2018 People-to-People Award Honorees

Every year, the Confucius Institute U.S. Center recognizes ten outstanding students from across the American Confucius Institute network for their inspiring engagement with Chinese language and culture. Our honorees are selected through a nationwide essay contest. This year’s winners were selected from the most competitive pool of applicants in the contest history. These ten stellar students will travel to Washington, DC and receive the People-to-People Award at our National Honors Gala on September 15, 2018.

A number of our award recipients received commendation letters from their congressional representatives.

Meet the 2018 Honorees

Sadie Allen

Sadie Allen

Confucius Institute at North Carolina State University Sadie Allen is a seventeen-year-old student, writer, and artist from Saluda, North Carolina. She is currently a rising senior at Polk County High School, where she just completed her sixth year of studying the Chinese language and culture through her school system in partnership with the Confucius Institute

Samantha Vaughn

Confucius Institute at Western Kentucky University Samantha Vaughn is a senior at the Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Bowling Green, Kentucky...

Kamila Carter

Confucius Institute at San Diego State University Kamila Carter is a conscientious twelve-year-old student finishing the sixth grade at Tierra Del Sol Middle School in Lakeside, California. She has been learning Mandarin Chinese for seven years since entering kindergarten at Riverview Elementary school. One of her greatest accomplishments to date has been

Love Zubiller

Confucius Institute at San Diego State University Love lives in San Diego with her husband and two children, Texas and India, who have been studying Chinese for five and two years respectively. Love began her Chinese language adventure when her son was offered a trip to Beijing last summer, sponsored by the Confucius Institute at San Diego State University,

Dominique Biraga

Confucius Institute at Central Connecticut State University Dominique Biraga is an undergraduate Junior pursuing International Studies at Central Connecticut State University...

Anna Shostya

Confucius Institute at Pace University Throughout her outstanding academic and professional career, Anna has come to call China her second home...

Kayla Raden

Confucius Institute at SUNY College of Optometry Kayla Raden is a high school biology and chemistry teacher from New Jersey. Kayla spent a year teaching science at an international high school in Shanghai, China and traveled to several cities in China during her time abroad. While in China, she fell in love with the Chinese language

Trinity Lewis

Confucius Institute at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln Trinity Lewis, 16 years old, attends Omaha Northwest High Magnet School. She has studied and admired Chinese culture for most of her life and seeks to be fluent in Mandarin Chinese before her scheduled trip to China next year with the Confucius Institute at The University of Nebraska.

Douglas McDonald

Confucius Institute at the University of Massachusetts- Boston Douglas McDonald is a retired administrative judge from Boston, MA who has recently joined the Confucius Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Boston to tackle yet another language. A life-long polyglot, Doug is proficient in several languages, including Latin, Greek, French, and German.

Monika Hoffarth-Zelloe

Confucius Institute at George Mason University Dr. Monika Hoffarth-Zelloe has been a foreign language professor for more than two decades. She received her Ph.D. in Foreign Language Teaching from the University of Würzburg, Germany, in 1988, and is currently a German Language Proficiency Examiner at the Goethe-Institut Washington.

Media Contact

Gao Qing
press@ciuscenter.org