With students rushing around the Flathead Valley Community College’s Occupational Trades shop, a group of Chinese education officials listened intently to Pete Wade, the school’s director of career and technical education. They listened, but couldn’t understand a word he said – at least not until a translator took the message from English to Chinese.
Flathead Valley Community College is hosting a five-person delegation of professors and technical college presidents from the China Education Association for International Education, along with a translator, as part of a leadership-training program organized by the American Association of Community Colleges.
The group arrived on Sunday, Oct. 28 and remains in the area until Nov. 10. They are also making trips to Missoula and Helena to see how schools adapt to their community’s needs in the United States, according to FVCC president Jane Karas.
“As much as it’s an opportunity for them to learn from us, it’s a chance for us to learn from them,” Karas said.
Retired FVCC staff member George Shryock coordinated the Flathead visit. He said the delegation was one of two teams from China touring the United States. They spent much of their visit meeting with educators and touring classes to see how different educational models function in the United States.
“They are very curious and want to know everything,” Shryock said. “They want to know how we are governed, how we are funded and how we build our buildings.”
There are approximately 1,200 vocational schools in China, according to Chen Li-neng, president of the Zhejiang Technical Institute of Economics. Shryock said at the beginning of the delegation’s visit, each person did a presentation on the school they worked at. Shryock said he was impressed by what he saw.
What impressed the delegation the most was the classroom environment in the United States, according to Shryock, and specifically the small and intimate settings.
Li-neng said visiting the United States was important for him because the world is changing.
“We’re in an age of globalization and that’s why we’re here,” he said with the help of a translator.
Li-neng said there are many similarities and differences in both countries’ education systems. He said he hopes to bring back what he learns here and apply it to his school. He was especially interested in how schools like FVCC work with the community in establishing programs to help build the local workforce.
But it was more than just tours and meetings. The delegation also experienced a classic American tradition: Halloween. On Oct. 31, the group went to an FVCC instructor’s house to help give out candy and a few days later took in a showing of The Rocky Horror Show.
‘That’s a cultural experience for us,” Li-neng said. “The cultural experiences are much more important for us because we can learn more from that than we can from lectures and meetings.”