Andrea Pasinetti

Background

Pasinetti studied at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. As an undergraduate he pursued certificates in East Asian Studies and European Cultural Studies and directed Princeton’s Interact Program, bringing political education to underprivileged high-school students in the Trenton City area. He founded Teach For China in 2008 during a year of study at Tsinghua University's Inter-University Program. That year, while conducting research for his senior thesis, Pasinetti traveled to seven provinces in China and visited more than 300 schools. Pasinetti cites his experiences visiting low-income Chinese schools and observing the challenges faced by rural students as the source of his inspiration to leave Princeton and found China Education Initiative, which has since been renamed Teach For China.

Teach For China

Teach For China recruits recent college graduates from China and the US and trains them to serve as full-time teachers for two years in under-resourced Chinese schools. In 2011, Teach For China became a partner in the Teach For All network, a “global network of independent social enterprises working to expand educational opportunity in their countries by enlisting talented future leaders to the effort.”

In the 2012-2013 school year, more than 200 Teach For China Fellows served in 55 schools in China's Yunnan and Guangdong provinces, reaching more than 30,000 students. Since then the number of Teach For China Fellows has risen to over 450, reaching more than 70,000 students in Yunnan and Guangdong provinces.

Awards

Pasinetti was recognized in 2011 by China Newsweek Magazine as the most influential foreigner working in China.

Personal

Pasinetti is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and frequently gives interviews on Chinese television.