Abroad in Beijing

Thursday, December 1, 2016

欢迎！Welcome!

Hello everybody and thanks for coming to check out my blog!

If you've come to this site, it must be you've either set your eyes on China as a potential study abroad site or perhaps you're just reading this out of curiosity and want to know a little more about what Chinese culture is like. Looking through my monthly blogs, you will learn more about what the journey was like for me and you will find other sections on this site where you can check out additional information on specific topics.

I can't stress how much studying abroad can develop you into a more independent person and how much it can open up such incredible job opportunities for your future. I really hope that I can encourage you to accept the challenge of going abroad. It really is a life-changing experience and though not everything will be easy to adapt to, it strengthens the spirit to try new things and be adventurous. If you're really looking to amp up your resume, having this experience abroad will absolutely make you stand out, especially for students who are planning to attend the Beijing Study Abroad Program through Syracuse University. You will attend one of China's top ranking schools: Tsinghua University (清华大学) and have the opportunity to meet other students from all over the world. Not to mention, the two-week signature seminar trips held each semester are incredible.

Enjoy your time here reading and don't be afraid to reach out to the SU Study Abroad Center if you have any further questions!

About Me

Just so you're a little more aware of who I am and what my general experience was in China...

My name is Alycia and I am a 2016 graduate of Syracuse University with a major in Modern Foreign Languages (French and Spanish) and minors in Chinese History and Chinese Language. I additionally studied Japanese while I was still at SU for the extra challenge. I guess it can't be too hard to tell that my passion is in learning foreign languages and cultures!

I actually decided to study in Beijing, China for the duration of my senior year with the intent of improving my Mandarin language skills after studying a couple years of the basics in my regular SU classes. The big drawback to this plan was that I had to miss my graduation because of the different semester schedules, but it was well worth it in the end for all of the opportunities that were gained. I went from using elementary phrases to being conversational within a matter of months, and it made the overall experience of being in China really immersive. I loved every minute of being there, even when things were a little stressful due to the language barriers and cultural differences.

I had another passion that fueled my desire to go to China. I had been practicing mixed martial arts since I had been in my junior year of high school, and by the time I had left to China, I had earned my first degree black belt. I was excited to see how all those years of practice would come into play when I started learning a Chinese style martial art, but to my surprise, it was completely different from what I expected. After arriving in Beijing, I immediately sought out and located an extremely talented instructor who conducted most of his classes at the famous Ritan Park (日坛公园). Zhang Laoshi (张老师), my instructor from the Milun School of Traditional Wushu, was familiar with many different forms of Chinese style martial arts, but the one I primarily studied was Shaolin Kung Fu. I went nearly everyday to receive his training, traveling at least an hour there and an hour back from campus. I was taken aback by all of the warmups and teachings, which were usually more fluid and philosophical than how my martial arts teachings were back home. I also had the opportunity twice to travel with the Milun School to the Gubeikou 古北口 section of the Great Wall and to stay at the remote Hexi Village at the foot of the mountain as we practiced kung fu all day. During my second semester abroad, I also joined the Xingyiquan club at Tsinghua University to supplement everything I was learning in my core martial arts classes.

My ability to come here and be able to do many of these things was due in large part to the scholarships I received. I was originally in Suzhou, China during the summer of 2015 as part of the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program, and then once I started my study abroad program in Beijing, a large part of my funding came from the Gilman Scholarship Program and from my awards at Syracuse University. Each semester while I was in Beijing, I went on a two-week signature seminar trip that taught me about the different ethnic minority groups of China (Fall Semester) and gave me an overview of the country's history (Spring Semester). As a group we traveled to many different cities and even to some remote villages where we were welcomed with open arms by the people living there. These trips were probably some of the most intense experiences we had while in China together and they broadened our education beyond the traditional classroom setting.

Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program

The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program, or just Gilman Scholarship Program for short, is a nationally competitive program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is intended to support students who are studying abroad in the pursuit of their individual academic goals. It is designed to help students gain a better understanding of the world and to prepare them for a successful career in the global market economy. At the end of the study abroad term, participants are required to complete a follow-on service project within six months of their return to give back to their communities and to encourage others to expand their worldview through a study abroad experience of their own.

This blog you are reading now is the follow-on service project that I created, however students are free to submit any kind of project they'd like with approval from Gilman staff. You can access the Gilman Scholarship Program's official website and see a full list of examples of the kinds of projects that are generally accepted through this link here:

http://www.iie.org/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program/Application-Process/Essays

Once you are completed with the project, you will submit a one to two page report on how the study abroad experience impacted you on an academic and professional level and how your project will successfully reach out to other students. After you have received a confirmation email from one of the Gilman staff that you have satisfied all of your requirements, you are officially done with your project, though it is urged that you continue to represent the program and its underlying mission.

The scholarship is only eligible to U.S. citizen undergraduates who have received the Federal Pell Grant. It offers up to $5,000 per award but for those who are studying abroad in a country where a critical language is predominantly spoken, you are also automatically considered for the Critical Need Language Award, which can increase the award up to $8,000. The written essays component in the application process for this scholarship is straightforward: you must include a Statement of Purpose that describes your study abroad program and a Follow-on Service Project Proposal that outlines all the details of your project and how it will have an impact on your community or university.

Syracuse University's Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising (CFSA) often holds writing workshops to help students with their essays. I highly recommend taking advantage of this. I don't think I would have won both the CLS Scholarship (twice- once as an alternate for the 2016 summer program in Hikone, Japan) and the Gilman Scholarship without their help, as advisors were very knowledgeable on the kind of content that was being sought after in these essays. Their website can be found at:

http://nationalscholarships.syr.edu/award/gilman-scholarship/

As my own recommendation, when you are writing either of these essays, be as thorough as possible in the details. Gilman is not only looking for a project that can leave a strong impact on its audience, but from a marketing standpoint, they are also looking for excellent study abroad programs that demonstrate the amazing opportunities that are out there. It is as much about fulfilling the participants' aspirations as it is about the example they lead for others. When you are writing your Statement of Purpose, you really want to highlight what makes your study abroad program so unique while at the same time making it clear that the experience will be of benefit to your academic goals and future career plans. The Follow-on Service Project Proposal also requires a lot of detail and thought, but the important thing is to not make it too overwhelming for you to complete in the end. If you choose to apply to the Gilman Scholarship Program, good luck!

Critical Language Scholarship Program

The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program is a nationally competitive summer program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is designed for students who are looking to improve or gain critical language skills. Critical languages are languages that are usually harder for Westerners to learn, and as a result, there aren't as many people that are able to speak them as there are job opportunities that are in demand for the skills. Languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Hindi are but a few of the options you have to study through CLS, though some languages require prior knowledge. I would strongly recommend anyone that has an interest in learning foreign languages to apply to this scholarship. It does take a lot of commitment to go through the program, but it is insanely effective and makes for an unforgettable experience!

After I went through the CLS program in Suzhou, China, my language capabilities skyrocketed. Initially, I could only use elementary words and phrases such as basic greetings, colors, numbers, what my favorite things were, etc. My knowledge of the language was survival at best, but after two months in the program, I was pretty much conversational. I could speak for hours at a time in Chinese with little stress. Though I might not have been completely fluent from those two months alone, it prepared me for the year to come in China and helped make my language skills reach a more professional level.

The classes were very intense and the program was really only meant for those who were willing to put in all of their time and effort into immersing themselves into the culture. We lived with host families in Suzhou, but in other CLS sites there was the chance you could be living with a native roommate instead. We were also assigned language partners who we would meet with weekly and language tutors to meet with every day after class. We were only allowed to use our target language during the program, and if someone was caught and written up too many times for speaking another language, they would be sent home. Even when we needed assistance, unless it was a serious emergency, we could only use our target language. Once while I was still learning how to use the bus system in Suzhou, I got lost in the city when my bus broke off of its regular route to make a pit stop at the main station, and even at that time, I could only rely on my basic Chinese skills to find my way home. Once a week we were allowed a break from this rule. We had an hour meeting in English to discuss upcoming plans and to share some of our experiences. Calls to families back in America were not discouraged but it was generally better to keep them limited so as to stick with the program's design of only using the target language.

