A Sumner student is among 15 students at the University of Kansas who were selected as 2009 Kansas Asia Scholars and are preparing to study abroad May 22-June 13 in China.

Hannah Elizabeth McMacken of Sumner, will spend two weeks studying Chinese language, culture and history at Huazhong Normal University in Wuhan, China. A third week will be spent traveling and viewing sites such as the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City in Beijing. They will be accompanied by Sheree Willis, executive director of KU’s Confucius Institute.

McMacken, the daughter of Eileen Riordan, is a senior in elementary education. She graduated from Auburn Riverside High School.

Funded by the Freeman Foundation of New York and Stowe, Vt., the program is designed for students who intend to become elementary or secondary school teachers through the undergraduate teacher education program in KU’s School of Education.

To be eligible, students must have a grade-point average of 2.75 and be enrolled in or preparing to enter a teacher education program for subject areas that can include teaching about China.

While in China, scholars will complete two three-credit-hour undergraduate courses in elementary conversational Chinese and East Asian history taught at Huazhong Normal University. After returning to Kansas, the KU students will create service-learning projects to share their experiences in China with students in elementary and secondary schools.

A partner university of the Confucius Institute at KU, Huazhong Normal University is a comprehensive university with about 20,000 students with a teacher preparation program considered among the best in China. It is known for its top academic programs in education, physics and history and its national-level research centers in modern Chinese history and Chinese linguistics and language pedagogy.

Wuhan, with a population of about 9.7 million, is China’s fourth-largest city.