Notre Dame Global Professional Experience program returns to mainland China after five-year hiatus
After being paused in 2020 due to the pandemic, the Global Professional Experience (GPE) program has resumed in mainland China. On May 22, the first cohort of five Notre Dame undergraduates arrived in Beijing to begin a seven-week journey of global workplace experience and exploration of Chinese culture and society.
With the support of alumni in mainland China, we offered career experience opportunities at Caixin Global. At the same time, Notre Dame Beijing alumni also offered career experience opportunities at SEE Alphature Fund, a fund focused on introducing top global technology startups and making strategic investments in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, sustainable materials, and medical devices, helping Chinese companies achieve transformation, upgrading, and international development.
In addition, this summer, Notre Dame Beijing established a new partnership with the Beijing Social Work Development Center for Facilitators (Beijing Facilitators). This non-profit organization is dedicated to improving the quality of life of migrant workers and their children, as well as promoting social innovation and community work development, providing students with opportunities to engage in hands-on work in grassroots communities. At the Facilitators, Dylan Hockx (ND ’26) visited multiple communities in urban and suburban Beijing to develop and teach practical English learning courses for local residents and left-behind children (children who remain in rural areas while one or both of their parents migrate to cities for work, often leaving them in the care of relatives or others). Gaspar Darío Larraín Varas (ND ’28) made full use of his technical expertise to design and develop a customized translation tool for the Facilitators’ overseas website, effectively solving the language communication barriers and international publicity challenges faced in community work.
During the seven-week program, in addition to workplace experience, Notre Dame Beijing organized a series of activities to deepen students’ understanding of Chinese culture. On the Dragon Boat Festival, students learned to make traditional zongzi by hand and, together with community staff, delivered this festive warmth to the homes of elderly people living alone. In Dongsi alley, which has more than 700 years of history, students played shuttlecock and practiced Tai Chi with local residents, experiencing the most authentic Beijing life. In a Chinese calligraphy class, under the careful guidance of a professional teacher, students started from the basic brush strokes, gaining an appreciation for the Chinese traditional philosophical concept “Be like water.”
Our GPE Beijing students also set foot on the Great Wall, the Eight Wonders of the World. As the old saying goes, “Who has never been to the Great Wall is not a true hero”! At the Temple of Heaven, students were awed by its architectural art and gained a deeper understanding of the rich cultural heritage of ancient Chinese imperial sacrificial rites. The weekend tour of the Forbidden City made them feel as if they had traveled through time, walking into the residences of emperors from the Ming and Qing dynasties and experiencing firsthand the changes of dynasties and the rise and fall of history. The visit to the 798 Art District opened a window for the students to understand the innovative development of contemporary Chinese art, allowing them to touch the pulse of modern Chinese artistic creation.
and incoming Notre Dame students at a luncheon
During the program, students also participated in the ND China Alumni Career Development Series - Law Lectures held at Notre Dame Beijing, met and dined with nearly 60 Notre Dame alumni and parents from Beijing and other cities, and together welcomed new Notre Dame undergraduates from across China. GPE Beijing also provided opportunities for our students to take part in local academic events. Students attended the “AI+System” all-English academic forum held at Tsinghua University, and they were also introduced Notre Dame’s undergraduate education to high school students at a well-known international school in Beijing.
The seven-week summer program passed in the blink of an eye, and after its conclusion, GPE’s partner organizations in China also shared a wealth of feedback on the program and the University of Notre Dame students.
A Chinese mentor of the GPE said: “Through in-depth exchanges with Notre Dame students, we were able to understand China–US relations from a new perspective. Notre Dame students demonstrated impressive communication skills and a strong spirit of inquiry. In the current international context, GPE provides an important platform for promoting exchanges between young people in China and the United States. Such people-to-people interactions have far-reaching significance for enhancing mutual understanding.”
The supervisory team from the Beijing Social Work Development Center for Facilitators specifically mentioned: “Dylan deeply understood the Facilitator’s philosophy that ‘every weak person has strength, and every life has dignity,’ and practiced this philosophy in his work. He cared about the service recipients, whether they were elderly people living alone, children from migrant worker families, or food delivery couriers, and always treated them with respect and care. Most importantly, through GPE, Dylan gained a deep sense and understanding of Chinese society in the process of globalization and urbanization, as well as the contributions and efforts of migrant workers, public welfare organizations, and social workers within it.”
“Gaspar experienced the operational model of Chinese non-profit organizations through GPE and learned about the working conditions and professional values of social workers in China.”
Originally published by at beijing.nd.edu on August 15, 2025.