Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss. — A senior marketing and foreign language double-major at Mississippi State is among 12 rising U.S. college students participating August 11-20 in one of China’s most influential student-run exchange programs.

Feifei Zeng, an international student majoring in international business, supply chain management and Spanish, will join other delegates selected for the Initiating Mutual Understanding through Student Exchange (IMUSE) conference in Beijing.

In addition to MSU, institutions that will be represented include Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Cambridge, University of California-Berkeley, University of California-Los Angeles, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Connecticut, Macalester College, and New York University Shanghai.

Founded in 2008 by Harvard, Peking and Tsinghua universities, IMUSE is a non-profit organization that brings together promising university students from the U.S. and China to facilitate mutual curiosity, respect and understanding through cross-cultural communication and friendship.

Challenging and inspiring the delegates to widen their cultural perspective through innovative collaboration, critical thinking, leadership and social responsibility is among IMUSE’s primary missions.

Past conference experiences have included, among many others, tours of Hong Kong’s top universities and the U.S. Embassy, visits to a migrant children’s school and Beijing’s famed 798 Art District and oldest teahouse, public welfare discussions with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility activitists, and academic lectures featuring professors from Peking and Tsinghua universities.

In addition to her studies, Zeng serves as an MSU Foundation Ambassador and member of the Montgomery Leadership Program and is a member of the Judy and Bobby Shackouls Honors College Honors Council’s recruitment committee. Additionally, she has volunteered at the university’s Child Development and Family Studies Center and works in the College of Arts and Sciences dean’s office.

Prior to coming to the U.S., Zeng lived for seven years in Italy. She returned this summer to complete a six-week study abroad program at Cornell University in Turin. She also holds an associate of arts degree in business administration from Carl Albert State College in Poteau, Oklahoma.

Zeng said she looks forward to returning to her home country for the first time since 2009. She is excited to see what has changed since her last visit and anticipates interacting with individuals from different backgrounds and learning about different societies and customs during the IMUSE conference.

“I am always seeking opportunities to meet likeminded scholars who are equally interested in understanding different cultures, and IMUSE offers the perfect platform for me to do that,” Zeng said.

“Being part of the IMUSE program will widen my cultural perspective while equipping me with the skills to enact positive change in our world. I believe in IMUSE’s extraordinary purpose and am confident that I can bring a fresh voice to the discussion,” she added.

Zeng’s participation in the Project IMUSE conference is supported by MSU’s Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President, College of Business and International Institute.

For more information about Project IMUSE, visit http://www.projectimuse.org/, twitter.com/ProjectIMUSE and youtube.com/watch?v=OSNsqAPSo-w/.

MSU is Mississippi’s flagship research university, available online at www.msstate.edu.