Dr. Yan Gao teaches Mandarin Chinese at Henrico County Public Schools (HCPS). She is the recipient of the ACTFL Distant Learning Award for K-12 education and of the Quest Global Impact Award at the Virginia Commonwealth University in 2017. She is the educational technology coordinator and co-trainer at UVa Startalk Chinese Teacher and Student Academy since 2018. Since 2011, she has been making the Chinese language curriculum “real” by introducing telecollaboration, student blogging, curation projects, and other high-impact learning activities in the online environment. With many years of experience in integrating technology into teaching Chinese, she believes that technology integration will not only foster language acquisition but also help learners think more critically and boost interest and motivation in language and cultural studies.