Dan Zhao
MC301 Contributor
Studying abroad for Chris Windfield proved to be a life changing experience.
Windfied, a senior chemistry major from Jackson Miss., spent the summer of 2011 studying abroad at Shaanxi Normal University, located in Xi’an, China..
Xi’an is the capital of Shaanxi Province. As one of the oldest cities with more than 3,100 years of history, Xi’an is one of the 13 Great Ancient Capitals of China and the starting point of the Silk Road. Xi’an is also famous for the Terra-Cotta Warriors of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.
“Many funny things happened. For example, when I was with the people, everyone wanted to touch my hair. One of my friends had dreadlocks and nobody thought his hair was real. When we went to a restaurant, a waitress came behind him and stopped to touch his hair without asking. When my friend turned around, she just pretended she didn’t do anything; the same thing happened when he was passing by a barber shop, almost all the barbers went out and tried to touch his hair, wondering how he could make those dreadlocks,” said Windfield.
In Xi’an, Windfield had a big cultural shock. Many things were totally different on the Chinese campus.
“When I was over there, two of the biggest things really happened. One of them was I became a better student,” said Windfield. “Observing how serious the Chinese students take their studies, like you have to take a number to get a seat in the library, I have never seen it anywhere in America. The library is usually the last place any American student wants to go. But the situation of Chinese students really inspired me to become a better student to work harder.”
As one of the top universities in China, Shaanxi Normal University has more than 17,800 full-time undergraduate students, nearly twelve thousand graduate students and about nine hundred international students.
“The second thing was I became more culturally aware. When I went over there, I got a chance to interact with people from different cultural backgrounds with different ways of thinking. It really opened my mind to a broader scope,” Chris said. “Traveling, in general, is really a good experience. Broaden your horizon to make you a better person, no matter where you go.”
Doing volunteer work was also a good way to learn more about the Chinese society.
“Another thing that touched me happened when I went to an orphanage. One part of the orphanage was for normal kids without families; the other one was for kids who were discarded because of disability,” said Windfield. “When I was over there, I decided to play with the special-needs kids because everyone got the normal kids but lots of special-needs kids got passed over. I tried to teach them English and mostly whatever I did, just made them smile.”
“China isn’t as culturally isolated as I thought it would be, it’s very diverse. That was an experience that really changed me,” said Windfield.
“Studying abroad means facing challenges and opportunities, experiencing the culture personally. You will get unexpected knowledge.”
Jackson State sends over 50 students abroad to enrich their undergraduate and graduate educations every year. Each program is designed to complement the curriculum offered at JSU.
