On May 5 2012, CI held the 3rd Annual North Carolina Chinese Speech Contest Final on NC State Campus, marking a successful conclusion to this year's North Carolina Chinese Speech and Writing Contests.

During February and March of 2012, CI conducted the 3rd Annual NC Chinese Writing Contest. Ninety-three students from all over North Carolina applied to compete in this contest. This year's topic was "My dream is...", students were asked to share their China related experiences in a 500-1000 characters essay. The 93 applicants came from 8 different schools across NC covering 4 different counties, and about half of applicants were non-heritage Chinese learners. After reading through all materials submitted, judges awarded First Place honors to Caitlin Su of Glenwood Elementary School, Neelan Mahadevan of McDougle Middle School, and Kenny Xie of Enloe High School. To encourage applicants to continue studying Chinese, CI gave out 3 First Place honors, 6 Second Place honors, and 9 Third Place honors.

Since February, a total of 96 students (which doubled the 2010 and 2011 numbers) across NC competed for the Speech Contest. After reviewing all applicants' self-introduction videos, judged carefully selected 21 finalists to compete at the final contest. Ten year-old Milan Carter, an enthusiastic little girl from My Chinese TreeHouse, received the highest award--Outstanding Prize. Milan has studied Chinese for six years. During the final contest, Milan told a story about Confucius, and explained Confucius' famous saying, "As three men are walking together, one of them is bound to be good enough to act as my teacher." For talent showcase, Milan performed a brilliant dance which perfectly mixed ballet with traditional Chinese dance. Six other finalists were awarded First, Second, and Third Place honors; they came from Waddell Languages Academy, My Chinese TreeHouse, Glenwood Elementary School, and McDougle Middle School.

Overall, the 2012 Chinese Language Competition received very positive feedbacks from local Chinese teachers, students and their parents. CI will further communicate and cooperate with local communities and work with education organizations to host more activities like the Chinese Language Competition.

North Carolina's Governor Perdue proclaimed May 5, 2012, as the "Chinese Culture and Language Appreciation Day" in North Carolina, which encourages NC citizens to learn more about China and Chinese language and culture. The 2012 Chinese Language Competition has been promoted and supported by news media all over NC, such as News14 Carolina, Charlotte observer, The China Star newspaper, etc.