At Grinnell Cheng participated in various activities organized by the Chinese students. He joined in their October 1922 celebration of the founding of the Republic of China (SB 10/11/1922). In the same month with fellow Tsing Hua alum T. C. Chao he played a flute duet at the local Congregational church as part of a program organized by the Grinnell Chinese Students’ Club; speakers included fellow Chinese students K. C. Wu, C. C. Ma, C. M. Chang, and H. H. Yang (SB 10/21/1922). He also helped in the highly successful fund-raising dinner for Grinnell-in-China held in the local Congregational church in November 1922. He sat on the committee (chaired by Ke Chang Hsu and which included C. C. Ma, C. Chang, and K. Y. Lu) that was responsible for the menu (SB 11/15/1922). Cheng also played a part in a student drama production on campus (SB 02/06/1924). More remarkably, he gave a radio address on “the American character of mobility,” possibly broadcast by the Grinnell College student radio station and apparently captured by “A. S. Ennis’ latest improved radio apparatus (?)” at the home of Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Mellott, who at the time were entertaining “the ladies of the Sunset Club with their husbands” (GR 01/14/1924). 

After earning a bachelor’s degree in political science and business administration from Grinnell in 1924, he went on to earn a master’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 1925. He joined the reunion dinner of Grinnellians in New York City to see off Sin Chen, who attended Grinnell in Fall 1923 but transferred to Columbia after one semester (SB 03/25/1925). 

Cheng returned to China no later than 1928. He taught political science at Southeast University in Nanjing, where he was credited with having helped establish their department of political science. He also taught municipal management at Fudan University and at Utopia University in Shanghai. We do not know when he passed away.