Hi everyone!

For those of you who may not know her, Dr. Chingyen Mayer is a highly respected and valued member of the Siena College English Department and she was recently appointed as the new director of the International Studies minor.  She has taught a variety of different courses here at Siena, including Introduction to International Studies, Literature from Asia, Realistic Movements in American Literature and Asian American Literature, which was one of the best classes I have taken throughout my four years here.  In my Asian American Literature classes, Dr. Mayer not only opened our eyes to incredible novels we had never even heard of before, but also to the treatment and perception of Asian Americans in the United States.  She even brought our entire class on a trip to Chinatown in NYC, where we had the privilege to walk around and visit the Chinese American museum!

In the classes that I took with her, Dr. Mayer also spoke often about her travels around the world and I believe this is one of the many reasons why she will be such a successful director for the International Studies Minor.  She has immersed herself in different countries and culture and has strived to pass on the things she has learned to her students.  Since joining the Siena community in 2002, she has taken over sixty students to present (or to attend) at Montreal’s Concordia University’s Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability and she has even organized the Siena-Concordia conference right here on our own campus.  Her position as the new director for the Siena College International Studies Minor begins May 2017 and I have no doubt that she will succeed exponentially at the tasks ahead.

Enjoy the snow day and stay warm out there!

Julia (Student Intern)