世界看美国 美国看什么

世界看美国美国看什么

——对话全球国际教育者协会新闻发言人

2011年5月29日-6月3日，全球国际教育者协会（NAFSA）2011年会议在风景秀丽、白帆点点的加拿大温哥华举行。来自世界100多个国家和地区的将近9万名教育界工作者齐聚温哥华会议中心，通过4天的展会、数百场座谈会和招待会找到他们心仪的合作者，为各自的校园增添更加鲜艳的国际化色彩。在中国展团中，清华大学、北京大学、浙江大学等十几所国内高校均派代表参加，许多国内顶尖留学机构及语言培训机构也参展亮相。NAFSA战略办公室主任新闻发言人Ursula Oaks女士，向我们介绍了这场全球国际教育者盛会历经63年依然魅力无限的秘密。

问题：NAFSA已经举办了多少届？今年的亮点是什么？Oaks: NAFSA成立于1948年，至今NAFSA展会已经成功举办了63届，展会的核心精神是创造并传承国际化教育。具体来说就是创造并延续国际教育项目合作，发现并讨论国际学生面对的挑战和问题。相信您今天也可以感受到所有参会者的热情，不停歇地拓宽他们的国际人脉网络和商务合作关系，我想这些都体现了NAFSA的核心价值。

问题：前几年NAFSA会议的举办地址大多在美国，明年也

会在美国，为什么今年选址温哥华？有哪些特别的原因？Oaks: 哈，我不知道这是否特别，我们之前有一些会议也曾经在加拿大举办过，1997年也曾经来过温哥华。我们的注意力主要在北美国家的一些城市，比如过去几年我们去过洛杉矶、盐湖城、堪萨斯等等。坦白地说，选择会议地点时我们主要考虑这些城市是否有足够的能力举办如此大型的展会，因为展会的规模太大了。首先需要一个大型展馆；研讨会也非常非常多，我们需要足够的房间来同时举办；参会代表的食宿、交通等等也是我们必须考虑的因素，这样看来，能够“承得下”的城市就在一定程度上被圈定下来了。今年有8.7万多名参会者，是我们举办过的第二大展会，最大的以此在华盛顿。温哥华美丽景色的吸引力不容否认，40%参会者来自非北美国家，可以说展会的国际化程度越来越高了。

问题：提到国际化，我看到了展会现场有很多大型的国家展团，比如加拿大、澳大利亚、英国、德国、法国等等。其中中国展团中包括清华、北大这样的一流大学，而且我相信和北美欧洲同行相比，他们是最远道而来的。那么，为了继续鼓励这些一流大学和高端教育机构参加，NAFSA是否会出台某些措施为之提供更有针对性的服务？

Oaks:我们非常重视与中国的合作，我们的CEO Marlene Johnson每年都会到中国拜访，每次都会带回中国教育行业

的最新发展情况，尤其是中国教育国际化的最新信息。中国教育行业发展非常迅速，充满激情，对国际教育需求巨大，你的到来也充分证明了这一点。我们非常荣幸您能够参加我们今年的展会。值得一提的是，今年NAFSA最富盛名的领袖大奖颁发给了中美教育基金主席Julia Chang Bloch,她同时也是美国首位华裔女大使。她本人一直在积极推动美国和中国之间的教育项目合作，促进美国学生赴华留学以及吸引中国学生赴美留学。

问题：中国市场对国际教育的确存在非常大的需求，去年一年赴美留学学生人数比前一年增长了30%，而且这一数字还在持续增长。中国的教育行业对美国教育有着巨大的兴趣，据我所知，很多美国学校的最大留学群体也是来自中国的学生。因此我冒昧地问一下，NAFSA是否考虑过选择中国某一城市作为今后会议的举办地以促进双方更好合作？Oaks:哦，那将是NAFSA最棒的一届展会！但是，我们需要调查一下我们的预算情况、与会者的方便程度，我们目前还是把注意力集中在北美的一些城市。有好多人也建议我们在欧洲、亚洲的一些城市举办，但是我想目前的工作重心还是把北美的展会办好。

问题：有人讲NAFSA比作国家教育界的联合国、达沃斯论坛，您怎样评价？

Oaks:哦，我觉得真是过奖了，非常感谢。但是这个展会的

确对于国际教育界十分重要，它代表了成千上万的国际教育工作者的成就和业已存在的问题，不仅是来到现场的这些人，还包括在办公室里没法参加的人们，因此我想我们会持续提高这样一个交流的平台。不管是达沃斯还是联合国，都有国家或政府背景，但是NAFSA是非营利组织，我们没有从政府获得任何资助。我们的赞助来自我们的会员、我们的会务商品、赞助商等，但是政府给了我们很多支持，比如交通方面等等，还是很感谢各位如此重视NAFSA。

