On the evening of February 13, a special meeting of the board of directors was held at ESU#5, Beatrice city, Nebraska. The board members had high praise for the Confucius Institute of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and said that the award was being bestowed in recognition of its contributions to the dissemination of Chinese culture in Nebraska and to the promotion of mutual understanding and friendship among the people of the two countries.

Among those in attendance at the meeting were, in addition to the directors and leaders of ESU#5, Rachel Zeng, the executive associate director of the Confucius Institute, Huang Ping'an, the associate director and representative of Xi'an Jiaotong University, and two Chinese volunteers attended the meeting.

The UNL Confucius Institute has assigned teachers to five school districts and three universities in Nebraska for the purpose of teaching the Chinese language and informing people about Chinese culture.