Graduate Assistant Spotlight: Jiaming (James) Zhou
Hello everyone! I am an international student from China and one of the new graduate assistants in the Master of Science in Education & Social Policy program. I am part of the educational studies program. Before coming to Northwestern, I doubled majored in English literature and government at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
I was born in China and came with my family to the United States when I was five years old. We moved back to China when I was ten because my parents wanted to have a closer connection the Chinese culture.
I began to get interested in teaching during middle school when, on weekends, I began helping my peers with their English learning as a teaching assistant for an educational company. I also had the chance to tutor small classes, TOEFL, and SAT during high school, and I’ve taught gifted elementary school students English reading and speaking, as well. My educational experience in two cultures–attending elementary school in the US and middle and high school in China– really helped me bridge different ways of learning and thinking for myself, and also for the classes that I teach.
As an international student, I’m most excited about seeing what teaching is like in the US from the perspective of an educator. I'm certain that these experiences will further enrich how l interact with students in the future to create more meaningful educational experiences.
In my free time, I like to listen to different genres of music; I’ve been learning to play the guitar since college. I also enjoy taking walks to know my environment, and strolling through Evanston is always an exploration for me. It has been great to be a part of the program and to see new ideas through all the different perspectives here. Looking forward to learning more with this amazing community, and to meeting more people!