问题：明年，NAFSA会给我们带来怎样的惊喜？

Oaks: 明年我们会去休斯顿，德克萨斯州，那里比温哥华暖和多了。休斯顿是一个非常美丽的城市，是全美第三大国际学生聚集地，非常国际化，我们希望休斯顿的会议能够像温哥华一样成功。当然，我也希望在休斯顿再次见到你！

问题：通常哈佛申请委员会会怎样评判一个学生是否是你们所需要的人才？

Oaks：我知道你们对申请过程非常感兴趣，我们在审批申请材料的时候，主要看重以下三个方面。

第一，学术水平：这可能包括他曾经参与过的研究项目、标准化考试的成绩以及资金的科研成果。

第二，课外活动：哈佛的很多学生都热衷于从事自己感兴趣的课外活动，并且有些成为这一领域的专业选手，我们希望

在各个领域发掘代表人物来组成哈佛多姿多彩的整体。

第三，性格因素：这一方面要从你毕业的学校情况、老师的说明和相关的推荐信当中来了解。对于国际学生来讲，因为我们不可能熟悉所有的中学和大学，所以更多地会从推荐信当中了解。目前哈佛有越来越多的中国校友，我们也十分期待在不久的将来为中国学生提供更多的面试机会，让我们更多地了解每个优秀学生。

下面是一篇来自留学生事务所的优秀的留学生个人陈述，这篇个人陈述获得了哥伦比亚大学教授的一致称赞，哥伦比亚大学教授Smith称赞说这篇个人陈述的故事很吸引人，这篇个人陈述由Catherine(官方qq:1127994113)执笔，内容如下，请各位留学生朋友认真阅读，仔细体会。

The major I would like to apply for my graduate study is designing. I love designing, have keen institution for aesthetics and always have strong points and thinking. And, since I was born in a scholar-gentry family and cultivate my special interest into art and design from very little. That is the main reason for me to choose this major. I admire Jobs, CEO of Apple Company, whose deeds also influence many people in the world and I always dream of being a person like him. Once I read a book of

his and was deeply touched by this words〝if it was your last day today, would you finish what you want to do?〞. Whenever I am in hesitation and panic, I always remind of these words and become tough immediately. Additionally, as we all know China is a country with long history and there are a great number of surprising items from ancient times appearing and others disappeared forever at the same time. Sometimes, because of abstract theory or essay, most of people are unwilling to learn ancient culture. In order to reserve the culture of each time and meanwhile display obvious factors in modern times, I am very interested into creating products that combine traditional culture with modern aesthetic. And I would like to be a culture heir inheriting thoughts and national culture by means of designing. The main items I would like to design are mainly furniture in household, which has various kinds of styles in different times along the history. However, to learn the knowledge of designing is the first step to achieve.For the above mentioned points, my interest and the situations in modern China, I decide to study designing in my graduate study.

As regards situations about my undergraduate study, I studied in Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai Branch. From there I got my

bachelor degree in Logistics Management major. My achievement is quite fair and has gotten many various kinds of certificate. The Total GPA is 2.9 and average score is 79. I have good command of basic knowledge about my own major and the skills related to it. Because of interest, I also learned oven-bake clay, tie-dye, web-page designing making, three-dimensional graphics, 3Dmax animation, Greek and roman mythology as well as western culture sources as my elective courses. Especially for the clay craft curriculum, I got full marks in the final exam and took great interest into it. Furthermore, I endeavored to learn major curriculums on trade, such as production management operation, human resource management, marketing management and international trade. The contents of these curriculums make me understand how to let products up to the standardized management in the process production, how to establish a designing group, how to popularize brands and products through marketing methods and even how to push the brands forward to international market.These curriculums greatly help to widen my knowledge and I think it will be beneficial for my graduate study and future jobs.

About internship, I have once built my own manual designing Blog and personal manual brand during my college years. I mainly took charge of design of brand’s logo and some manual products, and then I put the pictures of products and explanation on my Blog, which was recommended as the first page of LOFTER issued by NetEase as a Slight Blog. As you know, LOFTER is considered as the heaven of artists, and it provides platform for talent artists, in which the artists could display their designed products and the particular ideas are also exchanged there. Additionally, I was also interviewed by reporter from Weeklies, a fashion magazine stationed in Shanghai, and the magazine mainly explains fashionable elements and guides the direction of people’s quality lives.Meanwhile, I also designed out unique items of my own and establish my own brand. I can sell my own designed brand items in boutique shop on campus. The above practices have greatly added my confidence in studying designing and being engaged in this industry and make me practice my design ability, taking great advantage of my designing aptitude. If possible, after graduation, I would like to establish my own company, integrated by design, development, production and marketing.

Columbia University is flourished with academic and art atmosphere, modern teaching facilities and excellent faculties. The university administration has strict requirement and emphasize the combination of culture and modernization. All these factors greatly attract my attention. If I am accepted, I will try my best to finish my graduate curriculum as soon as possible on one hand, and I will continue to undertake the design work of my brands, to actively participate into various kinds of activities to practice my social ability on another hand. I also desire to do research on designed works by others to absorb advantages and improve myself better.