hxue20

In the summer of 2016, when there was only about a  month to step on Colby’s campus, Pat Dickert, who is my friend and also my teammate/captain on the basketball team, reached out to me and asked me if I would like to join the research team of Professor Adam Howard, who is the director of the Education Department at Colby College and my academic liaison, as well. He informed me the global citizen research trip in the upcoming summer. Professor Adam Howard and Professor Andie Wang will lead a group to Taiwan to conduct the research on global citizenship at Takau English School. He also introduced me that Professor Howard studies on worldwide elite universes and colleges about how they operate and their impact on students and the rest of the world. Without any hesitation, I said I would love to be part of the research team.

The reason that I would love to be a member of this research team is because that I know this trip will be a valuable learning experience. This trip will show me what the college-level research is like and teach me how to do research at a college level. As a first year student, I know how precious and honorable this opportunity is, also with the understanding of how challenging this trip will possibly be.

The first semester was all about the preparation for this trip– submitting the proposal for this grant. All of the members on this team, including Adam, put in a lot effort on this grant proposal. In the beginning of this semester, Adam held the meeting with us and discussed with us about the subjects that we conduct our research on. After establishing the research topics, we met once on almost every Sunday to work on our personal statement which includes several aspects: family and education background, connection to Taiwan, specific responsibility  for each individual during the research process, and the gaining from this trip.

My role in this project is to research how TES prepare their students in the college admission process and more importantly for studying abroad.  In fact, almost 90% of students in TES will go to American colleges, I am particularly interested in comparing US and Taiwan admissions processes, and how it influences graduating students’ preparation in applying to American colleges. As a Chinese international student who moved to U.S. to attend high school and college, I know the college admission process in both counties. I will use this knowledge and experience as an advantage to help my research. I will conduct my research in different approaches. One example will be that I will collect data by interviewing the current college counselors at TES, and examining documents relevant to college admissions such as standardized test score statistics, student demographic records, etc. I will also observe the process for graduating seniors.

I will also provide information to students about the admission process in the U.S. to help them be successful in the admissions process. I will tell them my personal experiences living and studying in the U.S., as well as the cultural and psychological transition of moving from China to the U.S.

Since almost every member on this research team is also on the basketball team, we are thrilled that we are able to have a sense of the basketball culture in Taiwan. We are going to hold a basketball clinic in Taiwan and communicate with Taiwanese basketball players about their experience of playing basketball in Taiwan.

I am really excited about this research trip. I love to make some sort of the connection with Asian culture and American culture, and this is exactly the purpose of global citizenship– to bring people from different culture background together. Finally, I am so glad that I can be a research assistant for this trip! I truly believe that this trip will be one of the unique and memorable experiences for me! #Elite #ColbyBasketball