by Kaitlyn Meier

Maryville Pawprint student newspaper, February 15, 2011

The Maryville Auditorium building bustled with activity on the night of Tuesday Feb. 8.  Dozens of ladies roamed the hallways in elaborate costumes; men practiced kung fu in the lobby and the smell of Asian appetizers like pot stickers and egg rolls wafted throughout the area.

The stage was set for the first Asian New Year Celebration presented by Maryville Cultures Connect (MCC) who partnered with the St. Louis Modern Chinese School (SLMCS) to bring the festivities to campus.

“We had a very bonded team—our team members, faculty and staff, and performers from SLMCS,” said MCC president, Minyu Cao. “The joint effort created such an exciting, encouraging and delightful atmosphere that led all of us to overachieve the expectations of MCC’s first New Year Celebration.”

The Asian New Year Celebration was a two-part event that began in the Donius University Center dining hall with activities like ‘create your own calligraphy,’ traditional paper-cut crafts and Chinese game demonstrations. MCC invited professors with a background in Asian culture to participate and facilitate the activities.

“We received very immediate and supportive responses from all the faculty and staff we sent invitations to,” Cao said. “They strongly expressed their willingness and eagerness to support the event.”

The festivities then moved to the auditorium for the “New Song ~ New Dance ~ New Year” program. An appetizer and dessert buffet from LuLu’s restaurant was open for guests to sample authentic Asian cuisine.

The program opened with a display of various kung fu styles performed by children and adults alike. The SLMCS contributed a number of performances consisting of both song and dance. These included Mongolian, Tibetan and Xinjiang folk dances along with solos and vocal ensembles featuring various Chinese traditional pieces.

Dr. Guodong Li, Chairman of the Board of directors of SLMCS, made the connection between MCC and SLMCS.

“This collection of performances promotes multiculturalism on campus, shows traditional Asian cultures to the students and teachers and advocates diversity,” Li said. “My favorite part was the joint effort of SLMCS and Maryville University. Together, we can do more and we can be more successful.”

Dr. Min Deng, Director of Maryville’s Actuarial Science Department also served as a connection between SLMCS and Maryville.

“Dr. Deng supported and invested her time throughout the event planning, energetically joined the performance group and had her first vocal performance at Maryville,” Cao said.

The elegant costumes and elaborate performances provided Maryville students with a unique opportunity to experience Asian culture.

“It was so neat to learn more about Asian music and dances, and learn about another culture,” said Jansen Williams, junior music therapy student. “Even though the style of Asian music and dancing is contrasting to American music and dancing in certain ways, there are so many similarities!”

Several members of MCC also performed. Nancy Nguyen, Allen Lu and Gary Pang composed a medley of both American and Chinese pop songs. Snow Ren played a duet on her traditional Chinese instrument, the guzheng, along with Feifei Zhou on the violin.

“I love how everything was so different from anything that’s been on campus recently,” said Laura Roessler, MCC Vice-President. “The opportunity to see and hear all of the performances and to be a part of a totally new experience was just amazing.”

MCC is a new student organization founded by Cao, Roessler, and Kaitlyn Meier with the goal of fostering relationships between international and domestic students on campus.

“This event truly reflects the goals of MCC. With the rise of international students at Maryville, people start to be aware and curious about the existence and uniqueness of new cultures on campus,” Cao said. “It’s human nature that we all want to share our identities through interaction and learn and experience other cultures.”

Despite the occasional glitch, MCC is confident they achieved their ultimate goals through the first Asian New Year Celebration.

“International students were given the opportunity to present themselves and their cultures; American students were given the chance to learn more of the outside of world—which is more than the textbooks can ever provide,” Cao said. “Through these interactions, both groups will learn more about each other and this mutual learning relationship will not only benefit each individual with an open mind, but also elevate Maryville to a higher level of education, empowerment and innovation.”

Applications for the degree program are currently being accepted from practicing professionals. Apply online at maryville.edu.

The Higher Education concentration will use the highly successful and unique Maryville EdD model which, unlike self-directed study options, provides students the personal mentoring and peer support necessary to complete the program. In fact, 90 percent of the EdD students in the last six  cohorts have successfully finished in two and one-half years.

Three factors make this possible:
•     The program is delivered in a cohort of 15 to 22 students who advance through classes together (separate from the other concentration students), forming a supportive academic and professional network.
•    The capstone research project is begun in the first semester and completed in the seventh semester, supported within the courses taken each semester.
•    Finally, courses provide customized instruction focused on the needs and goals of practicing professionals and accompanied by close student-advisor relationships.

