On March 11, 2011, a rising tide of dark water wrapped Japan’s northeastern coast.
The world was gripped by Armageddon-invoking scenes from this highly industrialized nation in east Asia.
After the visual impact of the unprecedented tsunami, there came news of nuclear meltdown in the Fukushima nuclear plant. Japan’s vast northeastern coast — the coastal villages as well as sizable inland areas — was nearly destroyed by the hand of the nature.
By the time the group of 60 students from the University of Iowa left the Temple Town last week, it was amply clear to them that the field of elementary studies does not limit itself to field trips in one’s own country. “It is also about encountering people and their communities far beyond borders.”
Ten students who spent three weeks in the different campuses of the Mahatma group of schools took back with them loads of information about India, and particularly small town Madurai. But what touched their hearts the most was an appreciation for them from all and also some continued questions about each other. That was true knowledge gained.
UI junior Angeline See longs to craft her dream business — a bakery chock-full of delicious and colorful Asian desserts. But the native of Malaysia found out her endeavors may be postponed last fall when applying for an office space at the Bedell Entrepreneurship Learning Laboratory.
International students are prohibited from self-employment while on student visas. So for students like See, the only chance at launching a business would be finding a native student to partner with.
With Chinese enrollment in Iowa universities skyrocketing and a major Chinese diplomatic visit underway this week in Iowa, Chinese-Iowa relations have recently manifested themselves in a view yet unprecedented. It’s probably enough for some pundits to worry they’re on the set of a Red Dawn remake.
MUSCATINE — Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Muscatine.
The eastern Iowa town of around 20,000 might seem in odd company, but it’s no accident that Iowa is one of the stops on Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s U.S. trip this week.
Xi visited Muscatine — the same town he visited in 1985 — and Des Moines Wednesday night.
Chinese students are studying at Iowa’s two largest public universities in record numbers. The University of Iowa welcomed 1,737 students from China in fall 2011 — half its international student population. The numbers are similar at Iowa State University (ISU), which enrolled 1,849 Chinese students (54 percent of all international students). Each school has an enrollment of about 30,000, and international students make up 11 percent of each campus.
Yume Hidaka, the UI’s Japan outreach initiative coordinator, attended the university’s “Valentine’s Day: Dating and Courtship Across Cultures” Monday, in which UI students and faculty discussed how Valentine’s Day is celebrated in their cultures. The native of Japan, who moved to Iowa from Tokyo, said she was struck in her new home by how open Americans express themselves.
The University of Iowa has seen a surge in Chinese student enrollment. Just over half of the UI international student population is from China (1,737 students) and numbers have increased dramatically in the past five years.
Iowans and Chinese say ties have been strengthened over the years by graduate students who stay here to teach and work, Chinese adoptions, and native Iowans who travel across the Pacific to live, work and study. Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit to Iowa this week is the latest in a growing effort to build business and cultural connections.
Humanity’s interaction with its natural environments, our use of the resources we have available to us, and the long-term viability of that use, pose major challenges for the 21st century. The University of Iowa is meeting those challenges on many fronts, from the daily operations of the institution to cutting-edge research that crosses almost all disciplines on our campus.
In recent years, we have seen more and more of the university community getting involved in efforts to improve sustainability practices. To give one example: Green Teams have formed across campus to evaluate and improve the ways that our various buildings handle waste, recycling and energy consumption.
Finley, a member of the University of Iowa Net Impact chapter, will speak at today’s Sustainability Summit in the IMU alongside representatives from Coca-Cola, UPS, and Iowa-based Kum & Go. The summit is part of an all-day sustainability effort on campus, to be followed by a UI International Programs-produced WorldCanvass sustainability history presentation in the Old Capitol.
Hysteria and its implications for attitudes toward and relationships between the sexes will be highlighted in the upcoming University Theatre production of Sarah Ruhl’s “In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play),” directed by Meredith Alexander.
Opening Feb. 10, the play takes a look at the use of the vibrator (yes, that kind of vibrator) as clinical treatment for hysteria.
There’s a lot of fear in our society today. Students who travel learn that fear is for people who don’t get out much. And they learn that the flip side of fear is understanding. Travelers learn to celebrate, rather than fear, the diversity on our planet. Learning in a different culture and place allows us to see our own challenges in sharp contrast, and with more clarity, as we observe smart people in other lands dealing with similar issues.
Some University of Iowa students will delve into the Costa Rican forests during a time other college students choose to party or relax.
The UI Office of Study Abroad will allow students to spend this spring break studying environmental sustainability in and around the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in Costa Rica.
UI civil and environmental engineering Assistant Professor Craig Just said the trip is meant to spur students to be more sustainable in their daily lives after exploring an environment that’s largely been untouched by industrial growth.
As America’s representative do their best to curtail our freedom of speech with the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act, I couldn’t help but think of a place where Lamar Smith and his cosponsors could learn a lot about censorship. It’s a place that seems to be stuck in time, where I and 12 other University of Iowa students studied over winter break: Cuba.
Being there provided a fascinating look at the results of America’s Cuban foreign policy and a unique perspective on the embargo.
