Mission and Vision

Empowering teachers and students, one level at a time

Our Team

We, the Level Chinese Team, are a dedicated group that truly believes learners of all ages can become highly proficient in the Chinese Language. We believe literacy is the key component for students to become skilled in Chinese. Up till now, there has not been sufficient and appropriate resources to support teachers.

We wanted to do better, so we formed Level Chinese, and created our literacy focused curriculum and formative assessment target for K-12 learners.

Linda Lee, Program Ambassador

Partly grew up in New York City, Linda is forever grateful her parents made a conscientious decision to move back to Hong Kong so their children can read and write Chinese. A former journalist herself and a communications coach for CEOs, government officials including heads of state, Linda is passionate about communications and languages. She has also started Beijing’s first home grown improv theatre troop and introduced improv theatre to teachers and students to enhance their communications skills, creativity and overall confidence.

Linda Lee, Program Ambassador

Program Team

Gloria Ma, Program Officer

Graduated from Beijing Language and Culture University, Gloria is a language enthusiast. She strongly believes that language learning is important to the development of a child. Gloria’s passion for education is influenced by her mother who owns and operates a kindergarten in China. She believes in data driven language instruction and is one of the reasons she joined Level Chinese.

Susan Yang, Program Coordinator

Susan’s background and experience working at an internet company made her fearless when it comes to technology. She is dedicated to supporting teachers and educators get familiar with Level Chinese platform. As a new mother, Susan understands the importance of languages and communications for a child. She believes Level Chinese can greatly enhance students’ language learning experience and impact.

Pauline Shuen, Founder

Pauline is a high tech entrepreneur who has been part of multiple successful startups that have sold for over total of $1.5 billion. She is also a parent of a 8th and a 6th grader who both have been in Chinese Immersion since Kindergarten. She has served as a board member at the International School of the Peninsula which has a 19 year Chinese Immersion language program. After a successful career in high tech, Pauline left her position as a Vice President of Engineering at Cisco Systems and is now pursuing development of Chinese curriculum resources.

Pauline Shuen, Founder

Jingyao Qi, Content Development Leader

Jingyao has been the architect of everything Level Chinese since the beginning. She led the team to define text complexity, reading and grammar standards as well as to create accurate assessments to determine student mastery of our standards. Jingyao has over 10 years of experience teaching in Chinese Immersion schools in the US and is currently teaching middle school at ISTP, a Mandarin Immersion school in CA. Previous to that, Jingyao was a Chinese language teacher for 7th-9th grades in China. She has a MA in Education (Counseling and Guidance).

Jingyao Qi, Content Development Leader

Content Development Team

Ya-Ching Chang, Content Specialist

Ya-Ching has over eight years of experience teaching at Chinese immersion schools and colleges in the US. She is currently a Chinese teacher in the upper elementary (3rd – 5th grade) at ISTP. Prior to that, she was a 3rd grade teacher at Yinghua Academy. She was the instructional lead for the STARTALK student summer program at Yinghua.

Cindy Chiang, Content Specialist

Cindy is the Chinese Academic Dean at the International School of the Peninsula (ISTP) in Palo Alto, California. She started her career teaching in Elementary and Junior High Schools in Taiwan. In 2010, she joined ISTP’s Chinese immersion program teaching 3th to 6th grades. Cindy was also one of the founding members of Level Chinese and has been serving as a content specialist and an advisor to develop Level Chinese curriculum and assessment.

Rodica Harvey, Content Specialist

Rodica is a multilingual, lifelong learner with eclectic interests: she has been an engineer, a language teacher, a photographer, and even a museum docent for Asian Civilizations. Rodica lived in Asia for 13 years. As a Spanish teacher at the Singapore American School, Rodica’s search to ensure that all students were making progress toward additive language caused her to constantly use her artistic and engineering skills to create engaging learning activities.

Xinyi Xu, Content Specialist

Xinyi Xu currently serves as the Director of Lower School at Yu Ming Charter School. Prior to her role as the Chinese Program Coordinator at Yu Ming, Xinyi spent 7 years in the Chinese immersion classroom in Michigan and California, teaching Kindergarten, Grade 2 and Grade 3.

Matt Austin, Illustrator

Authors

Instructional Coaches