(photo: left to right Dean Ron Jones, Dean Colleen Kennedy, Kun Shi, Dean Donna Petersen, Senior Vice President Karen Holbrook, Dean Maria Crummett, Provost Ralph Wilcox)

On September 9, the College hosted a welcome reception for Kun Shi, the new Director of the Confucius Institute at USF. The idea for a Confucius Institute at USF was developed over a series of dinners at the College of Public Health beginning in 2007 involving members of the Tampa Bay Chinese-American community and faculty from across USF already engaged in efforts with partners in China or interested in developing a broader array of Chinese studies and research collaborations. USF is delighted to be partnered in this initiative with Nankai University, with which he have enjoyed a nearly 25 year partnership.

Mr. Shi comes to us from The Ohio State University where he served as director of their K-12 Chinese Flagship Program from 2006 to June 2010. He was instrumental in developing the K-12 Chinese programs in Ohio and contributed to the Hanban-sponsored teacher training program. Before joining OSU, Mr. Shi was a program evaluator at the Ohio Legislative Office of Education Oversight, program development director of the Ohio Asian American Community Services, lecturer/TA in cultural anthropology at Denison University and OSU. Mr. Shi is a guest professor of several universities in China and author of numerous books and papers (in Chinese and English) on folklore, shamanism, and teaching Chinese as a foreign language.

The USF Confucius Institute is one of 282 Confucius Institutes and 272 Confucius Classrooms established in 88 countries. USF is the first university in Florida and the first major public research university in the Southeastern United States to establish a Confucius Institute.
The USF Confucius Institute assists the educational and business communities in Tampa Bay to develop closer ties with China through Chinese language instruction and cultural exchange. The USF Confucius Institute offers Chinese language and culture classes year round. The Institute focuses on educational initiatives related to tourism, trade, and sustainable healthy communities.