Affiliated to the Ministry of Education, the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) is one of the national "211" key universities (one of the 100 universities to which the Chinese government has attached top ...more

    I’m Zeng Tianzhang, a student from the Department of Logistics, Grade 2011, the Business School. Many friends asked me how I felt about studying abroad and I think it’s not easy to describe it with one word. Generally, in the one term’s studying abroad, my horizon, knowledge, competency and value have been greatly promoted. Students from abroad won’t call themselves returnees nowadays since there are so many people studying abroad. However I’d like to share with you my life abroad.

    I went to America to study Supply Chain Management in Sam Walton Business School, University of Arkansas in the spring semester of 2014. Very few students know about University of Arkansas, but many students have heard about Sam Walton Business School. Sam Walton is the founder of Wal-Mart and the City University of Arkansas is located, Fayetteville is next to the headquarters of Wal-Mart, Bentonville. Sam Walton Business School is donated by this famous entrepreneur and it ranked top 10 in America. University of Arkansas was built in 1871 and the history of this old university can trace back to American Civil War.

    Going abroad was totally out of my expectation. When the school told us this exchange project, I have no idea of University of Arkansas at all. But after reading the introduction of the Department of Supply Chain Management, I quitted my internship from a Top 500 foreign enterprise immediately and decided to study abroad. There’s only 20 days left for me to prepare all the applying materials, which is as complicated as a drunken man knitting the sweater. I have to do all the preparing work before the deadline and I have only 15 days to prepare for IELTS. Finally, I became the first international student in Sam Walton Business School, University of Arkansas from Central University of Finance and Economics, Business School; and what’s more, this is also the beginning of a series of coincidences.

    Till now I am not certain about how many cities are called Fayetteville in America; someone told there are 24. This is the reason why my first air ticket was to Fayetteville, North Carolina. When I visited my roommate’s family in Easter, I found that my roommate’s father was the pilot of my flight from Detroit to Beijing. When I transfer from Fayetteville to Detroit, an old professor in Sam Walton Business School sat aside me. So many coincidences became beautiful memories for me and I want to talk more about what was learned from this experience.

    First of all, let’s start from the teaching facilities, which include hardware and software.

    Hardware resources of the school impressed me greatly with its convenience. The school tries to provide service for students. Almost every building owns computer lab, even the cafeteria. As long as you log in with your ID number, you can use the numerous Internet resources without worrying about connection speed. Lap top will only be found in coffee houses and classrooms, and Wi-Fi is everywhere. There is a big platform in the school, where there is Black Board, and students can check teachers’ messages and teaching materials, hand on homework, check Personal achievements. The university Email is related to other systems. There is also printing account, meal plan, housing, tutor source, health care and even police’s safe ride when you get drunk. A Google Drive can replace all the mobile hard disks and USB flash disks. The library opens to 2 o’clock in the morning and it offers massive amount resources and plenty of space for students. Even though you can’t fine the material you need, you can load the materials from Alliance Library System to your personal account. Except for teaching facilities, there are still many kinds of sports and recreational facilities, such as basketball hall, baseball field, football stadium and so on. Even I who was not good at sports was influenced to do physical exercise regularly. Americans like sports and many American girls show a kind of beauty by their fitness. There are many outdoor clubs who organize camping, mountaineering, color run and so on. In many places, especially the basement of dormitory, there are many recreational facilities, such as billiards, table tennis, television, piano and also kitchen. Many international students gather in the basement every day and this is really a leisure and easy life.

