East meets West
Freeman Middle School eighth-grader Braidyn Teague tried her hand at calligraphy Thursday.
Jacky Sun writes the name of the University of Idaho in Chinese Thursday. The first character of the word “Idaho” in Chinese is “love,” said IDVenture founder Ying Xue. (JUDD WILSON/Press)
Freeman Middle School eighth-grader Lily Jones watches Jerry Zhang demonstrate proper calligraphy on Thursday. (JUDD WILSON/Press)
IDVenture founder Ying Xue pours tea while students from China prepare to serve their American friends during a traditional Chinese tea ceremony Thursday. (JUDD WILSON/Press)
Photos by JUDD WILSON/Press Kennedy Hartzell of Post Falls drinks tea during a traditional Chinese tea ceremony at the University of Idaho Coeur d’Alene Thursday.
Lake City High School freshman Palmer Rakes sips tea as Finnegan Bailey of Farmington, Utah, listens to Ying Xue during a traditional Chinese tea ceremony Thursday. (JUDD WILSON/Press)
COEUR d’ALENE — Local students formed friendships, learned coding skills and enjoyed the outdoors with counterparts from China this week.
The University of Idaho Coeur d’Alene hosted seven students from China for a one-week coding camp using Apple’s Swift Playgrounds coding app. The American and Chinese students had some experience with block coding before, but each said that they learned something new using Swift.
Shanghai seventh-grader Patrick Gao enjoyed the coding lessons and the people he met here.
“The people here are nice to us,” he said. “The teachers are great and teach us everything. At coding camp, we learned to control robots.”
Post Falls Middle School sixth-grader Trinity Kugle said the camp had been fun and challenging.
“It was fun to get to know their culture and to show them ours,” said Trinity, who enjoyed going to the beach with the Chinese students on Tuesday.
Lake City High School freshman Otto Wallin had previously taught himself some JavaScript using instructional videos on YouTube. Otto said during the coding camp, “It’s been cool to hear about how it’s different there” from his Chinese counterparts.
Palmer Rakes, also a freshman at Lake City High School, said learning the programming language and improving his coding skills had been interesting. Working with the Chinese students was a little confusing when they spoke in Chinese, though.
“I can’t understand them. I have to nod and smile some of the time,” he said.
Woodland Middle School teacher Azure Wilson said the two groups brought different strengths to the table. Where the Chinese students were strong at following instructions, the American students were strong at creativity and imagination.
She expressed hope that the experience here would aid the visitors’ creative thinking, and that the locals would realize how good they have it here. The American and Chinese students alike dug deep into variables and parameters, which can translate into real-world applications like robotics, she said.
The coding camp was part of a larger undertaking led by Changzhou, China, native Ying Xue. After earning her marketing degree from Clemson University in South Carolina, and then working at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., she met a local couple who ministered to Chinese employees at the world-famous theme park. After accepting an invitation to visit, Xue fell in love with North Idaho, and even came here for her honeymoon, she said.
In 2017, Xue founded IDVenture as a way to introduce Chinese youth to American culture, in what Xue called an “authentically American” locale. Most Chinese students come to big cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, or New York City. Those aren’t the real America, Xue explained.
“Coeur d’Alene is a great place for kids to have an American experience,” she said.
Patrick Gao, who hails from Shanghai, said he liked the lack of air pollution in Coeur d’Alene. Residents of Beijing and Shanghai often have to deal with serious air pollution, he explained.
North Idaho is a place where Chinese kids who live in concrete jungles can experience clean water, clean air, and immense forests, Wilson said.
In addition to coding at the University of Idaho Coeur d’Alene this week, the visitors spent last week at Camp Lutherhaven, where they camped, swam, played games, ziplined, enjoyed climbing walls, and more. Seven additional Chinese students spent their entire two weeks at Lutherhaven, Xue said.
On Thursday, Xue and the Chinese students exposed their American friends to some of their culture. The group practiced calligraphy and enjoyed a traditional Chinese tea ceremony. Xue said the activities require focus, patience, and calm the mind.
Xue screened each Chinese student for English proficiency and personality traits. Of 50 applicants this year, only 14 made the cut, she said.
Xue and Gao said they had been impressed with the hospitality of Idahoans. Xue laughed as she recalled one student’s amazement at how total strangers would come up to him, introduce themselves and ask him about himself.
“The people are very nice,” she said.
To learn more, go to: idventurecamp.com