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In 2004,
international undergraduate students at Stony Brook were a
rarity. Since the majority of SBU students are from New
York, in order to give them a more global experience, the
University planned to increase international undergrad
enrollment to 5%. For the first time, the University began
outreach to China.
In 2006, forty students came either as degree candidates or into
IEC, the Intensive English Center. That brought the
total of Chinese international undergrads to sixty. The
Office of Admissions hosted a
dinner reception in the Wang Center and Provost McGrath
closed his greeting to them saying, "When you go home and
tell everyone about your experiences here, you are the best
ambassadors Stony Brook could ever have."
Fast forward to 2011 and being Stony Brook ambassadors is
just what
Yunfan Wang and Emma Yu did at the Qingdao College Fair
on June 26th.
Sysea Liu,
Shandong Province Co-Chair of the
SB China Alumni Chapter,
had hosted Associate Dean of International Admissions Yu-wan
Wang in
April to introduce her to Qingdao high school
principals and members of the media. This time Sysea asked
Yunfan to come down from Beijing, and QD resident Emma Yue
Yu, to join her for the QD College Fair.
Qingdao is rated as one of the 10 best cities in China
to live in. Situated on the East Coast on a protected ocean
bay, like Honolulu its skyscrapers overlook sandy beaches.
The fair was sponsored by some of the most famous and
influential media in Shandong and all the respected colleges
and universities in China were represented at it. It
reportedly attracted 30,000 parents and students. Shandong
is one of China's most populous provinces, equal in
population to California, Florida, New York, and Texas
combined.
"As
Co-Chair," said Sysea, "I want to take every chance I have
to show SUNY Stony Brook in Shandong Province. Given the
size of this fair, it was a very good opportunity to let
more and more excellent students and parents know Stony
Brook University well."
As Provost McGrath had said, current students are the best
ambassadors.
Yunfan just graduated from SB in May with a double major in
Applied Math and Business. She is staying on at SB to get
her M.A. in Applied Math in
CEAS, SBU's College of Engineering. Sysea and Yunfan's
father, Zhiwen, had been graduate students in CEAS together
for a special
Advanced Information Management Program created by
Charles B. Wang and
President Jiang Zemin.
Emma just graduated too, from IEC, and will begin her
freshmen year this fall. She agreed they were good
ambassadors. She said, "The parents and high school students
who came to us understand the advantages of Stony Brook
after we explained them. There are many differences between
American colleges and Chinese colleges, and those are what
we told them about."
Until a few years ago, all students in China heard the name
SUNY Stony Brook starting in 7th grade. Their first physics
course starts then and until 2010, China's only Nobel prize
winner,
Prof. C.N. Yang, taught at Stony Brook for thirty-three
years. Although he has retired to China, students can still
see a recording he made on the
SBU International Admissions web page.
Emma hopes they were successful and there will be more
students from Qingdao with her in coming years. Stony Brook
hopes so too!
by Ja Young, Alumni Editor
Event: 26 June 2011, Qingdao, Shandong, China
2006
article on the Admissions Office dinner for Chinese
students:
http://www.aaezine.org/articles/vol15/15N2SBUGoesGlobalChinaUndergrads.shtml |
