How it began

Seminole Ridge Apartments

I joined the faculty of ETSU and moved to Johnson City 4 years ago, right after I completed my doctorate. I'd been teaching middle school in urban Cincinnati, the community where I spent most of my adult life. My husband was unable to move until 2 years ago, so for a couple years I lived at the Seminole Ridge Apartments during the week and drove to Cincinnati on the weekends. My roommates were 3 Chinese post-doctoral researchers, all of them physicians who were doing research at the Johnson City Medical Center. Like me, these women were separated from their families. Unlike me, they could not go home on the weekends.

Upon her return to China, one of my former roommates, Dr. Li Yue'hua told me of a need for English teachers in her native city of Nanning, and I received an invitation to teach at Nanning's Oxford Language Academy during the summer of '06. Shortly after this, I was tapped for a semester-long exchange program with the University of Shandong at Weihai.