SPAN: July/August 2012 by SPAN magazine

JULY/AUGUST 2012 Rs. 20

Student Visa Advice Fun on Campus Online Learning

Study in the U.S. How to Find the

Maturing U.S.-India Relationship

Sees More Converging Interests S.M. Krishna said both countries have enjoyed “an unprecedented intensity of engagement over the past year.” “The Strategic Dialogue is a unique opportunity to bring together all the threads of our cooperation that constitute the extraordinarily rich tapestry of our relationship,” he said, adding, “Our two sides have a shared vision that our global strategic partnership could be one of the most important or defining relationships of the 21st century.” A day earlier, the U.S. State Department announced the first round of awards under the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative to eight educational partnerships between the United States and India. For the initiative, announced in November 2009 by President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, both governments pledged $5 million each, and the eight projects will receive up to $250,000 over a three-year grant period to “encourage mutual understanding, educational reform and economic growth, as well as the development of junior faculty.” Stephen Kaufman is a staff writer with the State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs.

Secretary Clinton’s remarks at the U.S.-India Higher Education Dialogue http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/ 2012/06/192159.htm

Joint Statement on the Third U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue

Go Online

t the conclusion of the third U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue in June, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said both countries are united in seeking “an open, free, fair and transparent economic system,” and stability and security in South Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. “India and the United States have a strong foundation of friendship and cooperation. But today we are seeing something new. The strategic fundamentals of our relationship are pushing our two countries’ interests into closer convergence,” Secretary Clinton said in Washington, D.C. The U.S.-India relationship has matured beyond the need for “dramatic breakthroughs” but needs “steady, focused cooperation aimed at working through our differences and advancing the interests and values we share,” she said. In a June 13 op-ed, Secretary Clinton wrote that “the world’s two biggest democracies should have one of the world’s most robust and consequential economic relationships,” and that more and more “we find that India’s interests and America’s interests are lining up.” In his remarks, Indian Foreign Minister

State Department photographs

By STEPHEN KAUFMAN

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/ 2012/06/192267.htm

First Round of Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative Awards http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/ 2012/06/192154.htm

July/August 2012

A LETTER FROM THE

CONTENTS The Choice:

Articles with a star may be reprinted with permission. Those without a star are copyrighted and may not be reprinted. Contact SPAN at 011-23472135 or editorspan@state.gov

http://span.state.gov For notification of new content, write to:

ezinespan@state.gov

Photo album

ANDREW HANCOCK/Courtesy Purdue University

36 7

A World-Class Education, Free and Online By Michael Gallant

Choosing a College Major

By Linda Tobash

Infographic: What Indian Students Heading to the United States Should Pack

An interview with James Montoya by Howard Cincotta

By Sarah Smith

Opportunities For International Students

Infographic: Slowly Going Social By Loreal Lynch

Your Official Source on U.S. Higher Education

An interview with Wesley Teter

What to Expect in an American Classroom By Carrie Loewenthal Massey

How to Prepare a Successful Application

Ask the Experts

By Jane Varner Malhotra

Novel Take on Indian American Life

A View From Behind the Glass

By Monica L. Shie

By Jeff Tompkins

Embracing Technology and Saving Lives By Michael Gallant

Books

Innovation

Art Director Hemant Bhatnagar Deputy Art Director Qasim Raza Web Manager Chetna Khera Production/Circulation Manager Alok Kaushik Printing Assistant Manish Gandhi Research Services Bureau of International Information Programs, The American Library

Published by the Public Affairs Section, American Center, 24 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110001 (phone: 23472000), on behalf of the U.S. Embassy, New Delhi. Printed at Thomson Press India Limited, 18/35, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad, Haryana 121007. Opinions expressed in this 56-page magazine do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Government.

Student Life in the United States

By Howard Cincotta

Publisher Michael P. Pelletier Editor in Chief Adele E. Ruppe Editor Deepanjali Kakati Hindi Editor Giriraj Agarwal Copy Editors Richa Varma, Shah Md. Tahsin Usmani Editorial Assisttant Yugesh Mathur

Front cover: Illustration by Hemant Bhatnagar. Photographs © Getty Images, courtesy Princeton University, MIT, Elon University.

Picking the Right School in America is Your First Tough Assignment

Courtesy Prakhya Bhatnagar

V O LU M E L I I I N U M B E R 4

Courtesy Stanford University

s I sign off on my final letter as the Publisher of SPAN, I am thrilled to see how the magazine has evolved over the past few years. When we celebrated SPAN’s 50th anniversary in 2010, we knew that its long history of high-quality, visually-rich content would serve us well as we launched its transition to a product of the future. SPAN is no longer just a bimonthly magazine, but is available across a variety of platforms—Web, print, e-mail, video and social media. It has also realigned its content to be more relevant and appealing to the new generation of young Indians. In the coming months and years, SPAN will find new ways to reach you and to engage with you on topics that are important for both of us. I am particularly happy to leave SPAN in the capable hands of our new editor, Deepanjali Kakati, who has been a driving force for many of these changes. One such subject, which is important for us all, is education. It makes me very happy that my final edition of SPAN is our annual education issue. The United States has more than 4,000 accredited colleges and universities to choose from, and this issue is all about choices. We have articles that will help you look beyond the Ivy League, at options you might not have known even existed. There are many excellent undergraduate and graduate programs at lesser-known schools and non-traditional institutions and we provide you a sampling of these. While exploring these choices, however, it is very important to keep in mind that one should rely only on trusted and credible sources of information. In India, the EducationUSA Advising Services at the United StatesIndia Educational Foundation (USIEF) and its affiliated satellite centers are the only official sources for advice regarding U.S. colleges and its educational system. Our aim is to give you a complete package of information and, therefore, we have visa advice, material on how to choose a major, what to pack, social media use by U.S. colleges and universities, and teaching trends in U.S. classrooms. As part of our effort to find newer ways to convey information, we have included infographics, too. And so, this summer, I join the thousands of Indian students who are on their way to the United States. Like them, I take with me many memories of the amazing people I met, the innovative programs I attended, the changes I witnessed. In Tamil, when leaving, one says “varaen” (I’m coming). It means that you will return. In Hindi, one says “phir milenge” (’til we meet again). Phir milenge. Varaen.

