OUR HISTORY

PiA relaunches summer internship programming at KIMEP University (Kazakhstan) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (Japan).

The Class of 2022 becomes the first full cohort of PiA Fellows after the COVID-19 pause, re-launching fellowships in Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.

PiA pilots remote fellowships throughout the winter and spring. In November, Elliot Galvis ‘21 (Thailand) becomes the first in-person Fellow after the COVID-19 pause.

PiA suspends in-person programming due to COVID-19.

PiA Fellows start working at the American University of Central Asia (AUCA) in Kyrgyzstan.

Mags Dillon ’10-’12 (Laos) becomes PiA’s Executive Director.

PiA begins its first fellowship in Sri Lanka at Land O’Lakes.

PiA launches fellowships in Myanmar.

PiA begins to send Fellows to Cambodia.

PiA sends its first Fellow to Mongolia for posts at the Open Society Forum in Ulaanbaatar.

Carrie Gordon Tribute Grant established.

The first two PiA Fellows arrive in Timor Leste to work for Internews in Dili.

Anastasia Vrachnos ’91 (Indonesia) begins tenure as Executive Director.

Carrie Gordon passes away.

PiA launches its first fellowships in Nepal with two Fellows teaching English at Kanya Campus.

PiA sends two Fellows to the National Tourism Authority of Lao PDR to start a relationship with Laos.

PiA sends its first Fellow to Malaysia to teach at the Universiti Sains Malaysia and its first Fellow to the Philippines to work with Save the Children in Manila.

PiA sends its first Fellow to Vietnam for a fellowship at the Freshfields Law Firm in Hanoi.

PiA opens its first field office in Singapore at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

The first PiA Fellows are sent to Almaty, Kazakhstan to serve as teachers at KIMEP University.

Carrie Gordon becomes Executive Director of PiA.

PiA launches Princeton in Beijing, a summer language program in partnership with the Freeman Foundation.

Margaret Hazlett ‘88 (Thailand) serves as PiA’s Executive Director.

PiA is led by Executive Director Rob Pease ‘83 (Japan).

Barney Williamson starts as Executive Director of PiA.

Bob Atmore retires and Jason Eyster ‘72 (Japan) becomes PiA’s new Executive Director.

Helen White becomes PiA’s first Fellow in Jordan.

PiA returns to China when Steve Perksy begins a fellowship at Beijing Normal University and Terence Wrong becomes PiA’s first Fellow in Lebanon.

James Rutherfurd becomes PiA’s first Fellow in Kuwait.

Jay Rosengard becomes the first Fellow in Thailand and David Johnson and Scott Trees start fellowships in Turkey.

PiA begins to send Fellows to India; Thomas Gouchenour becomes PiA’s first Fellow in Yemen and David Johnson becomes PiA’s first (and only) Fellow to the United Arab Emirates.

PiA begins to send Fellows to the University of East Asia in Macau SAR.

Tina Sung becomes first Princeton woman to participate in PiA.

Bruce Stone becomes the first Fellow in Singapore through a fellowship at Nanyang University (now the National University of Singapore).

Robert Atmore becomes the first full-time Executive Director for PiA. During his tenure, PiA expands to western Asia (and Greece!) and opens to alumni from schools beyond Princeton University.

Christopher Binns starts the first Korea fellowship in Seoul, South Korea at Korea University.

Sidney Gamble passes away and leaves a bequest that seeds the PiA “endowment”.

Paul Minault begins a fellowship at the University of Indonesia to start PiA’s relationship with Indonesia.

George Roudebush becomes PiA’s first Fellow in Iran.

John Haley arrives in Tokyo to teach at International Christian University as the first year-long Fellow in Japan.

John McCobb, Jr. becomes the first Hong Kong Fellow at Chung Chi College in Hong Kong’s New Territories.

Ann Dapice goes to Taiwan as the first female PiAer.

William “Bill” Volckhausen becomes PiA’s first post-war Fellow when he goes to Tunghai to teach English.

Jackson Huddleston and Hamilton Meserve arrive in Tokyo as the first Osawa Fellows, a summer fellowship offered in partnership with the Princeton Club of Japan.

PiA financially supports the creation of a public affairs college at the newly opened Tunghai University in Taiwan.

September 5th, The Princeton-Yenching Foundation officially changes its name to Princeton in Asia (PiA) to reflect its focus on education beyond Yenching University.

The Communist Revolution expels Americans working at Yenching University.

June 21, Princeton-in-Peking changes its name to the Princeton-Yenching Foundation, which focuses on funding a College of Public Affairs in Yenching. Sidney Gamble serves as President, a role he holds until his death in 1968.

“Princeton-in-Peking” incorporated in the U.S. to manage the Philadelphian Society’s work in China, work that shifted from YMCAs to Yenching University, a predecessor to Beijing University.

Sidney Gamble and John Stewart Burgess publish Peking, A Social Survey, a sociological study of all Peking’s residents.

Edwards opens the Peking School of Commerce and Finance to provide aspiring Chinese businessmen with instruction in English, bookkeeping, accounting and management.

The Philadelphia Society sends Gailey and Dwight Edwards, Princeton Graduate School Class of 1904, to run the Peking Y and begins to send more Princeton men to help run what becomes known as the Princeton University Center in Peking.

Gailey returns to Princeton and turns his attention to starting a YMCA in Peking, China.

April 26, Gailey arrives in Tianjin, China, supported by funds raised by the Philadelphian Society, a Princeton student group.

March 9, Robert "Pop" Gailey, Princeton Graduate School Class of 1896, unanimously elected by the entire Princeton University undergraduate body to go to China to help run the recently established YMCA in Tianjin.