SIFE Students Debrief on China Trip

Release Date: Oct 22, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 2, 2009
Contact: Jason Patterson, jwpc59@umkc.edu , 816-510-9201 or
Cary Clark, clarkcary@umkc.edu, 816-235-6568

Follow the students’ experience firsthand at umkcsife.blog.com!

Bloch SIFE Team Leads Delegation to China
Student Team Mentors Chinese Students in U.S. Culture

“Many Chinese students get to know American culture through Hollywood movies or TV shows like Friends and Prison Break. They seldom get the opportunity to hear Americans talking about American culture firsthand,” notes Mi Zhao, a graduate business student at the UMKC Bloch School of Business and Public Administration and a member of the UMKC Bloch School’s SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) team.    

A native of Nanjing, China, Zhao talked about her experiences with SIFE and studying in the U.S. to friends and family at home. When she told the UMKC SIFE team about this, conversations began about the possibility of partnering with Nanjing SIFE to do some culture exchange projects that promote mutual understanding between America and China.     

Zhao got down to business making contacts with Nanjing SIFE teams, local high schools and a study abroad agency.     


Mi Zhao speaks to a group of students with her SIFE team in China.

The result? The UMKC SIFE team was invited by representatives of Nanjing University to make presentations to the following audiences: Jiangsu Educational Services for International Exchange; Nanjing University of Technology; Nanjing Foreign Language School; Jinling High School Hexi Branch; Nanjing Qiuzhen High School; and Nanjing Foreign Language School.     


The SIFE Team gathers around a welcome sign at their first school in Nanjing.

A team of seven SIFE students from across the disciplines at UMKC went to Nanjing University this fall. The team visited six schools in four days with a presentation targeted specifically to top students interested in coming to the U.S. to study. More than 1,600 students were in attendance.     

Under the theme “Preparing Chinese Students for the American Experience,” topics included an overview of American culture and social poise, as well as highlights of UMKC study and social life.    

While in China, the SIFE students were able to break down barriers and help Chinese students not only understand more about American life (some have never before interacted with a Westerner), they also exchanged business cards and now email regularly with their new friends overseas who are interested in coming to UMKC.    


Roger Moore, SIFE vice president, shakes hands with Chinese students.

During a debriefing following the trip, UMKC Chancellor Leo Morton congratulated the students for their efforts on behalf of international relations. “This is an experience you will never forget,” he says. “UMKC puts students first not only in the classroom, but in every aspect of education. We appreciate what these students did and what it will bring back to our University.”         

Bloch School Dean Teng-Kee Tan, who himself has roots in Singapore, noted “this was not a tourist visit – this was a deep experience. The close work with the local people was meaningful and relationship-building. It forges a positive relationship between U.S. & China that will be important in years to come, and brings Chinese students to the U.S. to study.”

Both groups benefitted from the exchange.     

“This was an amazing learning experience for the American students as well,” Zhao says. “They got a personal experience of Chinese culture, which is somewhat different from what they know from CNN or textbooks. They hold a different view of China now.”       

The project was filmed and will be shown in classrooms throughout China, bringing the experience to thousands of students who couldn’t be there during SIFE’s initial visit. In addition, television coverage of the events was provided to over seven million residents of Nanjing by three different networks.    


Enthusiastic Chinese students have questions for the SIFE team.

“We think this first trip will be a springboard to continue a tradition of doing these kinds of programs,” Moore says. In fact, The Ministry of Education in Nanjing has now approved a visit by Chinese students to UMKC next summer, and plans are currently under way to coordinate.     

In addition, deans of Nanjing University have expressed a desire to explore additional ways to collaborate with UMKC. Meetings have begun through the Bloch School to identify how to follow up on potential opportunities.     

Moore also notes that “throughout the province of Nanjing, there are more than 40 million people, but they only send students to 13 schools in the U.S. and UMKC is one of them.”         

For UMKC SIFE and Nanjing students, this project is the start of a great relationship and provides a model from which others can learn to build positive international relations that will affect the future of the U.S. and the world.     

“At the end of the day,” Moore concludes, “we are much more similar than we are different.”

Follow the students’ experience firsthand at umkcsife.blog.com.

SIFE is a global non-profit organization active in more than 40 countries. Their primary goal is to create economic opportunities for others through education. For more information, please visit umkcsife.com, sife.org.

The Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) is Kansas City’s only institution fully-accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). The Bloch School is home to nationally renowned faculty and research centers as well as innovative curricula in entrepreneurship, financial services, leadership, accounting, and public administration. The Bloch School offers degree programs at the undergraduate, graduate, Executive MBA, and PhD levels.