An Innovation Pitch Competition to Bridge China's Education Gap

Date: 9:00am—11:45am, November 26, 2016

Venue: B102, Second Gymnasium at Peking University

The inaugural Yenching Social Innovation Forum, which will bring together the youngest and brightest minds within China and across the world to discuss and design innovative proposals to ameliorate China's education gap, is just one day away. The event'sinnovation pitch competition, which will take place this upcomingSaturday (November 26, 2016) from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Second Gymnasium at Peking University, is open to the public.

Come listen to the pitches of the seven delegate teams, who will engage in salient discourses related to China's most pressing educational issues. The distinguished panel of judges will include UNESCO Asia-Pacific Network for International Education and Value Education secretary-general Dr. Xiong Jianhui, Peking University Professors Li Chenjian and Ha Wei, Yenching Academy Associate Dean John Holden, and Handicap International project officer Michelle Wang.

Out of 719 applicants, thirty-five delegates will ultimately attend the Forum, making the event highly selective with an acceptance rate of 4.9%. The delegates hail from 16 countries and are studying or have studied at 22 of the world’s leading universities, which include Princeton University, Oxford University, and Peking University. All have made significant contributions to addressing some aspects of the education gap around the world, with founders of NGOs and social enterprises, diplomats, teachers, and computer engineers counting among their ranks. “We hope that the YSIF delegates’ international backgrounds and diverse skill sets will enable them to look at China’s educational gap from different angles, thereby enlightening their teammates with fresh perspectives and creating a multidisciplinary approach to address these issues,” said Cody Abbey, chairman of this year’s YSIF and a second-year Scholar at the Yenching Academy.