Central Carolina Community College Confucius Classroom students (from left) Charles Sutherland and Cynthia Molina, both of Sanford, have received recognition from the North Carolina Chinese Speech Contest. Organized by the Confucius Institute at N.C. State University, the contest is open to non-native Chinese speakers of any age who are state residents. Sutherland earned the Honor Award for the Beginner Level in the preliminary competition with a five-minute self-introductory video highlighting his mastery of the language. At the finals, held May 4 at NCSU, Molina placed fifth among the Beginner Level finalists. She read a prepared Chinese passage and was scored on intonation, emotion and basic comprehension. Both have completed two semesters of Chinese language courses at CCCC under instructor Ling Huang. Huang, who teaches English at Nanjing Normal University in the People's Republic of China, has been teaching at CCCC since 2011. CCCC's Confucius Classroom is a partnership between NCSU's Confucius Institute and the college. CCCC was the first community college in the U.S. to have a Classroom. The Institute and Classroom promote intercultural exchanges through educational and outreach activities. For more information about the Confucius Classroom, visit www.cccc.edu/confucius .