The Writing Center goes international this summer. Many international students on campus seek help at the Writing Center each semester.  For the first time, the Writing Center will work with students before they get here.

Fu Zhaoshuang, who just completed a  stay at VU, has 16 students in Beijing, China enrolled in "English for Business" for five weeks. These students hope to  be accepted for graduate study at VU. To help them prepare, she has designed her course with many features found in American University courses--an American textbook, weekly journal entries, class discussion, a presentation and leadership role in a discussion, and email exchange with the professor.

Since consultation with the Writing Center is popular with many Valpo students, we're reaching out to these students this summer with online consultation. Just as with local students, the online contacts will focus on helping students understand assignments, develop and organize content, and give cues for correction.

It will be an interesting challenge for the Writing Center summer consultants. We are working with Prof. Zhaoshuang to set up some writing prompts on the THE BLUE LIGHT, the Writing Center blog, for responses from her students. Also, she may arrange for her students to email assignments for comments.

Prof. Zhaoshuang prepared for this experience by a 6-week visit to campus. She attended classes, was mentored by Prof. Lynn Grantz of the Department of English, and learned about both the American style of higher education and the typically characteristic style of a Valpo education--one that emphasizes writing, critical thinking, discussion, and deep engagement with ideas and methods. By the end of her visit, Prof. Zhaoshuang had developed a course syllabus reflecting both the content and teaching style that meet the Valpo standard.

As with other courses at VU that require a significant writing component at VU, the support of Writing Center is critical. In this case, however, that support is being exported to Beijing. The partnership program, developed under the auspices of Professor Zhimin Lin and the Office of Graduate Studies, will give students in China a preliminary taste of American/Valpo higher education while studying in their home city of Beijing.