Education

PUBLISHER

Towers, Quads, Vistas By Howard Cincotta

Funny Videos

The number of colleges and universities in the United States is vast. But you already knew that. What you don’t know is this:

some of America’s best schools are ones you’ve never heard of.

The

By HOWARD CINCOTTA

2 JULY/AUGUST 2012

Picking the Right School in America is Your First Tough Assignment Consider a school with a scenic campus in the eastern United States, next to a 128-hectare nature reserve, a top national academic ranking, average class size of 17, and a student-teacher ratio of 13 to 1. About 95 percent of students have jobs or advanced-study plans within six months of graduation. Welcome to Juniata College in central Pennsylvania, and yes, you’ve probably never heard of it. It’s important for international students who are considering a U.S. education to know about

Juniata and schools like it, even if such a small liberal arts school is not for them. Why? Because there are choices in America beyond the well-known Ivy League schools like Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth and brandname universities like Stanford and Duke. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of other U.S. schools where you can receive an equal standard of education. So let’s expand our search beyond the Ivy League, and take a look at four categories of schools.

n the United States, as in India and elsewhere, students are under tremendous pressure to pursue studies that will lead to lucrative jobs, professional standing, technology skills—or preferably, all three. But a number of top-ranked American colleges offer radically different approaches to undergraduate education. For students willing to push themselves and step outside the normal higher-education structure, these schools might be worth a second look. One of the best known is St. John’s, which enrolls about 850 students, including 30 international students, on campuses with identical curricula in Annapolis, Maryland, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. St. John’s is synonymous with the “great books”

approach, but as Roberta Gable, associate director of admissions, points out, the popular myth that students spend four years sitting around reading “big piles of novels” is misleading. The curriculum is indeed built around what are considered the great books of Western civilization, but, in fact, students spend half their time in math and science classes, even if they do begin with Euclid’s mathematical proofs. They also study ancient Greek, French and at least one year of music. There are no majors, no exams—and no choice of classes. Everyone takes the same course of instruction, which is based on the reading and discussion of primary texts. To share articles go to http://span.state.gov JULY/AUGUST 2012 3

EDUCATION

Photographs courtesy St. John’s College

Left: A seminar at St. John’s College (below left), where all classes are taught as discussion groups.

Courtesy Elon University

GREGORY CHERIN/Hampshire College

Left: Student Cristina D’Ancona at the Farm Center, Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Hampshire College http://www.hampshire.edu/

St. John’s College http://www.sjca.edu/

The Evergreen State College http://www.evergreen.edu/

Hampshire College, with 1,500 students on a 320-hectare campus near Amherst, Massachusetts, takes a different approach. Faculty members mentor students who then develop individualized courses of study, culminating in a large-scale project in the physical sciences, technology, social sciences, or a body of work in writing, performing or the arts. Like St. John’s, Hampshire College has one of the highest percentages of students who go on to receive doctoral degrees, many in the sciences and engineering. “We look for students with strong intellectual curiosity, able to write articulately, with a curiosity and openness to learning,” says Gabe 4 JULY/AUGUST 2012

Agree, assistant director of admissions and coordinator of international recruitment. He notes that Hampshire is very flexible and individualized in the application process, with a real willingness to work with students. “We get to know their background and devote personal attention to them, to make the process a little more human.” Students at The Evergreen State College, situated on a spectacular 400-hectare campus of forest and beaches in Olympia, Washington, also shape their own education—by taking what amounts to a single four-year class—called a “program”—by pursuing one major idea or theme. They explore their topic, however, through a wide range of coursework consisting of seminars, lectures, labs, field studies and independent research. What kind of ideas, or “programs,” are Evergreen students tackling today? Examples taken from the college’s Web site: Fiber Arts, Non-Western Art History, Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and Book Torrent: Information Studies in the —H.C. 21st Century.

rom Goucher College outside Baltimore, Maryland, to Reed College in Portland, Oregon, the United States is dotted with small liberal arts colleges whose caliber of undergraduate education is unrivaled. At Juniata, for instance, which has over 150 international students in a total enrollment of 1,600, students work intensively with faculty advisors to design individualized courses of instruction and find outside work-study opportunities. “We do particularly well in offering undergraduates the opportunity to do graduate-level work, and even to co-author research papers with faculty members,” says Kati Csoman, assistant dean of international programs. “We are a challenging but great place for international students committed to the liberal arts, who are wellrounded, able to learn how to write well, and know how to step outside their comfort zone.” Student engagement, independent learning and the ability to integrate knowledge and skills in both academics and real-life applications are common themes at many of these schools. The Liberal Arts in Practice Center at Beloit College in Wisconsin, for example, helps students connect their academic work with career goals through internships, research opportunities and community service. Beloit, Wisconsin’s oldest college, with

