A Visit from Tsinghua University
On August 7, the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) hosted a group of students from China’s Tsinghua University who had come to the University of Virginia (UVA) as part of a two-week visit to the United States. The students were members of Youth Voices, a delegation from Tsinghua’s Center for Global Competence Development (CGCD) which is dedicated to providing guidance, support and resources on global competence development, and to promoting its integration into the university-wide student cultivation process. Invited to the United States on behalf of the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations, the students participated in people-to-people exchanges as part of an effort to understand the past and present of U.S.-China relations, the historical development of Chinese people in the United States, and the interweaving of individual and national trajectories, with the hope of enhancing an understanding between the two countries. The program included visits to universities, think tanks, government agencies and NGOs in Boston, New Haven, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, with their visit to Charlottesville being the last part of their tour before they returned to China.
The students were given an overview of the CEL by Associate Director Colin Achilles, who explained the research used to examine the most effective legislators and how it promotes the best-practices for lawmaking within the U.S. Congress and beyond. CEL Post-Doctoral Fellow Fred Gui then presented his research on city lobbying and the legislative performance of the localities’ members of Congress. The students followed up with questions and thoughts which lead to insightful discussions about these topics and related matters. Afterwards, the group was given a tour of the Rotunda by Sarita Herman of UVA’s Facilities Management, where they learned about the history and architecture of the iconic building.
The CEL was proud to have been a part of this important initiative, and is thankful to all those who helped make it possible. We enjoyed getting to know the Youth Voices by learning about their perspectives as well as providing them with information about the structure of legislative institutions in the U.S. and what is being done to enhance them. We hope to connect with them again in the future.
