A staggering ten million students in China take college entrance exams, five million get into college. The demand for education and international learning options is huge. A handful of students who have the financial resources, necessary English skills and desire for an American education find their way to the Massachusetts International Academy (MIA), a transitional school in Marlborough, MA for Chinese students poised to enter American colleges and universities.
MIA is growing by leaps and bounds. Affiliated primarily to UMass Boston, students come to MIA to brush up on their English skills before entering mainstream colleges and universities. UMass Boston pioneered bringing Chinese students to the US well ahead of the globalization curve.
According to Daniel Xu, executive vice president of MIA, the institution hopes to enroll around 220 students by the summer. Currently there are eleven full time teachers focusing mainly on English instruction and American culture courses. The curriculum was specifically tailored by well-known American education experts for international students and the courses are taught by American instructors in an engaging teaching style. The small class sizes of around 17 students each allows them to improve their language proficiency quickly with five hours of studying per day.The primary goal is to ensure the students obtain a solid grasp of practical English while also helping them to adjust to life in America. At the same time, MIA monitors and addresses problems students encounter with cultural differences during their studies, actively helping them to quickly blend in.
It is estimated that each student will spend somewhere around $50,000 per year during their stay in Massachusetts on school fees, shopping, entertainment, travel, clothes, food and other expenses. For instance the kids love American pizza and order in quite often; a little known boost for the local pizza industry.
A stroll down the corridor of the girls’ dorms reveals colorful door tags with names like Carina, Eileen, Bonnie, Maggie, Jessica, Crystal, Monica, Astrid. This sight usually would not be of any particular interest, but these are in fact the American names adopted by the students upon arrival here. Just another way of ‘Americanizing’ themselves and immersing fully into the cultural experience.
“Half of the students who complete their education in the US will go straight back to China, but they will never be the same again, for their ‘American experience’ will change them forever,” said Xu. “Education is the root of success and the US is so liberal and rich in its educational outlook. We have a group of students at MIA that displays leadership qualities, we see them growing and this experience will be a huge part of their personal growth.”
The MIA website carries a letter from the president which conveys the essence of the experience each student will go through - “You will study English, read English, think in English, and perhaps reach the stage where you dream in English. It will be a hard year, a tough year. There will be times you will be lonely. You will miss your family, your friends, and your favorite foods; you will miss hearing Mandarin in the background all around you. Many of us studied abroad as teenagers or in our early twenties and know that being away from home takes courage. You have demonstrated courage in choosing to be here. Your parents also have courage—and deep love for you in making this year possible at great sacrifice to themselves. You also have vision. You are looking to the future. You are forward thinking. You know the world is changing at a swift pace. Those who will succeed in the future are people who embrace change and try to imagine the world twenty or forty years from now. You have taken up that challenge, leaving the comfort of home, family, and a language and culture you have lived in since birth. Globalization in the 21st century has created a growing need for people able to live and work comfortably in diverse cultures. You are educating yourselves so that you will be these people—at home away from home.”
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