By DeNae Thomas
Staff Writer
Chia-Huan Chen, a college adviser for students in Taiwan, knows what it is like to leave what is familiar and venture into America to get an education. Chen left Taiwan several years ago to get her Master’s degree in counseling psychology from Boston University.
“I wanted to make my life experience more full, absorb a different culture and expose myself to a different atmosphere,” Chen said.
After getting her Master’s degree in Boston, Chen went back to Taipei, Taiwan, to advise other students about how they can come to the United States for an advanced education.
Chen and four other U.S. State Department-sponsored college advisers from all over the world visited Pepperdine last Thursday to find out ways to better advise their students interested in coming to America for an education.
The College Board that administrated the visit asked Rich Dawson, director of Pepperdine International Student Services, to host the advisers’ stay in California.
“Pepperdine has a good reputation with the College Board … it is an honor to be chosen to represent California schools,” Dawson said.
The five advisers from Zimbabwe, India, Gomel, Barcelona and Taiwan spent a week in Washington, D.C., for training before coming to Los Angeles to tour Pepperdine, UCLA, the University of Southern California, Asuza Pacific University and El Camino Community College.
The five schools were chosen to represent the different levels and sizes of institutions in the California education system, Dawson said.
“The United States is the number one place for educating students,” Dawson said. “We have a product everyone wants. We have a superior education system.”
This high quality education creates an increasing interest for overseas students to come to the United States for college, Dawson said.
The College Board international counselors advise students in centers worldwide about their options. At the centers, advisers help interested international students understand college searches, the admission process and financial aid opportunities.
“The United States is not like in our country,” Zimbabwe adviser Tapfumaneyi Muchenje said. “We do not have a whole stack of paperwork to apply to colleges. Students need to be educated about the complicated process.”
Muchenje said that once accepted, it is difficult for students to find a way to send money to the United States to pay tuition because there are no bank drafts or credit card systems.
“Money is always the barrier,” Muchenje said.
Students often have to rely on family members for tuition money because grants and scholarships are very uncommon in Zimbabwe. The advising center helps students overcome these obstacles, Muchenje said.
Judit Moya-Luceño said that money is also an issue to students in Barcelona who want to come to the United States.
The few scholarships given in Barcelona come from the Spanish government, private organizations or are Fulbright international scholarships, so a large aspect of the advising involves helping students fund their education.
Since college is free in Spain except for some minimal taxes, students usually only go to the United States for graduate school since graduate programs are not available in Spain, Moya-Luceño said.
Moya-Luceño said she chose to visit California because it is a popular choice among students she advises.
“The weather is important to us,” Moya-Luceño said.
Spanish students are attracted to the warmer climate in California that mimics their own, she said.
At Pepperdine the goal is to have 10 to 15 percent of the student body be international students, Dawson said.
“We want international diversity on campus because it creates a certain dynamic in the classroom and helps everyone have a better education here,” Dawson said.
Dawson said that Pepperdine is ranked top 20 in the country for the percentage of international students attending.
November 07, 2002