Courtesy Juniata College

Lesser-Known Schools Beloit College https://www.beloit.edu/

Elon University http://www.elon.edu/

Clark University http://www.clarku.edu/

University of Kentucky

age class size of 25. One of Kentucky’s big advantages, says Karen Slaymaker, assistant director of international student and scholar services, is that all of the university’s colleges are on one campus. Most universities share a similar mix of undergraduate majors, but they often have different traditional areas of expertise and recognized academic standing. Elon University, located between Greensboro and Raleigh, North Carolina, is an example of a small private university that has emerged from obscurity in the last decade to become a top-ranked institution. Even many Americans aren’t familiar with it, especially in a state packed with better-known schools like Duke University and the University of North Carolina. “I think the international students who do best at Elon are those excited about learning inside and outside of the classroom,” says Cheryl Borden, director of international admissions. “Elon is a very active environment where students are encouraged to share their ideas and opinions in the classroom. Out of the classroom, students have an abundance of campus organizations and clubs to join and be a part of.” —H.C.

Courtesy University of Kentucky

an enrollment of 1,300 students, has become much more deliberate in its international outreach through travelling presentations and use of online technology like Skype, according to Nancy Benedict, vice president of enrollment services. “In many countries, you’re in your program and your destiny is determined,” Benedict says. “We find a real hunger to be broadly educated, and we want to explain what it means to have a broad range of choices through a liberal arts education.” These liberal arts schools are not the only alternative to brand-name schools. Clark University, a small but distinguished research university in Worcester, Massachusetts, offers a five-year bachelor’s and master’s degree program, with the fifth year free. Clark has an international student enrollment of almost 200 undergraduates and 680 graduate students out of a total enrollment of 2,200. A much larger institution, the University of Kentucky in Lexington, is more typical of the many state university systems in the United States. With approximately 1,500 international students out of a total enrollment of roughly 27,000, Kentucky offers 200 different majors, while maintaining an aver-

Courtesy Beloit College

http://www.uky.edu/

Top left: A student paints spring flowers at Elon University in North Carolina. Top: Students on the quad at Juniata College in Pennsylvania. Above center: Students at the library at Beloit College in Wisconsin. Above: Memorial Hall, where the University of Kentucky holds major lectures and events. Large introductory courses are occasionally taught there as well.

JULY/AUGUST 2012

Photographs courtesy Saint Paul College

wo-year community colleges, once the neglected option of American higher education, are achieving greater attention and higher visibility. They merit serious consideration by international students interested in technical or profes-

6 JULY/AUGUST 2012

sional training in fields like nursing, computers or business, or as a stepping stone to transferring to a four-year institution to gain a bachelor’s degree. Take Santa Barbara City College in California, rated one of America’s top community colleges by the Aspen Institute.

Courtesy Valencia College

Community Colleges

Above right: Students at Saint Paul College in Minnesota (above). Below left: Valencia College's West Campus. At the University Center, students can take classes from Valencia and the University of Central Florida.

With about 1,000 international students in a total enrollment of almost 20,000, Santa Barbara offers more than 80 one- or two-year degree and 50 certificate programs in fields ranging from biomedical sciences and construction technology to culinary arts and international business. About one-third of the school’s international students take business courses, according to Carola Smith, senior director for international programs, followed by economics and engineering. “Many come with the intention of transferring to the University of California system or private university for a four-year degree,” Smith adds. The school has a strong media arts program, especially in film and television— in part because many of Hollywood’s actors, producers and technicians choose Continued on page 8

James Montoya Vice President of Higher Education Relationship Development,

The College Board

hat are some of the current trends in U.S. higher education that international students should be aware of? One important emerging trend is that more and more universities across the wide spectrum of U.S. higher education are seeking to build more “global” campus communities and are actively seeking to attract international students to their campuses. Opportunities for international students are increasingly available at institutions that boast academic programs of extremely high quality, but are perhaps not as well-known outside the U.S., or have not traditionally recruited extensively outside the United States. Northeastern University in Massachusetts, Marist College in New York, Champagne College in Vermont, Reed College in Oregon, Chapman University in California, Trinity University in Texas, Hendrix College in Arkansas...among many, many others, are actively trying to identify highly qualified students from India and other countries to be members of their campus communities. Many more U.S. institutions are not only investing in greater outreach to international stu-

dents, but also are developing comprehensive orientation programs and support systems to ensure academic and personal success for international students. How should students assess the pros and cons of sticking to Ivy League or “brand-nname” schools versus lesser-kknown public and private colleges and universities? Having been the dean of admission at Stanford University, as well as the director of admission at two small liberal arts colleges, Occidental in California and Vassar in New York, I know firsthand that excellence exists in both smaller colleges and larger universities, even lesser-known institutions. I always encourage students and their parents not to mistake prestige for excellence. Any general advice on questions of school location—region of the country, city or small town/rural, size, financial aid, and institutions with larger or smaller numbers of international students? One advantage of American higher education is the diversity of quality choices. The College Board’s new BigFuture college planning site