We had four hours of classes every weekday with short breaks in between and hours of homework to follow up with at home. Homework usually consisted of written assignments and using our speaking skills to accomplish mundane tasks outside of class, such as ordering food at restaurants or interviewing locals. Classes were to only be conducted in Chinese, even in the beginning level classes, and included Spoken Application, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. For Spoken Application, we gave oral presentations everyday to describe our experiences gained from the interviews and tasks in our homework assignments and we discussed them with follow-up questions. Speaking class was similar to a general class and had us focusing on grammar rules. We had to memorize passages from our textbook everyday after class and be able to recite them the next day without looking at the text. Preparing for these two classes arguably consumed the largest amount of time after school. In Reading class we had to read a couple of passages each day, focusing on key words and content. At the start of each class, we'd have a writing quiz to test the previous day's key words. Writing class involved using our newly learned grammar and vocabulary to write short essays based on certain topics or themes everyday. We also had two elective courses in Taichi and Calligraphy and had to choose one as the minimum requirement, though most of us would choose to do both throughout the summer.

If you want to know more about what the CLS experience was like, please check out my first blog entry under August 2015.

If this program sounds interesting to you and you think you're up for the challenge, I would recommend going to their website and learning more about how to apply at:

http://clscholarship.org

Try looking at their current essay prompts and get an idea as to how you'd want to write them. Syracuse University's Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising (CFSA) often holds writing workshops to help students with their essays. I highly recommend taking advantage of this. I don't think I would have won both the CLS Scholarship (twice- once as an alternate for the 2016 summer program in Hikone, Japan) and the Gilman Scholarship without their help, as advisors were very knowledgeable on the kind of content that was being sought after in these essays. Their website can be found at:

http://nationalscholarships.syr.edu/award/critical-language-scholarship/

The best advice to keep in mind is that this scholarship program is looking for people who can take the heat under pressure and handle any situation that may arise from the experience abroad. They won't select you if they think you'd freak out and panic getting lost in a foreign city or if they thought you'd be someone that can't tolerate a lot of change and pressure, so avoid mentioning in your essays anything that stresses you out too much. Skillfully readdress the issue of being under constant pressure by describing how you can overcome the adversity. Another important thing they will be looking for is how you will continue to use the language once the program is completed. It is an all-expense covered program, so they don't want to waste all that money on someone who isn't going to use the language in their future career. Remember that they are looking for people who are resolved, open-minded, and resourceful. They need people who are willing to embrace a foreign culture and who will complete the program to its fullest design. Good luck to those who try applying and happy travels to those who get in!

Shaolin Kung Fu Trip to the Great Wall at Gubeikou and to Gubei Water Town

Once in October and later on again in April, the Beijing Milun School of Traditional Wushu took students on a trip to the Gubeikou 古北口 section of the Great Wall for sightseeing and a weekend full of martial arts activities. We stayed at a small hostel in Hexi Village at the foot of the mountain, enjoying home-cooked meals and the company of our hosts. Each day we'd start off with a light breakfast at our hostel before we spent hours studying Shaolin Kung Fu out in the village and mountainside. On one day for each trip, we'd share a picnic in the fields with food we'd each contribute, and then the next day, wake up early to start our hike to the wall by the crack of dawn. The wall at this section isn't reconstructed and so it has a more authentic ancient feel to it. With the view of the mountains and sunlight gleaming through the mist, it was really an awe-inspiring scenery. Some people are willing to go camping in the towers of the wall here, though this can be dangerous due to how unsteady some parts of the wall are. On the trip in April, we also went to Gubei Water Town (Gubei Shuizhen 古北水镇 ) for a little R&R. Here is a collection of photos from both of these trips.

October