Accompanied by their professor, 20 students from Xi’an, China are visiting “The Hill” for 30 days during their winter break. This group is the first from Xi’an International Studies University to come to Prairie View A&M University to get an American University experience.
For the past seven years, the PVAMU Honors program has sent 21 to 24 students to XISU to study advanced Chinese, Chinese history and culture. During that six-week trip in the summer, students cultivate an understanding of global partnership. The visiting XISU students are fluent in English. A majority of the visiting XISU students have chosen English as their academic major and come to the United States to engage in an English immersion experience.
Dr. James A. Wilson, Jr., executive founding director of the Confucius Institute at Prairie View A&M University, states that he wants the visiting students to feel a part of the PVAMU academic community. “We want them to fully appreciate how education is taught in the United States, “says Wilson, “We also want to introduce them to all the various academic majors.”
The process to be selected as a visiting student was rigorous. Wang Ruojia, a graduate student studying English/Chinese Interpreting, says she had to be a Top 10 student and go through rounds of interviews conducted by her teachers. From those interviews, she was selected to come to PVAMU. Ruojia says she has enjoyed her time here in the United States. “It’s wonderful to visit here. The campus is beautiful.” Ruojia said, “The United States students are really nice and kind.” While on break, PVAMU students took their guests shopping at the Houston Galleria for a day of fun.
Jie Li, associate professor at Xi’an International Studies University, is the visiting professor accompanying the 20 students. She states her students come to here to broaden their vision so they can get a global vision. “I want them to know how American students learn and how American professors teach,” says Li. Since their arrival, they’ve visited museums in Houston as well as different places on campus like the Writing Center and Recreational Center.
While the XISU students visit PVAMU, they are getting an overview of American culture from the African American perspective. “As vast as the American culture is, coming to an HBCU gives them an opportunity to understand history from a different perspective,” says Wilson. During their stay on “The Hill”, XISU students participate in the Honors College Colloquium. They take a course, taught by Wilson, called “The History of Images and Hollywood’s Construct of Black People”. The course looks at film, theory and history, and allows them to understand the complexity of race relations starting from the beginning of slavery to the present.
Written by Jourdan B. Scruggs