Setting the Standard for Challenge: Teaching English in Dimen, China

Travelling from Hong Kong to Dimen, China, requires a full day. Creating and implementing an original course to teach English as a foreign language in rural China offered to some of the university's most talented undergraduates the opportunity to integrate hands-on learning with scholarship, cross-cultural understanding, and community service. At the same time, the two-year venture made use of these students' diverse academic interests while fostering individual and collective leadership, a strong work ethic, and intrinsic motivation. The caliber of the project will shape expectations for the Powell Scholars Program for years to come. The lessons learned will hopefully spur the thinking of other honors educators and serve as a model in developing new honors opportunities for service learning abroad. This article describes how the Dimen project came about within the Powell Scholars Program.