For International Students

(bigfuture.org) is a great starting point for collecting objective information about North American universities and honing one’s search. BigFuture replaces the College Board’s previous college planning Web site, which was a trusted resource...used by more than six million students and parents each month. A significant proportion of this traffic (typically more than 12 percent) arises from outside the United States, with tens of thousands of Indian students using the site. Most of the criteria you ask about above are searchable through our site. What can an Indian student do to make his or her application stand out? How important are extracurricular, work history, or volunteer activities on the application? U.S. universities have autonomy over their own admission requirements, policies and practices. With that said, another trend that has emerged is that the demonstration of academic rigor plays a greater role than ever. SAT scores continue to be important, but success in programs like the Advanced Placement Program (AP) increasingly can differentiate a student. For years, we offered AP exams in New Delhi and Mumbai. The College Board is now also working to provide access to AP throughout India. More information may be found at http://www.collegeboard.org/apin-india.html. What are the essential, authoritative sources of information that any student needs to access before applying to a U.S. school? Beyond the College Board’s BigFuture site,

INTERVIEW

Opportunities

Courtesy The College Board

Interview with

Continued on page 9

SPAN JULY/AUGUST 2012

AUSTIN ANTHONY ÂŠ AP-WWP/The Flint Journal Courtesy Santa Barbara City College

A Mott Community College student makes a balloon animal at a Halloween event at Mott in Flint, Michigan.

to live in Santa Barbara and commute to work in Los Angeles. North of Santa Barbara but still on the Pacific Ocean, is Tacoma Community College in the state of Washington, which also draws a substantial international student population. In addition to career training, Tacoma offers 50 courses of study, from accounting to zoology, that can be transferred to four-year institutions. Far from the ocean, St. Paul College, located in the Midwestern state of Minnesota, has been ranked the number one community college in the United States by Washington Monthly magazine. One reason: its high rating on the 2011 Community College Survey of Student Engagement. St. Paul has excelled in combining the liberal-arts commitment to critical thinking with an intensely collaborative approach to its vocational training classes, according to Washington Monthly. The school offers 44 associate degree and 71 career, certificate and diploma programs. Courses in business, computer science, and the health professions are common to most community colleges, but depending on location and local needs, American community colleges can offer a remarkably wide range of professional education.

A globe at Lake Area Technical Institute in South Dakota.

Pedestrian bridge at Santa Barbara City College in California, with the Pacific Ocean in the background.

8 JULY/AUGUST 2012

Schrunkn/Wikipedia

Howard Cincotta is a U.S. State Department writer and editor.

Courtesy Valencia College

Some top-rranked community colleges in 2011, selected by the Aspen Institute, a think tank and leadership institute based in Colorado.

Valencia College Students at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida, receive tutoring help in the math lab.

http://valenciacollege.edu/

Lake Area Technical Institute http://www.lakeareatech.edu/

Miami Dade College http://www.mdc.edu/main/ Walla Walla Community College in Washington state.

Walla Walla Community College

http://www.westkentucky.kctcs.edu/

Billy Hathorn/Wikipedia

West Kentucky Community and Technical College

GREG LEHMAN ÂŠ AP-WWP/ Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

http://www.wwcc.edu/

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College http://www.mgccc.edu/

Mott Community College

international.collegeboard.org is also a great resource. For on-the-ground advice within India, the EducationUSA centers, including the Yashna Trust in Bangalore, and United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) are invaluable partners. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;H.C.

The College Board

http://www.mcc.edu/

http://www.collegeboard.org

Northwest Iowa Community College

United States-India Educational Foundation

Santa Barbara City College http://www.sbcc.edu/

Southwest Texas Junior College http://www.swtjc.edu/

Southwest Texas Junior College.

Study in the U.S. Woodlot/Wikipedia

http://www.nwicc.edu/

http://www.usief.org.in http://www.usief.org.in/ Study-in-the-US.aspx

EducationUSA http://www.educationusa.state.gov JULY/AUGUST 2012

Photographs courtesy Savannah College of Art and Design

Specialty Institutions By MICHAEL JAY FRIEDMAN

hile most American universities offer a broad range of studies, others feature more focused curricula. Specializing in distinct areas, such as the fine and performing arts, business and technological skills, or military training, these schools of special focus afford students the prospect of concentrating their studies in a particular area. This approach is not ideal for every student, but for some the right specialty school nurtures exceptional talents, hones particular skills, and affords the chance to interact with similarly inclined peers. The institutions profiled here represent only a few of the available opportunities. Located in New York City, the highly selective Juilliard School offers its students pre-professional training in music, dance and drama. It draws students from 46 U.S. states and 39 other nations, and includes among its many notable alumni the classical artists Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma and Pinchas Zukerman; seminal jazz figures like Thelonious Monk and Wynton Marsalis; and vocalists from the classical soprano Leontyne Price to the deep-voiced jazz vocalist Nina Simone. The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), headquartered in Savannah, Georgia, prepares students for careers in the visual and performing arts, design, the building arts, and the history of art and architecture. This focus allows Savannah to offer majors not commonly found at research or liberal arts institutions. Students earn degrees in advertising design, animation, commercial photography and dozens of other specialties. Many undergraduates aiming at a career in one of these fields highly value the opportunity to concentrate their studies. In the words of college president Paula S. Wallace, “SCAD students are weaving creative vision with technical mastery to transform artistic vision into professional expertise and rewarding futures.”

Students seeking careers in design and the arts are attracted to schools like Savannah and Juilliard. Many others seek skills to help them advance in the business world or in the growing technological sector. Often these students are older and already employed. A number of for-profit “proprietary institutions” serve their needs. Schools like DeVry University, which holds classes online and at more than 95 campuses, offer practical instruction, often through part-time or adjunct faculty who also hold full-time professional employment outside the university. Proprietary schools typically accommodate the busy schedules of parents and working students by holding many classes on nights and weekends and by encouraging part-time The Juilliard School study. Computer science http://www.juilliard.edu and programming, business and other technoloSavannah College of gy-related fields of study Art and Design are popular. http://www.scad.edu Michael Jay Friedman is director of the Office of Written Content in the Bureau of International Information Programs of the U.S. Department of State.

