With a Han dress, and a microphone on hand, Song Ming Wei, also called Ophelia, hosted the celebration of the Chinese New Year of the Horse at the Juniata College Chinese Club Dinner. She is also the president of the Juniata’s Chinese Club of the academic year of 2013-2014. The club currently has 150 members, and its mission is to spread Chinese culture, Chinese food and Chinese traditions. During her presidency, Ophelia brought up the idea of the Lion Dance Performance with the suggestion from the Chinese language professor, Professor Yang. This made the Juniata’s College for the New Year celebration, even more impressive and lively.
Where are you from?Cheng Du, China
Which year are you in? Senior year
What are you studying at Juniata College?Psychology with a secondary emphasis on Communication
Why did you apply to study at Juniata? It is the only college that I applied to and it is one of the small colleges that offers a Psychology major. In addition, I believe that small colleges are better than big universities.
Beside your study, what extracurricular activities are you involved in?I am involved in the Chinese club, Scuba Diving Club, RA, Print shop, TA for Intro to Psychology
What are your hobbies? I enjoy traveling, swimming and talking to people.
When did you get elected as the President of the Chinese Club?In 2013, around March.
What do you like most about Juniata?Everybody here is friendly. I love the atmosphere and the people here. While you are walking on the street, people don’t just say “Hi,” but, “How are you?” “How is your day?” Especially, the professors are nice. You can be friends with professors. They are helpful.
Have you ever encountered any difficulties during your time studying abroad at Juniata?Yes, I have, the language barriers are sometimes a problem. We Chinese have a big culture bubble here in the States. It is difficult for us to make friends with other language speakers, especially English speakers.
As a graduating senior, what kinds of advice would you like to give to the freshmen, and especially to the international students?Try as best as you can to be an outgoing person. Talk to people. Let them know what you need. Try to join a lot of activities so that you can get to know more people and make friends. Last, but not least, we all are from different backgrounds. The way we learned to speak English is different; therefore, sometimes, there may be some misunderstandings. I would suggest that you shouldn’t be too sensitive.
As far as I know, you are very busy with your study and other extracurricular activities, how do you balance your study with your work-load and personal life?Plan for your assignments ahead of time. Be a highly efficient person.
The celebration of the Spring Chinese Dinner Festival was really impressive. How did you get the idea about inviting Penn State Malaysian Club to dance the Lion Dance for the event? At first, I thought about having the club do the Dragon Dance. However, it is so expensive. At last, Professor Yang suggested me to do it. This club is a non-profit organization. So, we didn’t spend a lot on the performance.
Beside the major events, what do you do in the Chinese Club to help it operate?We have Movie Nights. We teach members how to cook Chinese food. We help other clubs to cook food, and we donate money to them. We also have Opening House activities that are free for the club’s members.