BEN YARBROUGH | Intermediate Mandarin
Pomona College, B.A., International Relations

Ben majored in International Relations with a focus on East Asia at Pomona College. He studied abroad on Middlebury College’s Hangzhou program in his junior year, and returned to Beijing during his senior year to do field research for his undergraduate thesis, Notes from the Underground: Women in Beijing’s Rock Music Industry. After graduating from Pomona, he was awarded the Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship for study in Xi’an. From 2012-2013, he studied music and arts administration at the Taipei National University of the Arts under the auspices of the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. In addition to China and Taiwan, Ben has traveled to numerous other countries in Asia, including Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Ben currently works as a Chinese tutor at Arete Education in New York City. He is fluent in Mandarin and has led our Language Learning China and Global Awareness in Action Cambodia programs for high school students.

JOANNA CORNELL | China & the World Economy
Harvard University, J.D./M.B.A. (candidate)
Yale University, B.A., Economics and East Asian Studies

While at Yale, Joanna double majored in Economics and East Asian Studies with a focus on China. During her sophomore summer, she studied abroad in Hangzhou, China through Middlebury College’s Hangzhou program and also interned at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Joanna returned to China the spring semester of her junior year and studied at Peking University in Beijing. During her senior year of college, Joanna independently studied Chinese with a focus on the economy as a Fields Program Scholar and wrote her East Asian Studies thesis on Chinese civil society and volunteerism after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. After graduation, Joanna worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in investment banking and global capital markets, and served on the Associate Board of Apex for Youth, an organization that supports Asian and immigrant youth from low-income families in NYC. This fall, she will be attending Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. Joanna is fluent in Mandarin and will be leading Putney’s Pre-College program in Shanghai.