Shanghai grows in popularity

Chinese calligraphy. Martial arts. Engineering. Students studying abroad at the Shanghai Summer Program (SSP) in China will be taking these classes and others this year. The program is now in its second year and is growing in popularity.

The program offers nine classes, including Statistics, Statics and Thermodynamics, as well as non-credit classes such as Chinese Calligraphy, Painting and Martial Arts, all of which will be taught by Tech professors. Established in partnership with Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU), the program will be held on SJTU’s Xuhui campus in the center of Shanghai. SJTU is a leading institute for engineering education in China and has over 20,000 students. The program fee that Tech students pay for the Shanghai Summer Program (SSP) allows access to computer labs, the internet, a library and athletic services on the SJTU campus.

Compared to other study abroad programs Tech offers, the Shanghai program is more general and “suitable for most Georgia Tech students,” said Tong Zhou, co-director for SSP.

“The Shanghai Summer Program enables students to see the world and graduate on time. It is a general purpose program where students can take humanities and social science courses that are relevant to the location, as well as engineering courses that are required for the students’ graduation,” he said. “....China [has] a large and growing economy and Shanghai is the economic engine of China....Our nine-week long program uses Shanghai as a fixed base.”

SSP also offers several local field trips throughout the summer-a half-day tour of Shanghai, the Shanghai museum, the Old City and sites of major corporations such as General Motors and Volkswagen.

There are no language requirements for SSP, although a short one-and-a-half hour overview of basic Chinese is provided.

Zhou feels that studying abroad provides a huge benefit to Tech students.

“Upon graduation, many Georgia Tech students will likely work for multinational companies with teams collaborating across different continents. Those that understand and are sensitive to the different cultures are better qualified to work in today’s increasingly global environment,” Zhou said.

In addition to classes, the SSP also plans to offer internship opportunities.

“Starting this year, we are also working with Georgia Tech’s Division of Professional Practice (DOPP) to offer additional services to the Shanghai Summer Program students,” Zhou said. “During the students’ participation in the Shanghai Summer Program, if they find that they would like to extend their China stay or return in a future semester for an internship, DOPP’s International Practicum Coordinator, Ms. Debbie Gulick, and our local host, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, will work together to provide internship opportunities to the program students.”

Nick Silver, a first-year Computer Science major, is excited about the program.

“I’ve always been fascinated with Chinese culture. I went to an information session and...it sounded really interesting,” he said.

Callie Reis, a freshman Mechanical Engineering major, another SSP participant this summer, feels that her experience in China has the potential to be life-changing, more so than simply taking classes at Tech in Atlanta over the summer.

“I want to experience as many different cultures as I can, especially for developing good business etiquette in the future. I knew that I would eventually want to study abroad but I have already traveled in Europe....I think without the Shanghai study abroad I might not have had the opportunity, time or interest to travel to China,” Reis said. “I am especially excited to interact with locals and students at our host university. It will be very interesting to live in a foreign country instead of just visit briefly and adapt to the environment.”

The future of the Shanghai program appears bright and will continue to focus on providing a general study abroad opportunity for all Tech students.

“We think the current Shanghai Summer Program model works well so we definitely plan to continue to offer the program each year. We would like to make the program to have as broad an appeal as possible....Students are welcome to send future course suggestions (with justifications) to the Shanghai Summer Program Coordinator Ms. Leslie Penley [at] leslie.penley@oie.gatech.edu,” Zhou said.

A list of questions about the SSP are answered on the program’s website at china.ece.gatech.edu/shanghai.