{"id":10035,"date":"2026-04-27T20:13:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T20:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/?p=10035"},"modified":"2026-04-27T20:13:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T20:13:02","slug":"a-visiting-scholar-says-goodbye-to-troy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2026\/04\/27\/a-visiting-scholar-says-goodbye-to-troy\/","title":{"rendered":"A visiting scholar says goodbye to Troy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>TROY, Ala. (<a href=\"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TROJANVISION<\/a>) \u2014 A\u00a0Troy\u00a0alumnus\u00a0said goodbye to classmates and faculty before returning to China.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Xiaodong Li graduated from Troy in 2020. He later returned for a second&nbsp;undergraduate&nbsp;degree after being sought out by the school of music&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0\u201cDr. Yang,\u00a0who is\u00a0a piano\u00a0professor here\u00a0and\u00a0now, is the director of\u00a0the\u00a0School of Music, who found me,&#8221; said Xiaodong Li. &#8220;She said,\u00a0\u2018He&#8217;s not my student, but he likes to play piano.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;After I\u00a0came back\u00a0to China,\u00a0she went to China\u00a0this summer and\u00a0recruited me\u00a0for this program\u00a0in the Bachelor of Arts. I am\u00a0the first student in\u00a0the Bachelor\u00a0of Arts\u00a0program. Then, I\u00a0start my second\u00a0undergrad\u00a0degree here in piano performance\u00a0for four years,\u00a0that is from 2016 to 2020.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2026\/04\/02\/visiting-professor-describes-opportunities-provided-by-fulbright-scholar-program\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL: Visiting professor describes opportunities provided by Fulbright Scholar Program<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although being away from home was hard, Li said Troy became his second home.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;People are friendly here.\u00a0I have been to other places or states,\u00a0too, but I think people here\u00a0are\u00a0more\u00a0willing\u00a0to talk to you and more\u00a0willing\u00a0to help you,&#8221; Li said.\u00a0&#8220;I know some cities\u00a0I&#8217;ve\u00a0been to,\u00a0New York and\u00a0elsewhere,\u00a0and people are cold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not what I&#8217;m seeing\u00a0from\u00a0here, but\u00a0Troy,\u00a0when I come back,\u00a0it&#8217;s\u00a0home.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Li was a teacher before returning to Troy. He now plans to return to China and teach piano to future musicians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) \u2014 A\u00a0Troy\u00a0alumnus\u00a0said goodbye to classmates and faculty before returning to China.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Xiaodong Li graduated from Troy in 2020. He later returned for a second&nbsp;undergraduate&nbsp;degree after being sought out by the school of music&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cDr. Yang,\u00a0who is\u00a0a piano\u00a0professor here\u00a0and\u00a0now, is the director of\u00a0the\u00a0School of Music, who found me,&#8221; said Xiaodong Li. &#8220;She said,\u00a0\u2018He&#8217;s&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"a-button\" href=\"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2026\/04\/27\/a-visiting-scholar-says-goodbye-to-troy\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":10068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1127],"tags":[51,45],"topics":[2,2412],"class_list":["post-10035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","tag-troy","tag-troy-university","topics-alumni","topics-college-of-fine-arts-and-humanities"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10035"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10067,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10035\/revisions\/10067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10035"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=10035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}