Carbondale Chamber of Commerce recently issued the following announcement.
On Saturday, July 21, the SIUC Center for International Education (CIE) will host 63 students and four faculty members from SIUC’s oldest partnership university in China, Northeast Normal University (NENU). NENU is a top ranked comprehensive university in Changchun city and SIUC’s first formal partnership with NENU dates back over 35 years.
The group will participate in a two-week long summer program where they will experience SIUC and all that the City of Carbondale and southern Illinois region has to offer international students. According to Andrew Carver, Executive Director of International Affairs, “all 63 of the students are prospective SIUC students. The majority of these students are currently enrolled at NENU in the first two years of our joint degree program in Accountancy. Their summer experience in Carbondale will factor heavily in their decision to enroll at SIUC as a degree-seeking student.”
The joint degree program in Accountancy was developed collaboratively by the SIUC School of Accountancy and the NENU School of Business. Students who complete the Freshman and Sophomore years at NENU and Junior and Senior years at SIUC will receive bachelor degrees in Accounting from both NENU and SIUC. According to Carver, “the first cohort of NENU students graduated from SIUC in May and we are pleased that several of these students are planning to continue their studies at SIU as graduate students.”
Moving from a large city like Changchun, with a population of eight million people, to Carbondale can be a formidable cultural transition. According to Yi Lee, CIE International Partnerships Coordinator and coordinator of the NENU summer program, “all too often, international students choose American universities sight unseen, putting faith in national rankings or glossy brochures. With this program, students will actually see, feel, taste, and experience SIU and Carbondale so that they can make a more informed decision.”
While attending the program, students will experience a welcoming campus and Carbondale community by attending activities in all four undergraduate programs in the College of Business, and by eating in local restaurants, going to a Miner’s baseball game, attending a Sunset Concert, eating at a potluck dinner, hiking around Giant City, climbing and swimming at the Rec Center, and making new American friends, just to name a few of the program’s scheduled activities.
Strong international enrollments are important not only to the university, but also to the many local businesses that depend on revenue generated by serving the international student population. “The Center for International Education appreciates the support of many local businesses and especially thanks Jennifer Olson, President and CEO of the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce for organizing welcome events with Carbondale businesses, and Marc Chang, President of Olive Branch International Educational Services, who advises and recruits prospective students extensively in China for SIUC”, says Carver.
Carver is confident that summer programs for prospective international students will become an increasingly important recruiting tool in the future and plans on expanding summer experiences for prospective students from other partner universities around the world.
Original source can be found here.
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