Far left: Students of the School of Foundation Studies at Savannah College of Art and Design participate in a collaborative design/build project. Left: A film and television student production at Savannah.

DeVry University http://www.devry.edu

MICHAEL DIDONNA

Fashion designer Rachel Roy works with students during a visit to Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, Georgia.

Choosing a

By LINDA TOBASH

Helpful tips for students who are deciding which area of study is right for them.

Photographs © AP-WWP, © Getty Images, MIT

How Does One

Choose A Major?

ith hundreds of majors and thousands of colleges and universities to choose from, how does one begin to decide what and where to study in the United States? For some, the first decision is where—at a large comprehensive university, a small liberal arts college, or a specialized institution; in a city or the country; near the beach or in the mountains; near family or far away; at a school providing financial aid; or at a school that offers specific extracurricular activities, such as the opportunity to play on a soccer team, or to work on the campus radio or television station. But for many others, the college search begins with what they might want to study and where the best places to study that subject might be. Unlike other national educational systems, where someone’s college major is determined by what was studied in secondary school or scores received on college entrance exams, undergraduate applicants to U.S. colleges and universities often can choose from the full range of schools and academic majors.

ome have a passion for a subject. Some have an area in which they excelled in high school. Some have a career goal that will dictate the major they must take; for example, nursing, teaching, studio art or engineering. But many students just don’t know. Most educators agree that in choosing a major, students should consider what they like to do, what their abilities are, and how they like to learn. A large number of institutions post on their Web sites a wealth of information and tools to help prospective and current students select majors. The most frequently cited advice includes: Learn more about yourself. What are your academic strengths and weaknesses? What do you enjoy? What are your interests? What are your values? What are your immediate goals after graduating— getting a job or going to graduate school? Take a personality or an interest inventory or assessment. If such inventory or assessment opportunities are not available in your secondary school or town, you can check at a U.S. Educational Advising/Information Center. http://www.educationusa.info/India Visit Web sites of university departments. Look at the majors offered. Analyze the courses offered and the degree requirements. Some college faculty members post their course syllabi, a full description of the courses, online. The more you can learn about the types of courses and work required for a major, the better. Once you are in the United States, go to departmental offices on campus and talk with staff, faculty and students.

After you enroll, try out different courses in different departments. Learn about the faculty members who teach the major courses and about what kind of students enroll. If you find yourself in the wrong major, don’t worry. Most students in U.S. colleges change their majors. Do not stay in a major you don’t like or that is not challenging and stimulating. —L.T.

ACADEMICS

Stanford University’s Web site states, “A major is the field in which you choose to specialize during your undergraduate study. Your choice determines the academic discipline that will absorb a significant portion of your academic time and energy. Upon successful completion of the major requirements and University requirements, you receive a bachelor’s degree. Your major offers an opportunity to develop your intellectual skill, to show your capability in grasping a subject from the fundamentals through advanced study. What you study is an important personal decision.” (http://www.stanford.edu/~susanz/Majors.html) When a student chooses a major, he or she enters into a contract with a college to complete a prescribed course of study that consists of both

What exactly is a college major?

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov JULY/AUGUST 2012 13

general education requirements (i.e., university requirements) and academic major requirements. In other words, the college curriculum will consist of courses beyond the major field of study. In fact, as much as 50 to 60 percent of coursework might consist of general education and elective courses, i.e., courses that the student chooses from a broad range of options both within and outside of the major. The percentage of general education courses, as compared to major courses, varies depending on the school and the major, but all institutions require some general education courses. The U.S. undergraduate education is rooted in a liberal arts tradition, with general education seen as very important. The goal of all undergraduate baccalaureate degrees is to develop in each student critical thinking skills and the ability to learn how to learn, as well as proficiency in a specific academic area. At many institutions, students can choose both a major and a minor area of study. A minor, or concentration, is usually closely related to the academic major. For example, a student might major in

merican students now have more opportunities to gain work experience in India. Passport to India, a new initiative by the U.S. State Department is promoting Indian internships for American high school and college students. Currently, less than 3,000 American students study in India each year. The Passport to India program seeks to increase this number. Relying entirely on private sector philanthropic support, the initiative works with foundations and businesses in two ways: by encouraging the funding of existing internship programs in India that are seeking to expand, and by encouraging companies to sponsor American students for internships in their

14 JULY/AUGUST 2012

English and minor in theater, or major in history and minor in political science, or vice versa. A small number of courses in the minor will be required for graduation and will frequently “count” (i.e., be applicable) toward the major degree requirements as well. At some institutions, students, working closely with an academic advisor, can design their own individualized majors. A growing number of undergraduate students choose dual majors. In other words, they graduate having met the requirements for two majors. The majors can be related—for example, two majors in the social sciences, such as history and sociology. Or they can be completely different—biology and literature, for instance. Often students will choose more than one major in order to better prepare for a career or to make themselves more competitive for graduate school. But sometimes they choose a double major because of personal passion. At some institutions, double majors can be taken simultaneously, and at others they must be taken sequentially. Generally speaking, the length of time to earn a degree will be a bit longer, but students are not

own India-based facilities. The program offers internships in diverse fields including management, graphic design, manufacturing, high technology and pharmaceutical research. Students would also have a choice of interning with non-governmental organizations. Internships have become an important part of college

education in the United States and more and more schools are requiring students to complete an internship before they graduate. Passport to India is expected to provide a pool of American students who can understand India better and work effectively on joint projects. https://www.facebook.com/ pass2india

starting with each major from the beginning. A good number of the general education and even elective courses in one major will count toward the degree requirements for the second major. All institutions clearly define the expectations and course requirements that students must fulfill to graduate. Students generally meet each term with an academic advisor who helps them choose courses that will count toward their degree requirements. Most institutions also provide tools to help students, such as program or degree requirement checklists.

