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December 15, 2009
Media contact: Patty Wellborn
Office: 604-795-2819
or 604-504-7441, local 2819
patty.wellborn@ufv.ca
UFV student wins seven-year scholarship to study in China
Not that long ago, Connor Smith would have fit the bill as the type of university student who drifted through his post-secondary years. Thinking that it was expected of him to continue his education, he registered at the University of the Fraser Valley after graduation from Surrey’s Earl Marriott Secondary School. Not knowing what he wanted to study, he started with kinesiology, then tried some history and geography classes, and eventually added some languages to spice things up.
For some reason, however, Smith couldn’t find his niche. He transferred between programs, eventually working towards a degree in general studies just so he could say he’d completed university.
“I attended UFV straight out of high school,” he admits. “I figured it was close and I wouldn’t need a student loan to go there. I have been taking classes since 2005, but I never fully committed to anything.”
Luckily for Smith, 22, he was also interested in learning a new language, and he landed up in Linda Qiao’s Mandarin 101 class. He had travelled to China a few years earlier and the country’s beauty and history intrigued him. It was in Qiao’s class that he learned about a scholarship to study in China. Although interested, he waffled for a while and finally, on the day the application was due, he threw caution to the wind, hurriedly filled in the forms, and began a long wait to hear if he was successful.
“I wanted to learn Mandarin and saw the scholarship as an amazing opportunity,” he says. “But the English on the application form is a little ambiguous and I didn’t know if I had done everything right. After not hearing back for a while, I assumed I didn’t get it.”
He had heard through the grapevine that with only one year of Mandarin under his belt, his chances were slim. So, after hearing nothing for several weeks he gave up hope; and consoled himself by signing up for a UFV study tour to China.
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| Connor Smith (second from left) with the UFV study tour visiting China's Great Wall. | Ironically, Qiao suggests it was that study tour that helped Smith land a seven-year full-ride scholarship to study in north Asia. The office of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language had invited UFV to bring a group of students on a three-week study tour, mostly because of UFV’s excellent reputation for teaching Mandarin at the undergraduate level, Qiao explains. In March, two of Qiao’s students, Paul Kane and Carlos Vidal, won first and second prize in the B.C. Mandarin speech contest. The Chinese Education Ministry was so impressed that it funded UFV’s 14 students to participate in the summer study tour, covering all expenses except the international flights.
“Connor is one of the best students in my Mandarin classes,” she says. “He is bright, full of energy, and dedicated to Mandarin language study. I encouraged him to participate in this trip and passed his information to the Education Ministry of China. I told him that impressing his Chinese host would be positive for his scholarship application.”
He must have impressed somebody. He returned from China at the end of July and within a week he received word that his application was successful. With less than a month before classes started in China, he began packing.
Now, after a few months of living overseas and even though internet connections are sparse, Smith is beginning to feel settled. He is currently studying Mandarin at Shandong University in Jinan, Shandong province. He’s living on campus, sharing a basic dorm room with another student, and has the bulk of his educational and living expenses covered. Next September, after finishing his language degree, he will then attend the Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Along with acupuncture, Smith will study moxibustion, the medicinal art of burning small cones of dried leaves on designated points of the body, and tui-na, a type of Chinese manipulative acupressure therapy between the joints by using pushing, rolling, kneading, rubbing, and grasping motions.
All the while he has to keep his grades high, especially his language studies. It’s tough work, but if the grades start to slip, or he doesn’t last the year, then he has to pay back every cent that’s been awarded him.
“I have only been in here for about three months and have studied harder than I ever have before,” he admits. “Originally, I really just wanted to learn the language. The Chinese medicine part was only in the back of my mind.”
His scholarship, paid for by the Education Ministry of China, covers tuition, books, basic learning materials, accommodation, a monthly living allowance (about $215 a month), emergency hospital care, comprehensive medical insurance, a one-time subsidy of 1500 yuan, and a train ticket when he arrived to get from Beijing to Jinan.
From that very first visit when he was 16, the country and culture has left its mark on him. Even after graduation, he thinks he just might stay and join a medicinal practice in China. He might also return to the Lower Mainland and bring Chinese medicine knowledge to the west.
For now though, it’s nose to the grindstone. Smith admits the schoolwork is tough, but acknowledges he’s gone from a student with no set goals, to somebody who is suddenly passionate about his education. He is in class from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. each day, and during the first two weeks he learned how to read, write, and say about 200 characters in Mandarin.
“Each day is new, and I haven’t been bored yet,” he says. “You’re forced to learn every day. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have a very good time here. It’s a very different, yet great environment to study in. When I think about how lucky I am, it makes my head spin.”
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