Maryville’s Doctor of Education program, which currently offers a concentration in educational leadership, has become a highly-valued stamp of excellence across the St. Louis region.

“Our EdD program has succeeded beyond our expectations as students have spread the word to their peers,” said Sam Hausfather, PhD, dean of Maryville’s School of Education. “We have clearly made an impact on school leadership in the St. Louis region. I look forward to making a similar impact in higher education with this new concentration.”

The higher education concentration is designed to produce leaders who have a deep understanding of higher education, who are change agents capable of initiating and sustaining positive change, and who are reflective learners with skills to gather information in a democratic environment.

For more information, contact Holly Stanwich, graduate admissions coordinator: 314.529.9542; or visit the web site for the Doctor of Education. Interested individuals may also visit Maryville University graduate education programs online.

About Maryville University
Founded in 1872, Maryville University is a four-year, private university located in west St. Louis County. Ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s Best Colleges in the Regional Universities – Midwest category, Maryville University students may choose from 50 academic programs, including degrees at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels. Among recent graduates, 82 percent are employed or attending graduate school. More than 16,000 Maryville alumni work and live in the St. Louis region.

A resolute defender of and advocate for the environment, Kennedy has been described as “committed to a positive difference in the quality of life for present and future American generations.” He writes extensively on environmental issues, and has prosecuted governments and corporations alike for polluting the environment.

For more information, please visit the St. Louis Speaker Series web site.

U.S. Embassy

November 18, 2010

New Delhi – In an effort to make the visa application process more convenient for all Indians, the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and Consulates General in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad now accept visa applications from across India at all visa facilities, regardless of the applicant’s home address or city of residence. This is part of Mission India’s ongoing effort to facilitate legitimate travel to the United States.  Following the opening of Consulate General Hyderabad in 2008, the U.S. Mission has looked for ways to best capture the dynamism of India’s growth across the nation. As a result, we also redesigned our consular districts. Therefore, effective immediately, our consular districts will be reorganized as follows:

Embassy Delhi: Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bhutan;
Consulate Mumbai: Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Diu and Daman, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli;
Consulate Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh, Orissa;
Consulate Chennai: Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands;

Consulate Kolkata: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, West Bengal

U.S. Ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer said, “With these changes, we believe our Consulates General and our Embassy in New Delhi will be even better positioned to support and serve Indian visa applicants, as well as American citizens and businesses throughout India.”

Original link: http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/pr111810.html

April 21, 2010 by Heather Stewart

- reprinted with permission of NAFSA

Bill prompts alarm and points to need for comprehensive national reforms

Monday’s New York Times editorial “Arizona goes over edge” is but the latest in a flood of expressions of alarm at an immigration bill recently passed by that state’s legislature. We share the concern, particularly given our long-standing support for making the United States a more attractive place for foreign students and foreign talent. The problems raised by the bill are fundamental and serious.

The establishment and enforcement of immigration law is a federal responsibility. Certainly, states have unique issues and concerns when it comes to a wide range of public policy issues; in border states, the issue of undocumented  immigration is more acutely felt, and the problem of illegal drug trafficking is a very real and complex one. The U.S. government has a long way to go to resolve these deep and difficult matters. But the Arizona bill, as the Times puts it, is “an all-out assault on the mostly harmless undocumented, with the innocent as collateral damage.”

The reality is that the impact of immigration laws and immigration enforcement cannot be contained within state lines. They have substantial national and global ripple effects. As the Times points out, this kind of development at the state level makes it all the more urgent for Congress to act decisively – and soon – on comprehensive immigration reform. It cannot be left up to local and state law enforcement to determine the legal status of individuals who are not being taken into custody on another matter.

It is well known that when the police are seen as an extension of immigration enforcement, it creates an environment in which members of a community are afraid to turn to law enforcement when they are a victim of or witness to a crime. Police agencies across the country have often pointed out that this kind of harsh enforcement tactic undercuts their fundamental mission and wastes resources. Immigrants have been targeted for violent crime and infringement of basic human rights because the attackers believe they will not go to the authorities. And so we come to the specter of racial profiling. As the Times writes, the law would “allow officers to arrest anyone who could not immediately prove they were here legally. That means if you are brown-skinned and leave home without a wallet, you are in trouble.” Although it’s fairly certain most white people with American accents couldn’t easily prove on the spot that they are legally present here, unless they carry their passport around (which less than 30% of us have), one suspects they are not likely, under this law, to be asked to do so.

