This year, Dana Hall resumed their in-person mandarin program after an online program last school year. Cindy Yu, part of Dana Hall’s World Language Faculty, was hired to be the new Mandarin program teacher.
Last year, there were two online programs offered: One Schoolhouse and Preston’s Online Academy. Amy Kumpel, Director of Upper School, says “The nice thing about Preston’s online academy is that they offered synchronous, in zoom classes with a live teacher, which was good for our beginner level classes. And then, for the rest of the students at a higher level, we used our partnership with One Schoolhouse, which was asynchronous and self paced.”
Dana Hall’s language program offers Latin, Spanish, French and Mandarin, and the Mandarin program has the smallest class size. However, instead of discontinuing the program last year, Amy Kumpel says, “Dana Hall’s mission talks about educating girls to be global citizens and as we think about our language program, to not offer a non-western language felt like we were not living up to our mission.”
When hiring this year’s teacher, Dana Hall focused on “finding a teacher in place who was able to revitalize and generate the passion and enthusiasm for Mandarin, which we think we found in Ms. Yu”, says Ms. Kumpel.
Ms. Yu teaches all Mandarin sections in the Upper School, and runs a Mandarin club for the Middle School. Before Dana Hall, she taught at Newton Country Day School until they closed their mandarin program due to low enrollment. She has taught Mandarin for five years. “What I like about teaching in Dana is that the students are very ambitious and motivated. Their personalities are very outstanding. They also are very respectful and I love teaching them,” says Ms. Yu. Ella Stoll ‘25 says, “Ms. Yu is very enthusiastic about the language. She is good at making us engaged in class. I really enjoy having her as a teacher.” Cece Medici ‘28 says, “One thing I like about Ms. Yu’s class is how supportive she is. If you make a mistake she will help you grow from it and learn.”
“I like teaching students, it makes my daily life brighter. I really like interacting with children, I think they have very pure hearts and I feel like my mind becomes pure because of them. The Chinese authentic culture is so rich, I think it’s a treasure for the world and I want to pass it to my students,” says Ms. Yu.