Report of our first group meeting -By SEP China Trip Team Members: Lucas Shi, edited by Erin Zhao, Eliana Kwan, and Ailing Wang.

On February 8th, in the NCLS after-school classroom, our China Trip team held our first in-person group meeting after all ten team members were selected through interviews. The goal of the meeting was for students, teachers, and parents to get to know one another since we are now officially one team — the 2026 China Trip Team. During this gathering, we discussed the overall trip planning, code of conduct, presentation preparation, and performance arrangements.
We began with a fun activity. Before the presentations, everyone enjoyed a potluck where each family brought a variety of dishes. There was tanghulu, salmon sushi, orange chicken, and many other delicious foods. The potluck helped everyone feel relaxed and excited before presenting. Most importantly, it served as a great icebreaker, since many of us did not know each other well, despite being part of the same SEP team.
The meeting was officially kicked off by our two China Trip captains and teachers, Eric Shi and Amy Yang. They congratulated the ten students representing NCLS SEP on being selected for the 2026 China Trip. They also introduced the school we will be visiting, Shandong Jining First High School, from April 20–24. The school was established during the Qing Dynasty in 1902 and has over 120 years of history. It currently has more than 5,000 students and teachers. The school has many outstanding students; however, some may require financial assistance due to their family situations. One of the purposes of our trip is to support 10–20 disadvantaged high school students through funds we raised during year-long fundraising activities, such as bake sales, dance parties, tennis tournaments, and online tutoring.
The ten students on our team were divided into three groups to prepare presentations for the trip. After the teachers’ introduction, each group shared the first draft of their presentation. The goal of our presentations is to introduce our studies, schools, daily lives, and hobbies to the students at Jining First High School.
The first group presented on extracurricular activities and school life in the United States. The second group focused on popular American foods and common school subjects. The third group introduced Boston and explained the SEP program at Newton Chinese School.
Overall, although there is still room for improvement, we did very well for our first presentation — especially since we presented in Chinese. This experience helped us practice teamwork and communication skills as we prepared to travel to China and live with high school students there.
Below are some photos of the gathering:

After the group presentation, we practiced our Zootopia group dance, which was the fun part. All the students and the teachers danced together as a team!

Overall, we had a great event and a successful first China trip team meeting.