Renmin University Students to Study This Summer at Yale

Twenty students from Renmin University in Beijing will study at Yale University this summer through the generosity of Lei Zhang, under an agreement signed by Yale President Richard C. Levin and Renmin President Ji Boacheng.

Through the Renmin University Summer Program at Yale, the students will either take courses offered during the Yale Summer Session or attend Yale’s English Language Institute.

The Yale Summer Session attracts students from China and other countries, as well as Yale College students, and the Renmin University Summer Program at Yale will provide the students from Renmin with a valuable international opportunity.

Lei Zhang, who offered to fund the education of Renmin students at Yale, received his M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management in 2002. He is founder and managing partner of Hillhouse Capital Management in China.

“Yale and Renmin are extremely grateful to Lei Zhang for making this enriching experience available to Renmin’s students,” Levin said. “These students will receive a valuable education in and out of the classroom while in the United States, and they will enhance the experience of other students at our summer session. No one knows the lifelong benefits of such an experience better than Lei Zhang, and we are honored that he wishes to see other students from China come to Yale as part of their education.”

Lei Zhang said, “”It is a great honor to see the two schools have a closer relationship in a way that benefits students like me.”

The agreement to establish the Renmin University Summer Program at Yale was signed during President Ji Boacheng’s recent visit to the Yale campus. He also visited Yale in 2005 as part of the China-Yale Advanced University Leadership Program.

While studying at Yale during the summer, the students from Renmin will live on campus in Yale’s residential colleges and enjoy the University’s libraries, museums, athletic facilities and campus events.  Excursions to New York City and Boston are also part of the summer educational experience.

The Yale Summer Session welcomes hundreds of students from all over the world to Yale each year to interact with some of Yale’s top scholars and teachers in an intimate environment that offers a wide sample of the courses taught during the academic year. For more information see: Yale Summer Session Web site.