The Kennedy Center for International Studies is known for helping students understand and acclimate to foreign cultures around the globe, teaching international etiquette and customs. However one office in the Kennedy Center caters to a different generation: retirees with the desire to serve, learn and experience another culture -China's to be specific.

Ray and Maryann Andrus are the head of the China Teachers program in the Kennedy Center that feeds retired couples from around the country into Chinese universities to teach advanced English to Chinese students who want to learn English in a more pure form.

"We get to provide a humanitarian service to the people in China," Maryann Andrus said. "We want to maintain a positive presence there."

About 35-40 couples are accepted each year for the 10-month tour where they are hand-picked and placed into one of 19 universities spanning China. The trip begins with a rigorous two-week training at BYU where 100 hours of cultural etiquette and basic language and teaching skills are drilled to prepare each couple for their time in China. After lengthy flights to China they move in to apartments provided by their university and immediately start teaching. A small stipend is provided as well but accessory travel and personal entertainment is funded by the couple.

"The training was incredible at BYU," said Cheri Connelly, a participant with her husband in August 2007. "The whole experience was not only the most wonderful, but the hardest."

Connelly and her husband Rich were thinking about serving a full-time mission when they attended BYU Education Week in the summer of 2006 and ran into Maryann Andrus, Cheri Connelly's friend from college.

"We talked about what we'd been doing and Maryann told us she and her husband had recently got back from teaching English in China," she said. "I couldn't believe it because Rich and I just couldn't get the program out of our heads."

Cheri Connelly had seen an article about it in the Church News almost seven years before but at the time still had children at home and couldn't leave for the amount of time required. "I told Maryann we were thinking about it when she told me she and Ray were in charge of the program now, that we should come to their office in the Kennedy Center," she said. "I couldn't believe it."

Nearly six months later the Connelly's had their application sent in for the 2007-2008 school year. They reported to BYU in August 2007.

What was the best part of the program?

"The people, the people, the people," Cheri Connelly said. "They are the kindest human beings you'll find on the face of the earth."

Applications for the 2009-2010 school year are due in January 2009, however, the program will only take 35-40 couples each year. Reapplying is encouraged if there is not enough space in the initial application year. Additionally, nearly one quarter of each year's participants repeat for a second year.



Copyright Brigham Young University 20 Aug 2008