VHS junior Ned Denton has been accepted to attend the 2012 Startalk Furman Chinese Camp. From July 8-22, Ned will travel to Furman University, a liberal arts university of 2,700 students in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains just three miles from downtown Greenville, SC.  The camp is run by one of the nation’s top Asian Studies Departments and Ned will take classes with highly experienced Chinese language teachers from China and Furman.

There was intense competition for the twenty-eight scholarships this year, and Ned will be joined by classmates from across the country. Each will be placed into small classes of no more than eight students based on their level of speaking and listening. All students who enroll in the camp sign a pledge to use only Chinese from 9-5 each day.

Funded by a National Strategic Language Initiative Startalk grant, all expenses on Furman’s campus will be covered by the program.

Additionally, four VHS students – juniors Christina Flores, Michael Hardenberg, Laura Williams and Michelle Yeager – have been chosen to participate in the prestigious Confucius Institute of Rutgers University (CIRU) “Chinese Bridge” Summer Camp in China from July 14 – July 29.