Embrace of cultures still best lesson on understanding

Remarkable outcomes

While Sakolsky's story captured hearts, the exchange program also produced remarkable outcomes for the participants.

Chris Fray, a Chinese language teacher at Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut, who spent the fall of 1998 at Yangzhou Middle School in Jiangsu province, recalled a 13-year-old student who left an impression on him.

"Little Linda spoke excellent English," Fray said. Over the years, he wrote recommendations for her as she pursued her education. She eventually attended a key school in Nanjing, Jiangsu, then an American university.

She told him she wanted to become a doctor to help her country address health challenges. Linda went on to medical school, completed her residency at Duke University, and today is a surgeon at Johns Hopkins University.

"When I think about the impact of this 30-year relationship, I don't think primarily about numbers or programs. I think about relationships," Fray said. "You never know where the impact of one teacher or one student might be."

Fray's own career was transformed as well. He started the first Mandarin Chinese program at Staples in 2004, which eventually expanded due to student demand. "Learning Chinese let me create a program that connected hundreds of students to the language and culture they might otherwise never have been exposed to."

Adrienne Fazzolara, a social studies teacher from Michigan, spent the 2001-2002 school year in Beijing — a year that coincided with the Sept 11 attacks. That experience deepened her understanding of cross-cultural solidarity.

"Being away from home, not being able to talk to our families — and then finding our people in China who took care of us, and were kind and understanding," she recalled. "That kind of worldview — we're all humans working together, taking care of each other — when something so tragic happens, those borders dissolve. We all want to make the world better."

She brought that perspective back to her Michigan classroom and later helped develop a strong curriculum on ancient China and global geography.

Todd Parker, now a principal in Pennsylvania, spent the fall semester of 1997-1998 in Yangzhou. "Everyone I interacted with was extraordinarily kind and welcoming," he said.

He learned to boil milk, make dumplings, and navigate daily life in a city that was rapidly modernizing — stores went from having no refrigerators to offering pasteurized milk during his stay. As a history teacher, it's fascinating to witness such rapid development firsthand, he said.

Parker later developed global learning modules for elementary students and speaks annually with second graders about his China experience. "The Yangzhou feeling was a formative experience in my life. It gave me the opportunity to learn from others, appreciate different perspectives, and develop skills that shaped my professional path for decades. Most importantly, it showed me the power of building relationships across cultures," he said.

Bai Fan, principal of the Luoyang No 2 Foreign Language School Education Group, who participated in an exchange in 1998-1999 with a high school in Wisconsin, said the experience changed his vision of education.

Upon returning, he founded a school with just 25,000 yuan ($3,721) and staffed by 27 teachers on a plot of farmland. Today, it has grown into a modern education group with six campuses, 1,000 teachers, and 10,000 students.

The school never reduced its education budget, even in the hardest times, and never stopped opening up, Bai said. Teachers brought international perspectives into classrooms, he added.

Zhou Xiangli, an English teacher from Beijing Huiwen Middle School, spent the 2000-2001 school year in Pittsburgh and lived with Sakolsky's family.

She said the significance of grassroots people-to-people exchanges lies not in grand narratives, but in the everyday lives of ordinary people breaking down regional barriers and cognitive biases. "What both sides see is real people and real lives — not stereotypes," she said.