ECU Abroad

This is Brandi and I have arrived safely to Puebla, Mexico. We have had a very busy couple of days and I am looking forward to staying in one hotel room for the remainder of my stay in Mexico. Melissa Watkins from UNC-Charlotte left the tour in Mexico City, so there were only three of us at the UNCEP table for the Estado campus and in Cuernavaca, but it still worked out quite nicely as we had good representation from the state for WCU, UNCEP and ECU. I am always amazed at what an oasis the Estado campus is in the midst of Mexico City. The Cuernavaca campus for Tec de Monterrey is equally as nice, although much smaller and more isolated. I was surprised to hear there are only 1800 students at Cuernavaca, but despite the small student population, we had quite a bit of interest in NC. The majority of interest came from high school students interested in pursing degrees in the U.S. (Monika, I have a few names for you when I get back!) After the fair in Cuernavaca, UPAEP in Puebla sent a car for me. I left for Puebla at about 5pm and by 8:30pm was having dinner with our current student at UPAEP on an ISEP exchange. She is doing quite well and is immensely enjoying her study abroad in Mexico.Today, I am off to the pyramids in Cholula for a little outdoors activity. In the morning, Agustin Landa will take me to two of the rural clinics where our Nursing students will be doing work this summer. We will go to Chalchihuapan and Huaquechula. Both appear to be about an hour outside of the city and I am really looking forward to this part of the trip.  

I arrived in Mexico yesterday despite a slight delay with the flight. When I got to Queretaro, I immediately took a taxi to the hotel where the dinner gala was being hosted by Tec de Monterrey. I was too late for dinner, but enjoyed seeing everyone from the fair again and was surprised to be greeted by five of my colleagues from NC (two of which I was unaware would be here). We took a short tour of downtown Queretaro with our wonderful hostess, Marcela, before returning to the room to get some rest for the fair today.We had quite a busy day today on the Queretaro campus. I think everyone thought it to be a success and we had a lot of positive energy recruiting students to the North Carolina table. I think we will see a few students coming our way from this one.  It’s been a long day and we just arrived at the hotel in Mexico City. We are all a little beat, but I think we might take a little walk through the Financial District before calling it a night.  

After three weeks of recruiting in 6 cities in Asia, with many inquiry cards in hand, it is time to return home. I have talked to a lot of interested and qualified students and it is my great hope that many of them will decide to apply to ECU. We ended the entire tour with a large fair at St. Mary’s International School in Tokyo. What I definitely did not expect was to win a prize from the counselor at the school for the best banner. What a lovely surprise and a wonderful end to the tour. Here are a few pictures from Shanghai by night and the ECU booth at the IIE fair in Tokyo right before the opening.

The view at night from Victoria Peak in Hong Kong was spectacular. Having taken the tram there, we enjoyed not only the view but the most delicious meal as well. Unfortunately, we had to say “good bye” to the city that night. It was time to pack our bags and get on the road again. Before we flew to Seoul, we visited American International School and Hong Kong International School. In 2006, a student from the latter was actually accepted to ECU. The day was filled with the visits in the morning and the travel to Seoul in the afternoon and evening. It was not till around 10 pm that we arrived in South Korea. The next morning was filled with visits again and the U.S. University fair. First we had some time devoted only to the Department of Defense school students and then the remaining three hours to the general public. The fair was a great success. Since parents are so much involved in the process, they definitely came in large numbers. Karen, my interpreter, who grew up in the Philippines and then in the U.S. was a great help during those talks with parents. I was approached by the students who saw me in March at the fair so I was glad we are creating the presence in South Korea. Finally, it was also wonderful to see Yoori who will be coming to ECU in the Spring. And then we were off to Shanghai the next day and this is where I am writing from. One of the schools that we visited yesterday was Shanghai High School and it was great to find out that we actually have a student attending ECU from this particular fair. The IIE fair yesterday was very, very, very well attended and surprisingly I spoke to a number of prospective undergraduate students. I truly thought the interest would be predominately from graduate students. We still have school visits today and bright and early tomorrow we will be on our way to the last stop on this trip, Tokyo.

Here are some pictures from Seoul and Shanghai.

Here are some of the pictures taken right before the students arrived.

Well, to answer Bill’s question, yes, I ate Vietnamese food. The very first night, I actually tried a Vietnamese sampler which was delicious. Unfortunately, I left Vietnam without having had Pho which I will need to come back for.

I am truly sorry I have not written for so long but we were in Taiwan for only 36 hours but before we get to that, let’s go back to Tuesday morning. The day began with the country and student visa briefing at the International Education fair. We set up our tables and prepared for the fair which we knew would be very well attended. Seventy two institutions of higher education were present ranging from community colleges through liberal arts colleges and finally universities. Last year IIE reported there were 6500 prospective students at their fairs in Ho Chi Ming City and Hanoi. Once the door opened, we saw a storm of students coming in.  They mostly inquired about business and pre-medical programs. It was especially interesting to meet a mother and a daughter who is 12 years old and they are already preparing for this great journey of pursuing education in the U.S. As I mentioned earlier, we were only in and out in Taiwan but it was great to go back. The students in National Experimental High School and Hsinchu International School as well as the university fair asked some very detailed questions which proved their interest. At night we managed to eat a great dinner and take a stroll through one of the night markets. And then it was 5:45 and we were off to Hong Kong. Very tired but very excited, we were welcomed by extremely high buildings and breath-taking views. The land is limited so the buildings seem to be touching the sky. Right from the airport, we visited Canadian International School and South Island School. And tomorrow we will have the IIE fair which will be very busy.

Here is my first post from the far away lands across the Pacific. After 23 hours in the air, I finally arrived in Saigon. It was well after 10 pm and the streets were still full of motorcyclists. One wonders how skillful of a driver one needs to be to avoid accidents in this sea of motorcyclists. I only slept a couple of hours and spent the rest of the night switching from Italian to French TV as the sleep did not come as easily as I hoped it would. My stay has been very eventful so far. On Sunday, some of us visited Cu Chi Tunnels, others participated in the city tour. Our guide described to us the historical, social and cultural aspects of the city. After a visit to a temple, it was time for all of us to jump on the tricycles and ride through the streets of Saigon. There were some scary moments when we were going through intersections and it seemed like it was “every man for himself.” This morning started with a visit to International School of HCMC and British International School. The afternoon included a reverse fair and we definitely have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow since we will be at the IIE fair.

It is hard to imagine that on October 6th I will be in Ho Chi Minh City, with a jet lag but very excited. It is just several more hours and few more flights away. Please visit this site often as I hope to be able to report from the road and share with you my experiences on the path to recruit international students to ECU.

It has been quite an exciting month. I am probably mostly thrilled about an event that Dr. Corbin, Dr. Ledford, Mrs. Eckstein and I are working on for the International Education Week. We have paired up Teaching Fellows with international students for this particular project. These pairs will work together on a lesson regarding the international student’s home country and then during the International Education Week, they will teach the lesson to school children. They will also model their activities on November 14^th at an event organized by Beth Eckstein, Director of the Center for Economic Education in the College of Business.

Here are some pictures from the kick-off event last Monday. More to come…

Another worth mentioning event took place this afternoon. It was a workshop on Intercultural Sensitivity in the Classroom with greatly appreciated presentations done by our faculty members and international students themselves. What a great group to work with and we thank them all for their participation.

Check out our new Pirate Port, East Carolina University’s Web portal for prospective students.