Two special members of the Shansi family have passed away. Arthur Harris, first Shansi Visiting Scholar from American College, and Harold Howes, Shansi Rep to Chengdu, China, will be fondly remembered.

With the approach and recent arrival of a new year, many of us have probably been reflecting on some of life's essential, and most basic, questions. What are my hopes and dreams? How can I better myself this year? Will the Tarheels win the NCAA championship, and if yes, will Harrison Barnes stay another year? And most importantly, what is happiness?

As it has done for more than 100 years, Oberlin Shansi recently appointed 8 to its core program that sends Oberlin graduates to partner institutions in Asia on two-year fellowships. Selected for China were Ricardo Barrios, Veronica Colegrave and Amelea Kim. Naila Paul and Christina James will be heading to India. Cory Rogers and Santino Merino will spend two years in Indonesia while Lissette Lorenz will be in Japan.

The two-year fellowship program, open only to Oberlin graduates, is just one of the programs that Shansi sponsors. Oberlin Shansi also provides for five in-Asia Oberlin undergraduate grants a year, funding for Oberlin campus programs, as well as, a faculty exchange program that sends OC faculty to Asia and brings Asian scholars to Oberlin.

Shansi fellows both new and old have eased into their respective fellowships and resumed--or found new--rhythms. At this point, it would seem that we could say the dust has settled.. but does it ever really? Here's a brief anecdote about settling into life in Indonesia from Sara Kadi. For more stories on daily hilarities, check out the fellow blogs--both old and new!

The start of summer not only tolls for beach-side drinks with tiny umbrellas, travel in foreign lands, and freedom, it also marks the completion of another round of Shansi Fellows and the start of a new group’s new journeys. One of Shansi’s requirements for Fellows is the submission of an Annual Narrative.

Second Year Narrative
By James Barnard (Taigu, China 2009-11)

If you had asked me a year ago to imagine what I would be doing at the end of my fellowship, I would have guessed that I would be teaching English, studying Chinese, spending time with my friends and looking for a job. I would not have guessed that I would be honored at a fancy dress ball, awake from a gunshot wound in a strange place, be committed to a hospital for a tropical disease, be abandoned in the mountains in the middle of an epidemic, involved in a gunfight, captured by Communist agents, find myself fighting off murderous assailants, or forced onto a raft at gunpoint in the middle of the night! But its all in a days work for an Oberlin-Shansi fellow, because in my last semester at Taigu I found myself working as a Chinese-speaking actor!

Jenna Lindeke is wrapping up her final year as a Shansi fellow in Himachal Pradesh, India. This story is about the support she and her local community put together for a middle school in Japan in the form of 1000 gorgeous paper cranes. Read about Jenna's wonderful efforts--literally joining worlds--and the compassion of one community for another.

Shansi Open House

Saturday, May 28
1:30-3:00 P.M.
Shansi House, 58 E. College Street

The Shansi Breakfast

Sunday, May 29
8:00 A.M.
Longman Dining Commons in Stevenson

The newly appointed Shansi Fellows and Returned Fellow organized a bake sale as a fundraiser for the Obirin Gakuen Foundation Earthquake Relief Fund.

The two-year Shansi fellowships are Oberlin Shansi's core program for achieving its goal of joining diverse worlds together through language learning, cultural immersion, and meaningful engagement with Shansi's partner institutions. This year eight new fellows have been selected for two year fellowships in Asia! Meet the whole gang.