Interview with China National Scholarship Winners Tu Xuanxuan and Kang Rui: When a Grounded Designer Comes Across an Excellent Educator

This year, four students from Wenzhou-Kean University (WKU) received national scholarships. Two of them are Xuanxuan Tu from Product Design and Rui Kang, an English major.

A Grounded Designer Tu Xuanxuan
Major: Product Design

When Xuanxuan Tu was considering her graduation project idea, she noticed that our country still relies heavily on coal resources. Wanting to make a difference, she took on the challenge of doing the project on remanufacturing coal ashes. To achieve this goal, she stepped into the fields of materials science, economics, and electronic engineering, immersing herself in the library and embarking on the journey of disciplinary study. She continuously read dozens of English articles in the fields of biology and chemistry and learned the deployment and matching techniques of different electronic components. Her efforts have created a successful visual representation of the products designed. Moreover, to further prove that reprocessed coal ash is economically sustainable, she went on to investigate economic analysis papers.

▲ The Shell

Her exchange experience at Kean University in the Fall Semester of 2023 has made her realize the differences behind the concept of design between China and the U.S. In China there is a focus on the deep meaning behind products while Americans concentrate on the practicality and commercial value of products. In her exchange year, she collaborated with Benebone, an American pet toy manufacturing company to co-design a self-righting toy for pets.

Back in WKU, with the hope of aligning with people’s actual needs, she designed Period Box, which helps women track their menstruation.

Additionally, Xuanxuan Tu has participated in enriching extracurricular activities. She claims that her outstanding grades and her experiences in student organizations, internships, and contests have led her so far.

▲ Pet toys designed in the United States

▲Period Box

The Excellent Educator Kang Rui

Major: English

Rui Kang, an English major, has been awarded a national scholarship in recognition of her academic excellence and dedication throughout college.

Over the past four years, she has been consistently working hard, achieved a high GPA, and been admitted into the Master’s Education program at University College London (UCL).

▲ Internship in primary school

In addition to her hard work in academics, she actively took part in extracurricular activities, including the Youth League Committee, RA, and peer tutoring. Looking back, she says the pandemic was the most challenging time of her college years. As an active party member, she took on the responsibility of collecting nucleic acid samples from students at 6 a.m. daily. It was this experience that deepened Rui Kang’s understanding of the responsibility that comes with being a party member. Furthermore, in June 2023, Rui Kang was honored with the title of 'Excellent RA' for her outstanding performance when fulfilling her duty as an RA.

To Rui Kang, the most impressive course is EMSE3421, an internship course where she had to teach energetic primary school students with short attention spans. To overcome this challenge and keep them engaged, she integrated games into her teaching. An approach that improved students’ participation.

So far, Rui Kang has not only helped students in WKU make progress in their studies but has also successfully completed three research papers as the first author.

In the future, she hopes to work at an international educational institution to assist students in stepping onto the global stage.