To foster educational exchange, the Committee of 100 co-sponsored the Second Annual Southern California Mandarin Teacher Conference on October 13. The conference brought together Los Angeles area teachers, administrators, program coordinators and community members. C100 joined with the Mandarin in Schools Committee, UCLA Confucius Institute, and East West Bank, among other organizations, to convene this conference. Mandarin teachers and school administrators discussed how to promote and improve world language and immersion programs for California public school students, from the preschool through high school levels.

C100 Regional Vice
Chair Stewart Kwoh speaks at the
Second Annual Southern California Mandarin Teacher Conference on October 13.

Committee of 100 Regional Vice Chair for Southern California Stewart Kwoh stated that “the Committee of 100 initiated the Mandarin in Schools Committee to ensure that teachers and administrators share best practices to strengthen the teaching of Mandarin in our public schools.”

C100 initiated this project in 2008 and worked with the Mandarin in Schools Committee and Los Angeles Unified School District to pass the Mandarin, Spanish, and other World Languages Resolution, setting a goal to increase Foreign Language learning requirements from two years to six to eight years.

C100 Managing Director Mercy Kuo observed this year’s conference presentations.