Maudie Carey may be only 13 years old but she speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese. Eric Gross The Brewster-Beijing connection continues.

Last Thursday a group of local educators and students from both Brewster High School as well as Beijing 101 High School in China conducted a special Chinese New Year celebration.

Songs, stories, Chinese games, and delicious homemade Chinese food were on the menu during the afterschool get-together.

Brewster is in the forefront of the exchange program that began in 2007 when a group of educators from Mahopac and Brewster traveled to China for two weeks, participating in a program that is part of a regional initiative to further educational, business and cultural exchanges between the two superpowers. The Chinese Ministry paid for all expenses except airfare for Education.

A 13-year old Henry Wells Middle School student, Maudie Carey, helped the two cultures understand each other since the 8th grader speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese.

Maudie has completed 8 semesters of Mandarin through the Center for Talented Youth, a program in conjunction with John Hopkins University. Her love for the Chinese language began in third grade: “I’ve always been fascinated with the Asian people besides China is such a growing country that I’d love to work in the field of international business when I grow up. Being able to speak Chinese will be extremely handy.”

Maudie’s mom, Bettina Carey, told the Courier that while watching the Lou Dobbs program on Fox News last week, an advertisement featuring a woman speaking broken Mandarin was played: “Mr. Dobbs said: ‘I mean how many people do you know who speak Mandarin?’ We have one such person in our own backyard. She is in a very small group of 13-year-olds speaking Mandarin in this country for sure.”

Daisy Yao, director of the National Exchange Educational Program, who has organized the foreign exchangestudents visit to Putnam County, called it “meaningful for both the Chinese visitors as well as our Putnam residents. Both groups of students are learning about different cultures as well as the similarities between American and Chinese teens today.”