When does one choose a college major? Some students enter college knowing exactly what they want to study, some think they know, and some have no idea. Most will change majors at least once. Since nearly two-thirds of undergraduate students in the United States change majors before graduating and might consider up to four or five majors before finally deciding on one, a number of institutions actually prefer that students not declare a major until after they have started their college education. Even at those institutions that require prospective students to identify a major when they apply, students can usually select an “undecided” or “undeclared” major option. While students do not have an unlimited amount of time to choose a major— most baccalaureate degrees are designed to be completed in four years with 120 semester credits—students often have until the end of their sophomore year to decide and still be able to complete their degree on time. Of course, students choosing to enter community colleges (two-year institutions that award associate’s degrees) must choose a major much sooner. And it is better for students to decide early if they choose a major for which a large percentage of the required coursework is in the major field (for example, highly technical fields or some health fields) or if there are a large number of prerequisites—basic courses that must be taken before one is allowed to register for a more advanced course. Linda Tobash is the director of University Placement Services at the Institute of International Education.

Official Source on U.S. Higher Education

Courtesy Wesley Teter

Your

SPAN magazine spoke to Wesley Teter, the new regional director for EducationUSA in India and Central Asia about opportunities to study in the United States.

“

There is a natural fit between

Last year, over

720,000 international students were admitted to a U.S. university or college.

talented applicants

here in India and the wide range of opportunities to study in the United States.

(Open Doors, 2011)

TIP: You need 12 to 18 months to prepare applications and take admissions tests like the SAT/ACT or GRE. Don’t miss deadlines—the early bird gets the worm! in India? Some Indian students look for shortcuts through the rather intense and lengthy application process. EducationUSA advisers use online resources and videos like “Your 5 Steps to U.S. Study” to help streamline the application process. However, there’s no magic wand or shortcut to being admitted to a world-class institution, including using student recruitment agents. U.S. institutions and visa officers want to see ultracareful selection of schools where you have a realistic chance for successful completion. Your EducationUSA adviser can teach you how to select schools and research sources of financial aid. Ask your adviser this question: “What else

Don’t try to match yourself to a university, rather try to pick a university that matches you. —EducationUSA student

”

Top: Wesley Teter (right) with the EducationUSA team in New Delhi.

can I do to strengthen my application?” What is your advice regarding financial aid? A wide range of tuition fees and living costs, plus some financial help from colleges, make study in the United States affordable for over 720,000 international students every year. What can EducationUSA advisers do? Talk to your adviser about school selection, writing essays, taking the GRE or SAT/ACT, and how to get good teacher recommendations. EducationUSA advisers build relationships with U.S. admissions officers, and can help find the best fit and program for you. Most importantly, they share unbiased information about aid opportunities, so that you are aware of every possible opportunity. EducationUSA is here to help you reach your dreams in the United States. Good luck! You can find EducationUSA on facebook.com/EducationUSADelhi or call the toll free helpline: 1800 103 1231 from Monday through Friday, 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Find resources online at: www.usief.org.in and www.EducationUSA.info.

INTERVIEW

What brings you to New Delhi? In the past two years, we’ve expanded our EducationUSA advising services available at the U.S.-India Educational Foundation (USIEF). For those of you who don’t know, EducationUSA is a global network of over 400 advising centers supported by the U.S. Department of State. Our goal is to offer prospective U.S. students accurate, comprehensive and current information about how best to access opportunities to study in an accredited U.S. university or college. With over 100,000 Indian students in the United States, EducationUSA advisers at USIEF have a herculean task. As regional director for EducationUSA in India, I’m charged with overseeing the network of professional advisers in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi. Do U.S. universities want to attract students from India? What are some common mistakes you see from Indian applicants? Without a doubt, Indian students are among the best and brightest in the world. There is a natural fit between talented applicants here in India and the wide range of opportunities to study in the United States. One of the main challenges we face is helping students “search beyond the Ivy League.” For example, many excellent undergraduate and graduate programs are available at lesser-known schools. Each year, EducationUSA advisers help thousands of prospective students find their best fit in America. Finding the right academic “match” between you, the department, and its faculty can be the key to a successful experience in the United States. Whaat are some unique challenges to your job

Courtesy Rebecca Munsterer BILL WOOD

Right: Rebecca Munsterer (second from right) with the team of international admissions officers at Dartmouth. Far right: A professor conducts a class on the steps of Angell Hall at University of Michigan.

ver the past few years, American universities and prospective Indian students have developed a growing interest in one another. Topranked institutions like University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) have seen Indian undergraduate applications more than double since 2009, and acceptance rates for India nearly triple. The numbers are expected to continue going up, as more of America’s most competitive colleges and universities send recruiters to India with increasing frequency. More Indians applying. More and more accepted. What’s this mutual affec-

How to

Prepare a Successful Application By JANE VARNER MA

LHOTRA

the United College acceptance in extremely States continues to be some tips competitive. Here are s on from admissions official owd. how to rise above the cr 16 JULY/AUGUST 2012

tion all about? “Global diversity,” explains Susan Wilbur, director of undergraduate admissions at UCLA. “For a long time, the University of California schools have focused on recruiting students from California, as our first mission is to serve the people of our state. But we live in an increasingly global community, so we want to provide more and more opportunities for students to interact with people with different perspectives.” India, in particular, offers a growing number of highly qualified applicants with solid English skills and an interest in studying at American institutions. “India, frankly, has become more of a hot spot for us,” says Rebecca Munsterer, senior associate director of admissions at Dartmouth College. “We increased our visits to India last year, because we recognized both an interest in Dartmouth there, and a lot of talent.” As the number of applicants increases, putting together an application that rises above the crowded field becomes a bigger challenge. Admissions officers from four top-ranked colleges and universities spoke with SPAN to share advice on how Indian students can develop applications that stand out.

