Testimonial - Tianjin University

1. Bryn Mawr College
Department of Sociology
101 N. Merion Avenue
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-2899
610-526-5331
FAX: 610 526-7475
B R Y N M A W R
January 31, 2018
RE: Su Ting Wong
To Whom It May Concern,
It is with great pleasure that I write to recommend Su Ting Wong for your internship, and without
hesitation I give her my absolutely highest possible recommendation. While I have only known Su Ting
since this past summer, and only interacted with her in person for a relatively short period of time, it was
a very intensive experience across a variety of settings, so I still speak from strong experience. She is
easily among the very best students I have ever encountered at any institution, and her skills, experience,
goals, and interests in both academic and fieldwork settings make her a perfect fit for this program in
particular.
I have been teaching at elite institutions for over 15 years, and it has been my pleasure to meet hundreds
of smart, motivated, hard-working, conscientious students during that time. But there are still a small
handful who really stand out. Su Ting is among this very small group.
I met Su Ting this past summer while teaching at the International Summer School program in Tianjin,
China, facilitated by her home institution of Nanyang Technological University. This program brings a
group of roughly 40 students together from elite institutions in the United States, Singapore, China,
England, Sweden, and Australia (with very competitive admission processes at each of those institutions)
to study intensively for 5 weeks in China, engaging in big picture comparative questions about the future
of our collective planet and our respective societies within it. The students live together in close quarters,
with classes nearly every single day for at least 4 hours each day, along with study tours to other parts of
China that involve overnight trips and extensive travel and interacting with locals in a variety of inter-
personal settings. I have been teaching in this program for each of the last 5 years and have watched a
number of students struggle with the rigorous academics, exhausting travel, inter-personal dynamics,
difficult conversations, and challenging conditions of living.
Su Ting was a shining star in every single one of these aspects, and among the top 5 of any of the students
from any of the institutions across any of the years of my time with the program.
In terms of her academic work, Su Ting was an immediate standout student in my course. I require a large
amount of dense and difficult reading, challenging writing assignment, and original research and
collaborative projects. Nearly all of her peers struggled with one or more of the components to this
course, but Su Ting was rare in excelling at all of them.
Su Ting’s written papers were carefully constructed, artfully written, and combined a very high level of
passionate personal engagement with the analytic distance necessary to appreciate the strengths in any
argument while still acknowledging its shortcomings. She approached each topic with a curiosity to learn,

2. grow, and integrate new insights rather than a knee-jerk reaction based on some previously-held
viewpoint which is all-too-common among such smart students. She reads very thoroughly and critically,
and is able to connect ideas with each other in a true synthesis in ways I’ve rarely seen among
undergraduates. She struck the difficult balance of speaking in class neither too much nor too little, and
every contribution was appreciated by both myself and her fellow students. In addition, she displayed
strong leadership in her collaborations with her fellow students, including an impressive ability to manage
some difficult personalities and resolve conflicts among her collaborators. She was both well-liked and
highly respected by her fellow students, who seemed to look up to her.
Outside the classroom, Su Ting is equally impressive. We traveled together and spent a great deal of time
together in a variety of settings academic and otherwise. I observed Su Ting interact with students and
locals and other travelers from an astonishing variety of backgrounds and admired the ease and facility
with which she could engage with anyone on a personal and professional level with grace, aplomb, and
charm. I also appreciated the tremendous thoughtfulness, inquiry, and insight she consistently brought to
each experience, ranging from the truly serious to the potentially mundane to the leisurely. No matter the
context she was in or the company she was with, Su Ting was effortlessly and unpretentiously alive in her
reflective engagement with each experience, and I enjoyed learning from her insightful questions and
reflections.
Su Ting has a variety of work experiences and interests that dovetail nicely with the needs of your
organization. She has consistently displayed an impressive set of skills and proven herself in leadership
positions. During my many enjoyable one-on-one conversations with Su Ting outside of class, I have
been deeply impressed with her maturity and thoughtfulness. She is smart, professional, ethical,
organized, and superbly competent, and is friendly and charming to boot. Personally, I would trust her
with anything. I recommend her not as a promising former student ready to receive some training but as a
respected professional colleague who will only sharpen her already impressive skills.
I truly believe there are few people who combine the set of skills that Su Ting has so well. She will
undoubtedly succeed in your program with ease, while using the experience to grow and become even
more impressive than she already is. I would be happy to discuss Su Ting further and can be reached at
the contact information below.
Sincerely,
Nathan Wright
Associate Professor and Chair
Bryn Mawr College
Department of Sociology
101 N. Merion Ave.
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
610-526-5394
nwright@brynmawr.edu