Student Building Bridges and a Culture of Understanding

Manny MuratallaManny Muratalla discovered his interest in Chinese culture when he began taking Kung Fu lessons while in high school. For the Bellflower native born to Mexican parents, Manny was fascinated by Chinese culture. He enrolled in Chinese classes at the College in spring 2013 after graduating Somerset High School. The same year, he had an opportunity to travel to China for the first time for two weeks on a scholarship offered through a partnership between the College and the University of California, Los Angeles. Since then, he has returned to China every summer. Each year, he visits several different cities and interviews people on the street to learn the culture.

On campus, Manny wears many hats. The linguistics and Chinese major works as a teacher’s aide and conversation facilitator in the Intensive English Program, where he helps international students learn English and American culture to prepare for their study at the College. Manny also serves as president of the Chinese Student Club and organizes club activities. Because of his commitment and effort in promoting cultural understanding between the U.S. and China, he was selected as 100K Strong Student Ambassador by the US-China Strong Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to strengthen US-China relations by fostering a new generation of leaders, and was invited to its Student Ambassador Conference in Washington, D.C. representing Cerritos College. Recently, Manny competed in the Chinese Proficiency Competition for non-native Chinese speaking students, held at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and won second place. He also won the Curricular Award in Chinese from the Associated Students of Cerritos College.

This fall, Manny will transfer to San Francisco State University’s Chinese Flagship program to further his Chinese studies. “The Flagship Program allows me to study a semester or year in China,” said Manny. He plans to teach a few years in China after he completes his bachelor’s degree, and obtain a master’s in TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages) to bridge the two cultures as a translator and teacher.

 

 

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