The mayor of Riviera Beach hosted a Chinese delegation of educators, Monday, in hopes of building a relationship that will lead to numerous collaborations including a student exchange program.
Mayor Thomas Masters met with the delegation at Suncoast High School where member April Meng noticed some differences in the classroom she thinks Chinese students could benefit from.
“The students here are more active and they sit in different groups and do experiments with each other,” Meng said. “They help each other and I think they do better when they work together.”
The mayor and the delegation have started discussing sending students to China as part of an exchange program.
“It’s no longer a local thing,” Masters said. “We’re in a global world now and we have got to relate to one another.”
Masters is also hoping to recruit teachers from China to Riviera Beach to help fill a shortage.
“I think it would be a great opportunity to collaborate together,” he said. “I just think all kinds of things will come out of this trip.”
The meeting started several months ago when Masters went to the China for an entrepreneurial visit where he invited investors to Riviera Beach.
“China buys a lot of yachts and we have Rybovich and Viking (marinas) right here,” said Masters.
The Chinese delegation also visited Mary McCloud Bethune Elementary and JFK Middle School.
Masters said he will continue to work on the economic investment and entrepreneurial component of his trip to China, too.
