WHEELING, W.Va. — The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston will be receiving a visit from educational leaders from China as part of an educational summit between the two groups.
The delegation from the Wenzhou Education Bureau will visit with students and teachers Monday at Wheeling Central Catholic High School, the Challenger Learning Center at Wheeling Jesuit University and St. Michael Parish School in Wheeling.
Vincent de Paul Schmidt, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, said they will discuss a variety of topics based on the members coming with the delegation.
“We have the minister of education from China coming over, they were interested in school security so they have one of their security experts coming over, we have six principals coming over from their middle and high schools,” he said. “It’s a pretty significant delegation and as such, once I found out who they were sending, it became very more real.
The visit comes after Schmidt himself traveled to Wenzhou Province in April, hoping to find a way to bring back a program focused on the country.
“We’re trying to bring some awareness of the culture of China, and more importantly the economic importance of China to American students,” Schmidt said.
A big part of this program would add Mandarin Chinese language courses in Catholic high schools in the diocese and provide immersion opportunities for Chinese exchange students.
“That is our hope and desire if we can get the staff,” Schmidt said. “It’s hard to get Mandarin teachers in West Virginia, but if we can important them from China and they’re in our school and they can help with their culture. Also, when we get Chinese students in our school, then we also have the linkage to their homeland right there teaching it in our schools. It would be very significant.”
Schmidt’s visit culminated in a signed agreement which created the educational partnership and said this visit is the next step.
“They really want to be partners,” he said. “They really work with us and they really want to help us and us help them and everybody wins hopefully as a result of it.”