Begin with a good fit Schools are looking for international students who will succeed even though they are far from home and in unfamiliar surroundings. Therefore, successful applications begin with students who have done their research and know if the school will be a good match for them. How long is the winter? What kind of community surrounds the

The Personal Statement Do: z z

Answer the question asked. Focus on a specific incident or event you remember well—details are important. Consider explaining anything unusual that has influenced your school or home life. Ask others to proofread it for grammatical and spelling errors.

Do Not: z z z z

z z

Lie. Let someone else write the essay for you. Choose a topic merely to look good. Say what you think the college wants to hear; just tell the truth about your reasons for applying. Skip opportunities to write more about yourself. Write the essay, or any other part of your application, the night before it is due. © Getty Images

school—urban, suburban or a quaint college town? Is the university residential or do most students live in apartments off campus? Which academic areas are the strongest and do they align with the applicant’s interests? At Stanford University, where most students live in dorms all four years, admissions officers look for candidates who would make good roommates. Similarly, at Dartmouth, an Ivy League school set in a remote area in the middle of New Hampshire, applicants need to be able to live in dorms with a diverse group of students. “This can be a real challenge for some high school students who grew up surrounded by people who look, talk, eat and think like them,” says Munsterer. Applicants can learn more about the schools before applying by meeting recruiters or alumni in India, and asking about the culture, the weather, the support systems in place for international students, academics, lifestyle and extracurricular opportunities. Information on these are also available on university Web sites.

any schools ask applicants to submit a written personal statement or essay as part of the admissions process. When university admissions officers read this part of the application, they may look to see whether the student can contribute to the school and if the school can meet his or her needs. The personal statement gives universities a chance to get a personal insight that is not possible in the grades and numbers that make up the rest of the application. Colleges look for certain qualities in potential students and tailor their essay questions accordingly. Application essays also allow admissions officers to assess your writing skills, academic ability, organizational skills, purpose in applying to the institution, and the reasons for your chosen field of study. Admissions officers look for a demonstration of intellectual curiosity and maturity. Write the essay in advance so that you have time to put it aside for a week and then read it again to see if it still makes sense. Make sure that your essay is a true

Demonstrate strength in academics and beyond representation of yourself and your abilities. Admissions officers read several hundred essays each year and have become experts at identifying fake essays or those written by parents. The essay is your opportunity to tell the college why it should accept you over other students—use it well.

Use the resources on

www.usief.org.in

call the toll free helpline:

1800 103 1231 Monday through Friday, 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. for more help.

Text courtesy EducationUSA at USIEF

SPAN JULY/AUGUST 2012

APPLICATIONS

Competitive American universities expect applicants to have proven academic success—excellent grades in rigorous coursework, high marks on external exams, and strong ACT/SAT and TOEFL results. But beyond these in-class results, admissions reviewers look for evidence of skills outside the classroom that reflect a student’s personal interest and sense of responsibility: leadership, awards and service to the community.

Seek out meaningful recommendations In the United States, high school students typically participate in extracurricular activities such as athletics, arts, clubs and community service through their schools. Therefore in most cases, teachers see and get to know their students beyond a strictly academic setting. However, Munsterer notes, producing a robust teacher recommendation can be a challenge for the international student. “Student relationships with teachers and guidance counselors are different from the United States. International teacher recommendations might simply state that the student is smart and receives an A in class. So it becomes important for these students to show their intellectual curiosity themselves. In the essays, share what you did with math, not just how hard you worked to get the grade, for example.”

Above: UCLA undergrads walk to class past the historic Powell Library.

classroom will offer state-of-the-art multimedia facilities and replicate the MBA classrooms in Boston. The new classroom will house the executive education programs Harvard Business School already runs in India and replace the various temporary spaces the school has used previously. “India is a key component of Harvard Business School’s global strategy,” says Dean Nitin Nohria. “Our aspiration is to expand our intellectual footprint by working with business, government and academic leaders from A classroom at Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts.

across the country, all the while contributing to important discussions about India’s long-term economic growth.” The school opened its India Research Center in Mumbai in 2005 and has run executive education programs in India for nearly six years. Using the new classroom, Harvard Business School faculty will offer programs and symposia to leaders in business, government and academia on a wide range of subjects such as corporate social responsibility, building a global enterprise, case writing and course development. According to the school’s Web site, “Indian business schools extensively use Harvard Business School cases in the classroom and over the past four years some 100 Indian faculty have participated in the school’s Global Colloquium for Participant Centered Learning, where they learn from HBS faculty how to teach using the case method.” Courtesy Wikipedia

Looking For a

Harvard Education?

