Jeffrey and Melissa Cruz are two foreign teachers who previously worked at the EPC of USTC. However, they are not only teachers, they also students. What is particular about them is that they are in the process of becoming graduate students of USTC. Jeff is in his first year of the Ph.D. program in the Chemistry department while Melissa will begin her MBA journey this coming September. 

“It’s really a big challenge for us”, Melissa said with a big laugh. “When we told our friends that we decided to pursue education, they all thought we were crazy. We are middle aged people.　 But we think it is a good thing, an opportunity to broaden our eyes, to see different aspects of life”. “This is an adventure, a life turning point. You could make new friends, have a different style of life and enrich your life experience. Actually, we always encourage our students to learn something new, take challenges”. Jeff added. 

Jeff is focusing on environmental issues for his Ph.D. research. “Pollution is an important issue that concerns both US and China. I am especially interested in how to clean the polluted water. But the existing way to ease the water pollution will bring some side effects, like producing CO2, I hope to address the problem without any side effects”. Jeff was very excited when referred to his research. 

Melissa hasn’t begun her research yet, but she has a plan for the future. She hopes to do research which combines business strategy and her teaching experience, such as exploring the business aspect of school. 

They both admitted that the most difficult part is classes, since most are given in Chinese. But they held the opinion that the advantages for Americans being graduate students here is that they have the flexibility to travel to other countries and collect the research data from all over the world. 

The number of foreign students who study in USTC rises every year. Foreigners are the bridge between East and West education, both countries can absorb the other’s schooling merits and advance their education career. 

REN Muqing, FAN　Qiong. USTC NEWS Center