W.K.W. Endowment Fund: Activities
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The W.K.W. Endowment Fund Supports Kuo Ping Wen Symposium
Kuo Ping Wen Symposium - October 25, 2014
In Service to Education: The Life and Times of Kuo Ping Wen, China’s First Global Educator
The Kuo Ping Wen Symposium, scheduled to be convened on the campus of Teachers College (TC), Columbia University on October 25th, 2014, will mark the centennial of Dr. Kuo Ping Wen receiving his Ph.D. from Teachers College and celebrate the great legacy of his work and contribution to education and US-China diplomacy.
As TC’s first Chinese Ph.D. graduate, Dr. Kuo extended TC’s legacy in profound ways. Following his graduation, he returned to China and founded the first modern Chinese university, National Southeast University, transforming it with western education policy, curriculum design, and management principles that he studied and mastered at TC. His leadership and scholarly contributions to China’s educational development have left an indelible impact on China. His example influenced generations of talented Chinese students who followed in his footsteps by attending TC to study and then returning to China where they continue to make a difference.
Dr. Kuo was also a firm believer in fostering diplomatic relations through education and cultural exchanges. He was elected three times as Vice-Chairman of the World Education Congress. He was one of the founders of the China Institute in New York City and its Director from 1926 to 1930. He served as a member of the Chinese delegation associated with the early formation of the United Nations. He also became the deputy director of United Nations Relief Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). In his later years he founded the Sino-American Cultural Society and acted as its President in Washington, D.C.
The symposium, with its focus on Kuo Ping Wen and the Development of Higher Education in Modern China and US-China Educational Exchange, is co-sponsored by the TC, the C.V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University, and the China Institute in New York.
The one-day symposium will draw high-profile government officials and policy-makers, education scholars and historians, faculty members and graduate students from both the U.S. and China.
