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Riverside Military Academy cadets travel to China to study language and culture
Jonah Esworthy and Mark Miller to spend six weeks in Xiamen and Chengdu, respectively
0611CHINA
Jonah Esworthy, left, and Mark Miller, right, are shown with their Mandarin Chinese teacher Zihan Lin. Both Riverside Military Academy cadets will spend the summer in China to study the language and culture. Esworthy, 17, will spend two weeks in Xiamen in the Fujian Province of southeast China with a host family and then live and study at a Xiamen University for four weeks. Miller, 18, will spend all six weeks with a host family in Chengdu, the capital of the Sichuan province in southwestern China. The Sichuan province has sanctuaries that are home to 30 percent of the world’s population of Giant Pandas.
While many high school students spend the summer earning extra money at part-time jobs, going on vacation and spending time with friends, two Riverside Military Academy cadets will learn a different culture and speak a foreign language. For six weeks, Jonah Esworthy and Mark Miller, both rising seniors at Riverside in Gainesville, will live with a host family in China thanks to scholarships from the National Security Language Initiative for Youth. The program selects high school students who will immerse themselves in the culture in countries with “critical languages,” those not commonly taught in the United States.