Associate Professor Weizhu Chen will complete her study in Dominican University and come from Chicago on April 22, 2010

Thanks all of our college leaders for giving me the chance to participate in Dominican University (DU) Visiting Program. And thanks all my colleagues for assuming more responsibilities when I am absent. To tell the truth, being able to study abroad is my dream when I was very young. Everything here is fresh for me.

After our group of five arrived in DU, we took the courses which we are interested in. I chose two courses. One is American Business Culture equal to a language course for foreigners, and the other is Economics of the Firm which is a MBA course. At the beginning of our class, the professors gave us the essential information about their courses, such as Course Syllabus, General Course Outline, Presentation Topics, Additional Materials, and etc. What impress me most are the powerful library information system, the advanced computer equipments, the kind administrative staff, the active discussions of American students and their earnest attitude towards examinations. After the Midterm exam, there is one student course evaluation, which is similar to our online Students’ Evaluating on Classroom Teaching (SECT). The paper evaluation form completed by students is divided into three parts. One is evaluation of instructor input, another is evaluation of student input, and the last is opinions about the instructor and the course. The professor is out of the classroom when the students are filling out the forms anonymously. Finally, he/she will collect the forms after the students finish them.

DU provided us two field trips: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Chicago Board of Trade. And there are several short vacations during our spring semester 2010 in DU. We seized the opportunities to travel around the United States, came to know American Cultural and creative industries such as Disney and Universal Studios, visited the top universities in the word such as Harvard University (the famous gate which only the students who successfully graduate from Harvard can pass by), Massachusetts Institute of Technology(to be a successful MIT student who must balance his/her time for sleep, study and social), and University of Chicago (which is famous for its many Nobel Prize winners), and visited many other fantastic places.

At last, I want to say thanks to the colleagues who gave me the useful information about studying and living in the US, especially to Professor Yan Zhao, Associate Professor Jiaying Cui, Senior Lecturer Li Yang, and etc. If anybody will go to or be interested in DU project, just feel free to contact me. (陈蔚珠)

The guys on the following photo are our language teacher Professor Elizabeth Scott and me.