Yesterday (Thursday, June 9, 2011), Mr. Morgan A. Jones, Queens Borough Director at the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit (CAU), gave an engaging and inspiring bilingual presentation to 18 of our Session A students in the Activity Room at the Flushing YMCA.

Titled "Welcome to New York City, Your City", the presentation began with a self introduction by Mr. Jones, Born and raised in Brooklyn, Mr. Jones majored in Chinese Language and Culture in College, and attended grad school at The Johns Hopkins - Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies, SAIS in China. In total, he had lived and worked in China for six years and only moved back to the US two years ago after getting married there.

Mr. Morgan Jones was very candid and humorous during his presentation, and this delighted the students at the session. They were also pleasantly surprised when Mr. Jones went on to do a presentation about New York City where he shared about its history, important facts, and even introduced Mayor Michael Bloomberg as well as Queens Borough President Helen Marshall. As our students are currently staying in Queens Borough, Mr. Jones also did a short presentation on the area for our benefit, explaining that Queens is the second most populated borough in New York City while having the largest land mass. He also highlighted that Queens has one of the most diverse populations with Asians making up 22% of it. Mr. Jones then shared useful tips and information with our students, ranging from recommended websites to visit for more information as well as a list of interesting activities to do in Queens. He then concluded by giving his contact information to the students present, stating that they are more than welcome to contact him if they need any advice with regards to living and working in New York City.

Meijiao Tang, who is from Lingnan University, was very impressed with Mr. Jones's colorful, multilingual background. Brimming with questions about NYC, she was also the most active during the Q&A section. "I really enjoyed Mr. Jones’s engaging presentation and I am very glad that I could speak to him in person. I now realize the importance of Mandarin as a means of communication when working with the communities in New York, especially in Queens where there are so many Mandarin-speaking residents. I hope there would more sessions like this for CCIP students in the future."

Yongchao Chen from The Chinese University of Hong Kong added "Through the presentation, I understand that effective communication is essential for solving problems, especially when it comes to doing community work. The presentation also made me realize that being able to express one’s position and opinions fully is what defines true democracy and freedom.”

Special thanks to Mr. Morgan Jones for his informative and eye-opening presentation as well as the students who took part in the session. Students may obtain a copy of the presentation slides by visiting http://www.facebook.com/theccip.