Joint Bachelor's Degree Program Celebrates Graduates on Class Day 2016
Yanyang Chen and Nga Sze Choi graduated from the Joint Bachelor’s Degree Program between City University of Hong Kong and Columbia University in May 2016.
Before university, Nga Sze “Joanna” Choi, who was born in Hong Kong, was selected to attend the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education, a non-governmental organization providing research-based education to gifted students. Prior to enrolling at Columbia, while studying at CityU, she also researched geographic imaging at the Satellite Remote Sensing Receiving Station at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. After she was offered admission to the Joint Bachelor’s Degree Program in 2014, she was awarded the Chow Sang Sang Group Entrance Scholarship to complete her Bachelor’s Degree at GS. Driven by an interest in public health issues in Hong Kong, Joanna graduates from GS with a Bachelor of Arts in biological science, and from CityU with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Biology, with the aim of becoming a microbiology researcher.
Born in China’s capital, Beijing, Yanyang “Gracie” Chen is now graduating from both Columbia University School of General Studies with a Bachelor of Arts in biological science, and from City University of Hong Kong with a Bachelor of Science in applied biology. In High School, she attended a one month program at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology at the Chinese Academy of the Sciences. She spent her time researching the process of plant tissue culture, which encouraged her to major in applied biology at CityU. After graduating from Columbia and CityU, Gracie plans to pursue a PhD in biology while developing her programming and image processing skills at a research institute. She is a member of the GS Honor Society.
The Joint Bachelor’s Degree Program between City University of Hong Kong and Columbia University began in 2012 as an expansion of the School of General Studies’ dual-degree programs. Existing programs include the Joint Degree Program with Albert A. List College of the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Dual BA Program between Columbia University and Sciences Po.
The Joint Bachelor’s Degree Program offers students an international undergraduate educational experience – a program spanning two continents, in cosmopolitan cities that allow students to engage directly with the world around them. Joint Bachelor’s Degree students complete two years of their undergraduate education at City U followed by two years at Columbia University School of General Studies, and graduate with two bachelor’s degrees. Nine students from China and Hong Kong began their studies at Columbia University as part of the program in Fall 2014; there are now eighteen students from City University currently enrolled, and an additional thirteen students will begin their studies at GS in Fall 2016.