Henrico student honored for cultural exchange achievements

Henrico’s Raven Witherspoon is one of 10 students nationally who will be honored this week by a Chinese language and cultural studies center in Washington, D.C.

Witherspoon, a senior at VCU, is an honoree in the Confucius Institute U.S. Center’s annual People-to-People Award Essay Competition and will recognized at the fifth-annual CIUS Center National Honors Gala, hosted virtually Oct. 30.

Witherspoon’s essay highlighted her passion for learning and cross-cultural exchange between China and the United States, focusing on finding unexpected friendships with students in China through pen pal programs.  (To read Witherspoon’s essay, click here.)

Witherspoon began learning Chinese in sixth grade, but circumstances ended her studies in high school. She was excited to renew her Chinese studies during her junior year of college at VCU. Witherspoon also had the opportunity to communicate with two pen pals from China to improve her skills.

“If you told me in January that I would soon regularly converse with someone in Hebei, I would have laughed,” she said. “I hadn’t taken a Chinese class in more than six years and I had never participated in a language exchange. I had no way of knowing that a course at the local community college would expand my world so meaningfully.”

At VCU, Witherspoon is majoring in physics with minors in international social justice, political science, and mathematics. She’s enjoyed sharing her life in the United States with her pen pals and discussing current events and cultural differences.

“It is because of these interactions that we also speak of great hope, of the power of cross-cultural connection and of leaders who prioritize the wellbeing of all people above their own political power,” she said. “Together we dream of a brighter future for both countries and the ways we can make those dreams a reality.”