Six Chinese students visit for first UAFS international exchange

The University of Arkansas at Fort Smith began July 12 hosting its first international summer program with a visit from six Chinese students.

The junior-level students and two faculty members are from Tianjin University of Technology in Tianjin, China, according to a UAFS statement. The students will be in Fort Smith until July 25.

Tianjin, China, is located southeast of Beijing and is the sixth largest city in China. Tianjin University of Technology is an engineering-based, multi-discipline institution with more than 16,000 students and more than 900 teaching faculty, according to UAFS information. Officials with UAFS visited Tianjin University of Technology last fall to establish the exchange program partnership.

Takeo Suzuki, executive director of international relations at UAFS, said the two-week cultural immersion program is designed to increase the English language skills of the participants and introduce them to American culture and Southern hospitality.

“Intense English language classes are a part of the program,” Suzuki said. “However, living with local families and being among the American people will foster the greatest growth of the English language for these students.”

The Chinese students will tour the Fort Smith Museum of History, the Fort Smith National Historic Site, the Fort Smith Police Department, the Fort Smith Detention Center and Planters Lifesavers manufacturing plant in Fort Smith. Outside Fort Smith, the students will travel to Little Rock to tour the state capitol building and the William J. Clinton Presidential Library. Trips to Tulsa and Northwest Arkansas are planned, Suzuki said.

University officials hope to build on this first international summer program.

“We have more than 10 partner institutions in foreign countries,” Dr. Ray Wallace, provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, said in the UAFS statement. “Tianjin University of Technology is one of the universities with whom we want to enhance our relationship.”

Brock Holland, a UAFS senior majoring in business administration, was credited by university officials for coordinating most of the visit activities with the Chinese students. Brock, a Mountainburg native, is an intern in the Office of International Relations and will visit Tianjin University at the end of August to study for the fall semester.

“Knowing where to take the visiting students was more difficult than I expected,” Holland said. “I take for granted what a great place I live in and what it has to offer. It will be great to meet students from the same university in China where I will by studying. There are many questions I would like to ask them before I leave next month.”