, Sarah. Stephen expressed his sincere thanks for the attention and support our institute had given to the volunteer teachers' work and life. Finally, both sides of the symposium reiterated the three major goals of the US-China Friendship Volunteers program: the volunteers are not only engaged in English teaching but also learn Chinese language and culture, becoming ambassadors of friendship and cultural exchange between the United States and China.

The US-China Friendship Volunteers program is a cooperative project between the governments of the United States and China. Our institute welcomed its first volunteer teacher in 2011. Sarah, our current volunteer teacher, is the third volunteer at our institute. She arrived in August 2015 and is currently teaching American and British culture and spoken English in the Nursing and Tourism departments.