    The software resources of the school also broadened my horizon and I felt so proud in studying in such a world first class Business School. In Sam Walton, the teachers are all big fish of world class, especially the Department of Supply Chain Management, which can be proved by the number of papers published in top international journals. The director of the Department of Supply Chain Management Matthew Waller is such a big fish who published about seventy papers in journals such as POMs. It is a pleasant surprise that the authors you encountered in bibliography of books stand alive before you. Due to the close relationship with Wal-Mart, Sam Walton Business School can make use of the rich resources offered by Wal-Mart. Senior executives in many enterprises give lectures for students; professors invite their friends, senior executives from top 500 enterprises such as Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, and some alumni with great achievements to take part in students’ wine party, which will help students in their future development. The teaching system in America is different from that in China. There are four examinations in every term, almost one time per month, so the final exam is not very important, sometimes the final is optional. If you are satisfied with your scores of the first three exams and your daily work, you may not need to take the final; this will greatly reduce the burden of students. For Chinese students, they just go over the textbook in the night before exam and they will get a high mark. In America, daily performance is more stressed and there is quiz almost in each lesson. Teachers will mark students’ daily work by their performance in class. One student can only get 12 credits each term, so the senior students still have many lessons and few of skip classes. It is greatly different from the situation in China, where students have no classes in the last year and many of them sit around with nothing to do. Students in America seem never worried about applying for a job, instead they learn everything in a down-to-earth way. The university pays much attention to students’ comprehensive ability. In class, teachers will offer students homework, case and project which are closely related to the actual situation of enterprises. I made a big project for Federal Express during the term in America and there are some other cases which lay emphasis on data analysis and enterprise application. After class, the university offer many kinds of academic and recreational resources such as paper tutor, job affair, conversation club, Friday night live, culture sharing and host family. I took part in different kinds of activities and the most impressive feeling is international culture integration. There are many international students from more than 100 countries in this university and my horizon is greatly broaden by meeting friends from different countries, knowing about their culture and learning their languages. My host family in America is very friendly. Almost every international student will have a host family, and they need to gather together regularly and share different cultures of their country; this is a good way to learn foreign cultures. I participated in a conversation club and my English was greatly improved by communicating in English at regular intervals. I met a good roommate in America, who always took me to different sports activities such as basketball, baseball, rugby and so on. I realized that these major sporting events are a perfect situation to show group cohesion of Americans. They love their culture and their team, they wear the same T-shirt and they yell out the same slogan. I remembered the first time I watched the American college students’ professional basketball match, when American former president Clinton also came to watch. My roommate also took me to go hiking and many famous café, bookstore and music concert, to accomplish the 100 things every Arkansas student should do; but the most exciting one is that he took me to his home in Texas in Easter. University of Arkansas owns another feature called honor road, on which every Arkansas graduate will carve their names. Now this road has spread into every corner of the school. Years later when you come back to school and find your name carved on the road, you will feel a great honor no matter how excellent you are.

    Now let’s talk about American life. American all have their own car on the whole. For those who haven’t cars, there is free bus. But there is no environmental pollution, let alone haze. They take it very seriously to protect their environment, for example, there is a particular kind of blue flower growing aside road in Texas and picking this kind of flower is criminal according to the law. America is a rules-oriented country and the people follow the rules strictly. The one who smokes in any corner of the school will be fined 100 dollars. You will be fined if missing a mandatory meeting. Students younger than 21 years old are not allowed to drink alcohol, even under temptations. Americans are very polite and they will never intrude other’s private room without permission. Americans attach much importance to credit protection, which can be seen from their bank account. Sometimes students from other countries may feel uncomfortable about it, worrying that the bank will deduct money from their account; actually this kind of thing has never happened before. Americans like talking about politics and they would tell which party they support, which law is reasonable, who will be the next president and so on. Whenever talking about international politics, especially Sino-American relations, I would pass sensitive points consciously. I recognize that Americans have prejudice on China in many aspects, but it cannot be denied that China is rising sharply and may take place of America s the world’s host. Maybe they don’t like it, but it is truth. In America, everything is made in China. This also troubled me when I wanted to bring some American specialties back to China. Americans have very high personal quality; no one yell in public places, cars will stop 50 meters away and the driver will wave to pedestrians and they will shake hands politely when meeting with each other. Any small habits are built from a long term and such social morality is cultivated by all the citizens. But eating is not so satisfactory in America because their diets are not so diverse as Chinese ones. Americans always eat fast food, which makes them fat. It is very difficult to find a Chinese restaurant there, but Americans are very particular about entertaining guests.

    During the term in America, I learnt and improved a lot in horizon, knowledge, personal quality and thought & values. This is a precious memory.

                                                ——my life in University of Arkansas,Zeng Tianzhang

            (Editor|YANG SNOWS)