The United States is a nation of immigrants. We come in all colors and ethnicities and speak many languages with many different accents. We also seek to attract talented people from around the world to attend our colleges and universities, to fuel innovation and to strengthen our economy. It simply does not make sense to create a situation in which our laws imply that it is okay to look unfavorably on a certain group of people who do not fit a certain mold of what some believe an “American” is.

http://blog.nafsa.org/2010/04/21/arizona-immigration-legislation-heads-down-slippery-slope/

In 2008 the first part of that goal was realized when Saint Louis Athletica was formerly announced as an entry into the new Women’s Professional Soccer league WPS. On April 4, 2009, Saint Louis Athletica debuted in front of over 5,000 fans, and would clinch second place in the inaugural season of the WPS.

In June of 2009, the use of The Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park was conveyed to the company now known as the Athletic Club of St. Louis by Anheuser-Busch InBev. Now, with a facility to call its own, the Athletic Club of St. Louis shifted its base of operations to The Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park, and Saint Louis Athletica became the first professional team to call the venue home.

In November of 2009 the Athletic Club of St. Louis ushered in a new era of men’s professional soccer in St. Louis by announcing it would field a new team, AC St. Louis, in the USSF Division 2 Professional League. For the first time since 1976, St. Louis would have a truly professional outdoor men’s soccer team.

In February of 2010 AC St. Louis announced that Steve Ralston became the first player ever to officially sign with the club. Ralston joined AC St. Louis after becoming the career leader in games played, minutes played, and assists in Major League Soccer.

AC St. Louis begins play in April of 2010 and will be joined by pre-existing teams such as; the Vancouver Whitecaps, Miami FC, Carolina Railhawks, Atlanta Silverbacks, Montreal Impact, Rochester Rhinos, Portland Timbers, Puerto Rico Islanders, Austin Aztex, Tampa Bay Rowdies, and Minnesota Thunder.

The Athletic Club of St. Louis is proud to supply the St. Louis community with two professional franchises. No other community in America is as deserving of this kind of representation, and no other community is capable of supporting two world-class soccer franchises.

For more information, please visit the St. Louis AC web site at: www.ac-stlouis.com.

- Reprinted with permission of EducationUSA marketing coordinator

Kuching, the largest city on the Island of Borneo and Malaysia’s 4th largest city, was the site of a 3-day Education Fair, sponsored by the Borneo Post, which ran from March 26th to 28th.  The EducationUSA booth and presentations drew some of the largest crowds at the Fair.  About 300 students, their parents, and school counselors visited the EducationUSA booth seeking  out valuable information on American academic programs as well as  scholarships, exchanges and grants.  In addition, over 100 people attended a presentation on student visas by an Embassy Consular officer and a presentation on Study in the U.S.A offered by Dr. James Coffman, Executive Director of the Malaysian-American Commission for Educational Exchange (MACEE).  Dr. Coffman provided details about the many programs through which over 6,000 Malaysian students are studying in the U.S.  For more information on EducationUSA in Malaysia, please logon to www.EducationUSA.org.my.

Maryville Hall

“The Courtyard facility offers many positive attributes for Maryville: the building is in excellent physical condition and its location is contiguous to campus, which is convenient for students,” says Brisson. “In addition, a conversion can occur quickly to allow for an Autumn 2010 occupancy by students. It would provide a safe, desirable, on-campus home with many updated amenities such as private bathrooms, fitness center, complimentary beverage station, marketplace snack shop, meeting room, study area, lounge, as well as free laundry, cable television with premium channels, and wireless. This transformation from hotel to residence hall will definitely benefit our students.”

Lambert-St. Louis International Airport announced Thursday that construction will begin in the fall of 2010 for the next phase of renovations in the Airport Experience Program. The $50 million in modernization projects will result in the largest interior renovation in Lambert’s history.

Read more online at:
http://www.marketvolt.com/custapp/cv.aspx?cm=122510203&x=44518369&cust=5964193

###

About WES: World Education Services Inc. (www.wes.org) is the largest credential evaluation service in the United States. Started in 1974, WES is a non-profit organization that has delivered over 750,000 credential evaluation reports and provided information to educational, business, and governmental institutions worldwide.