Ginling College
Ginling College was founded in 1913 against the backdrop of the Social Gospel Movement and the Student Volunteer Movement in the United States, and the increasing demand for women's education propelled by the Chinese Revolution of 1911. Through the efforts of a united board composed of eight American mission boards—Baptists (North and South), Disciples, Episcopalians, Methodists (North and South), and Presbyterians (North and South)—Ginling College officially opened in 1915 with six faculty and eleven students. All subjects were taught in English except for the Chinese classics. The first graduating class, consisting of five women, including future Gingling College President Wu Yifang, graduated in 1919. They became the first women in China to receive fully accredited Bachelor of Arts degrees. Matilda Thurston, a Mount Holyoke graduate who had previously been with the Yale Mission in Changsha, served as the first president of the college from 1913 to 1928. In August 1928, Wu Yifang—a Ginling graduate—was inaugurated as the next president.