OISS Staff Changes for Fall Semester 2008 – Appointments Recommended!

In order to receive accurate and timely service and advice, international students are strongly encouraged to schedule appointments with an OISS Advisor by calling 651-962-6650.  OISS Walk-in assistance will be limited due to these staff changes.

Dr. Tom Carey will be on medical leave from October 20, 2008 until December 2008.  Tom will not have access to voice mail or email during this time away from campus.

 

Sarah Ligday, OISS Assistant Director, we are sorry to say, will have her last day in OISS on Friday, October 24, 2008.  Sarah will return to work in OISS on a part-time basis until Tom returns from medical leave in December 2008.  Please join us in saying farewell to Sarah on Thursday, October 23 from 10:30am to noon in OISS.

Zhanna Saparova has been hired as the Interim Assistant Director until December 19, 2008.  Zhanna received her Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of Missouri – Kansas City.  Most recently, she has been the Outreach Coordinator for the Alliance Abroad Group.  In this position, Zhanna monitored, supervised and supported participants on J-1 and H2B work programs.  Zhanna’s language skills include: English, Russian and Turkish.

Another sad announcement, Emily Sauter, who was hired in August as the Interim Office Coordinator will be leaving us in a few short weeks. Emily will be here until Thanksgiving when she begins her travels around the world.  Currently, a search for a full-time Office Coordinator is underway.

 

If you have questions or need additional information about your situation, please schedule an appointment with an OISS Advisor by calling 651-962-6650.

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Visiting Chinese scholars make St. Thomas their temporary home

The weather may be turning autumnally crisp for hearty Midwesterners, but not everyone at St. Thomas is prepared for the change in temperature.

"Earlier when I walked out of the library, it was ' brrr,' " said 28-year-old Jing Tong. "I just wonder how a person might look like in winter," added 36-year-old Meihui Zhu, referring to all the bundling up she plans to do in the upcoming months. "Just two eyes!" Chuanhai Xin, Zhu's 40-year-old husband, observes that the two women will never be able to survive a trip to Canada.

Though they may be far from their home country of China and its more tolerable winters, the three are finding little else to complain about while studying at St. Thomas. Tong, a visiting scholar from Northwest University in the ancient Chinese capital of Xi'an in the Shaanxi province, arrived in Minnesota in the middle of August. She is just one in a string of visitors from Northwest to St. Thomas.

"My university established a cooperative relationship with St. Thomas since 1986," said Tong. "So that is a long history, and every year there will be one faculty member sent [to St. Thomas] to do some study and take some courses."

Tong's graduate study at St. Thomas (and first visit to the United States) is in the English Department. At Northwest, Tong teaches English language to students, but she hopes to get into more English literature. This desire, aided by the partnership between the two schools, is what brought Tong from Northwest to St. Thomas. "For English teachers," she said, "it is best to experience [the language] in the environment."

Another reason St. Thomas appealed to Tong was its rich statewide culture. "I take special interest in Native American literature," said Tong, "and I've heard that in Minnesota there are some Indian reservations. That's one of the reasons I chose St. Thomas." Tong eventually plans to work on translating Native American novels into the Chinese language.

Zhu also is able to study at St. Thomas through a faculty exchange program with the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. Her focus is in linguistics and second language acquisition and, in addition to her studies, she is working on various projects funded by the Academy of Social Sciences and the Chinese Ministry of Education, as well as her own doctoral dissertation.

"As a professor at a university, we have to publish or perish," explained Zhu. "I think I spend most of the time here doing research and then going to classes." But Zhu and Xin, who arrived in Minnesota on Sept. 9, also find time to spend with 10-year-old daughter, Cindy. Because Beijing schools teach English starting in kindergarten, Zhu said Cindy is easily adjusting to her new – if temporary – home. "She gets used to American life so easily," said Xin, who sounds like he isn't having such a hard time adjusting either.

"Comparatively speaking, the Twin Cities [is a] good environment, natural environment," said Xin, referring to all the trees, lawns and other open spaces he encounters here. Xin appreciates the lack of crowding in the city, especially on the streets.

For now he rides a bicycle, but Xin and Zhu are hoping to get Social Security cards and driver's licenses within the next couple of months. Xin, who works at the same Beijing university as his wife, was able to come to St. Thomas with the help of a government scholarship to study public policy and leadership in the St. Thomas Graduate School of Education. "I come here to try to catch the new trends and new developments of public administration from the western circle, especially America," he said. He also hopes to study developmental trends of U.S. nonprofit organizations.

"Anything about social justice, I'm just interested in it," said Xin. "This is just not too far away from the public administration; this is the base of public administration." Overall, Xin said he really hopes "to get closer to the American real life, practical life. Our family, we hope to get in with an American family, to exchange ideas, culture."

The family is trying to get connected through CultureLink, a St. Thomas Office of International Student Services program. CultureLink strives to build strong connections between members of the St. Thomas community and international students, helping the former to gain valuable international experiences and the latter to adjust to a new environment.

Tong, having been in the Twin Cities the longest of the three, seems to have gotten comfortable with her new surroundings. Despite the fact that her family is back in China, she already has met many American friends through classes and connections with previous Northwest scholars.

But Tong, Zhu and Xin still have plenty of time to get immersed in and exchange ideas with the St. Thomas community and American culture; all three will live in the faculty residences at St. Thomas until their visiting scholar status ends in August 2009.