Hunter Students Win Top Prizes at Chinese Speech Contest

Ariel Yardeni

Hunter College Chinese Flagship students Ariel Yardeni and Hunter Gross won awards at the third annual Hong Kong Cup Chinese Speech Contest on October 19. The contest was held at the SUNY Global Center and organized by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York.

Yardeni won the championship in the senior-level group, as well as the "Most Popular Speaker" award, for her speech "America and Hong Kong: Working Together to Protect the Environment." Her prize includes a one-week trip to Hong Kong and a tour of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is pursuing a double major in Chinese and political science, and hopes to work in a field related to politics or public health. 

Hunter Gross

Gross won the Gold Cup in the junior-level group for his speech "Musical Theatre: An Ideal Cultural Bridge." His prize includes a tablet computer and a gift coupon. Like Yardeni, he is pursuing a double major in Chinese and political science. He plans to attend law school or work for the U.S. State Department after graduation.

Both Yardeni and Gross attend the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter.

Hunter's Chinese Flagship Program offers select undergraduates a rigorous curriculum in Chinese language and culture. Although the program is only two years old, it is already enabling academic stars like Yardeni and Gross to compete successfully with students from the country's highest-ranked colleges and universities. The participants in the Hong Kong Cup Chinese Speech Contest came from a variety of U.S. colleges, including Harvard, Princeton, Brown, and Swarthmore.