Emily Tang ’08, who once upon a time expected to go into publishing, took her first Chinese course at Hamilton merely to fulfill a language requirement for her creative writing major. Instead, she'd found a second major and a spark for a future career. Tang is a program officer with the National Committee on U.S. – China Relations.
As an undergraduate, Tang studied for six months in Beijing through Hamilton's Associated Colleges in China program and later returned to China to take part in Associated College's field study program, where she learned about China’s basic education system and taught summer camps in Chinese.
After Hamilton, Tang says she meandered a bit in pursuit of her interests, but her experiences in China stayed with her. “Teaching left an indelible impression on me – I worked primarily with children of migrant workers, many of whom were left behind in rural villages while their parents worked in big cities,” she says.
Tang earned a master’s degree at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, focusing on international relations, economics, China studies and emerging markets.
