Qin Tian moved to the United States more than a decade ago with a singular focus: teaching Mandarin Chinese. She worked in another school district before hearing about an opening at Middleton High School, home to what she considers the strongest Mandarin program in the area.
“Of course, I gotta jump and join the best Mandarin program in this area,” Tian said.
Earlier this month, Tian was honored with the 2026 Heartland Chinese Teacher Award from the U.S. Heartland China Association, a recognition that spans 21 states. The award recognizes educators for excellence in Chinese language teaching, with selection criteria that include creativity and effectiveness of the class curriculum, the positive impact on students and contributions to Chinese language learning and culture in the wider community.
It’s the latest in a string of accolades for Tian, who was named the 2024 Wisconsin Chinese Language Teacher of the Year and was a 2025 Herb Kohl Educational Foundation Teacher Fellowship finalist.
But ask Tian about the award and she steers the conversation back to her students.
“I receive this recognition because not just me, it’s my students,” she said.
A parent nominated Tian for the award. As part of the process, Tian assembled a portfolio and submitted a video showcasing the impact she’s made in her classroom. While other nominees featured superintendents and mayors in their videos, Tian’s featured her students talking about what it’s like to learn Mandarin in her class.
“I think what makes my video outstanding is my students,” she said. “I think that makes me feel even more proud.”
‘She’s there to learn’
Two of those students, sophomore Jack Wierschen and junior Sam Way, spoke about what makes Tian stand out as a teacher.
“I have a really good teacher-student relationship with Ms. Tian,” Wierschen said. “She’s very outgoing. She values her relationship with her students more than other teachers do. She comes around to tables. She’s just a very personable human.”
What sets Tian apart, Wierschen said, is a commitment to her own growth as an educator.
“She’s there to learn as well as teach,” he said. “She wants to make herself a better teacher. She’s just very good at making everyone feel like they’re welcome.”
Way said Tian’s energy and effort have directly shaped his progress in the language.
“If I didn’t have Tian last year as a teacher, I don’t think I’d have learned as much Mandarin as I would have with anybody else,” he said. “It’s a very fun experience to learn from a teacher who’s willing to put in as much effort as you put in to learn a language.”
“The more Mandarin I learned from her, the more I want to learn Mandarin,” Way added. “It’s a very nice cycle.”
Building the biggest program in Wisconsin
Tian teaches five classes with more than 110 students at the high school level. Middleton’s Mandarin program includes four teachers across the district, with instruction starting at the middle school level, a structure Tian credits with the program’s strength. Students who begin in seventh grade can count those years toward their high school language requirement, and next year, the high school will add Mandarin 1 and 2 courses to give students who haven’t previously studied the language a chance to start.
“What makes a good Mandarin teacher is you not only teach about the language, you also guide students to another culture,” Tian said. “To help students compare and contrast their own culture, to deepen the understanding of another world.”
Tian said the recognition carries particular weight for Mandarin educators in the Midwest, where the language is far less commonly taught and spoken than in coastal cities.
“In Midwest for Mandarin as a small language, a lot of teachers being singleton teachers, so it’s not as more resource as bigger city like San Francisco or New York,” she said. “It’s hard. It for singleton teachers could be a little struggle. But with this recognition, I feel like make people realize Midwest, or specifically Wisconsin, Middleton has amazing teachers here, has passionate world language learners over here, and draws attention to this language.”
Tian said Middleton’s program is the largest in the county and, she believes, in Wisconsin, with roughly 18 classes across the district compared to just two at some other area high schools.
“We’re thrilled to see Qin earn this well-deserved national recognition,” Middleton High School Principal Bobbie Reinhart said in a statement. “She makes a meaningful impact on her students, who describe her as passionate, charismatic and encouraging. She also connects students, staff and our larger community through events she organizes such as the Chinese program’s annual Lunar New Year celebration to share Chinese culture, food and traditions.”
A tool for the future
Both Wierschen and Way started studying Mandarin in fifth grade, drawn in by the novelty of learning characters and by teachers who made the experience feel welcoming.
“With Spanish or French, you’re just learning letters, you’re learning words, but with Mandarin it’s like almost completely different,” Wierschen said. “It’s really interesting to learn through that.”
Way recalled the calligraphy exercises that kept him coming back in middle school.
“In Mandarin it was more fun because it was almost like an art,” he said. “Characters, you can make them works of art if you truly want to.”
Looking ahead, both students see Mandarin as opening doors. Wierschen, whose family travels frequently, said speaking the language has transformed how he connects with people abroad.
“It’s so nice to be able to see people light up when you speak their language,” he said. “There’s a certain something about just being able to make another human feel like you’ve put work into learning part of their culture.”
Way put it simply: “It’s another tool in my tool belt that’ll help me get more places and see more people and let me do more things as I move throughout the world.”
