Sarah Juarez

Sarah Juarez is an alumna of the 2018 CLS Chinese program in Suzhou, China. She’s currently a junior at Texas A&M University, where she majors in Computer Science. Sarah plans to pursue a master’s degree in Computer Science, potentially in China. She wants to continue practicing and improving her Chinese by using it every chance she gets.

There is so much history to the Chinese language and once you start to learn more, it starts making more sense and becoming even more enjoyable to learn.

Making Connections

One of the most memorable moments I had during my CLS experience was when I was just having a regular conversation with my language partner and I realized how similar youths in China are to the youth in America. I feel like we tend to focus on the differences between countries and cultures, but in reality, we’re all humans and college students in China enjoy memes as much as American college students do (this is just one example of the many similarities that I found).

Bringing the Experience Home

When I returned home after the CLS Program, I tried my best to share my experience and debunk the stereotypes many people in my community might have towards Chinese people. I tried my best to emphasize the similarities I found between China and America so that people would stop thinking of Chinese people as a different group of people and start thinking of them more as people who just do some things differently.

CLS Alumni Ambassadors are recent CLS participants who take leadership roles as active and positive representatives of the CLS Program by engaging with CLS alumni and representing the program to various audiences. If you would like to get in touch with a CLS Alumni Ambassador, please contact clsalumni@americancouncils.org