Head to Mumbai or more than a century, Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts has trained students who have reshaped the way business is conducted around the world. In March 2012, the school established a classroom at Taj Lands End Hotel in Mumbai. With a seating capacity of up to 82 students, the amphitheater-style

STEPHANIE DIANI

“Our admissions decisions are not based solely on any single criterion but on the whole record,” explains University of Michigan’s international admissions and recruitment coordinator, Cindy Gould. “We use an individualized, comprehensive, holistic, multiple-review process in evaluating each student’s application. And we know that there is great variation among our applicants’ personal circumstances, home communities and high schools—even the curriculum available and the grading practices can vary widely.” At UCLA, Wilbur suggests that students include additional comments on their applications to explain anything unusual about their educational system. “This can be helpful to admissions reviewers in the U.S.,” she notes, “as each student comes to us with a unique educational history.”

Go Online Guidance on American College Applications http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/category/ uncategorized/the-choice-on-india-ink

American Alumni Association in India http://www.americanalumni.net/

Dartmouth College www.dartmouth.edu

University of Michigan www.umich.edu

Stanford University www.stanford.edu

University of California, Los Angeles www.ucla.edu

Dartmouth is one of the few institutions that also require a peer recommendation. “The prompts are purposely vague,” says Munsterer. “We’re looking for anecdotes about their experiences to help us add a layer about who they are and what they have to offer at Dartmouth.”

OWU Students Learn About Gandhi

Although not all American universities require essays for admission, most of the top-ranked schools do. The essay provides an opportunity for the applicant to reveal her or his personal passion, unique experiences, struggles, humor, aspirations. Schools hope the essay will help them discover a student’s personal qualities, those less tangible elements of a student’s application that indicate what the person might gain from and contribute to the campus community if admitted. In the American education system, students are often encouraged to express their personality in their writing. For students raised in an educational culture that emphasizes studying and scores, this expectation can be a challenge. Applicants should begin their essay-writing process by reflecting on both their achievements and setbacks in academics and extracurricular activities, recommends Gould at Michigan. “Students should complete their own applications,” she adds. “We like the student’s voice to come through and the essays create an opportunity for this.” Stanford University’s admission officer Theresa Bruketta explains that due to sheer numbers they must turn away many qualified applicants. So the essay offers a real opportunity for a strong and passionate student to make an impression. “To stand out, an applicant must be both competitive but also compelling. This is not something that is easily defined because it is what makes that applicant unique. There is no formula for getting into Stanford. My best advice is for students to do what they love and to do it well. This will not only help them find their true passion and their true voice, it will also be the thing that stands out in our process.”

Courtesy Ohio Wesleyan University

Share your personal voice

Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware.

group of students and teachers from Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware visited Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR) in New Delhi in March for a week-long academic and cultural exchange program to learn about the life and works of Mohandas K. Gandhi. They explored Gandhi from many perspectives, including peace and conflict resolution, and had discussions with LSR students and teachers. They also visited the Gandhi Smriti (earlier known as Birla House), where Gandhi stayed during his Delhi visits and places of worship of various faiths frequented by Gandhi. “We began our course…with a prayer service on the lawn of LSR…. We were all deeply moved, many to tears, by the beauty of the music, the serenity of the prayers, and the unity of the human spirit reflected in the service,” Rock Jones, president of Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) wrote in his blog. OWU students also participated in community service at a center for intellectually disabled youth and adults run by Muskaan, a nongovernmental organization. The visitors and the LSR students discussed the possibility of sharing their talents and resources, including student and faculty exchanges, joint faculty development and short-term courses for students of both colleges. Two years ago, Ohio Wesleyan University was selected by the Institute for International Education as one of 10 colleges and universities in the United States to participate in an International Academic Partnership Program in India. The program is designed to foster partnerships among institutions of higher education in India and the United States. Read more about the visit at http://blog.owu.edu/india

Jane Varner Malhotra is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov JULY/AUGUST 2012 19

Illustration by HEMANT BHATNAGAR

A View From

Behind the Glass Student visa advice from a U.S. visa officer. By MONICA L. SHIE

ver the last decade, nearly one million Indian students were granted visas to study in the United States. Every one of them appeared before an American visa officer for an interview. If you’ve ever applied for a U.S. visa, you too have come face-to-face with one of us. Have you ever wondered who are the visa officers who will approve or deny your visa? When I was a child, I did not dream of becoming a visa officer. Even as a young adult, first majoring in literature and then taking up teaching, it didn’t occur to me that I would one day sit on a high stool behind a glass window at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and adjudicate visas. But for the past several months, I have been doing just that—almost 100 interviews a day. I mention this by way of reminding you that visa officers are people, too. We come from a variety of backgrounds. We once were lawyers, teachers, IT professionals, even fire fighters. But at some point in our lives, we took the Foreign Service written test, passed the day-long oral exam, and, after extensive training, became diplomats. Most of us are on our first or second tours. We joined the Foreign Service because we are interested in other cultures. Most of us are here because we chose to come to India. We visit the Taj Mahal; we read Chetan Bhagat’s novels; we watch “Delhi Belly;” we love butter chicken. We want to be here, and we enjoy talking with you. A lot of us studied Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu or Bengali for several months before we came to India so that we can conduct interviews with applicants who do not speak English. We might

20 JULY/AUGUST 2012

not be fluent or flawless, but we can ask a few basic questions: What is the purpose of your travel? Who do you know in America? How long do you plan to stay? Usually, we can understand the answers; when we don’t, we ask our Indian colleagues to translate. Every day in New Delhi, eight or nine officers interview hundreds of people seeking visas to the United States. Because we try to serve as many applicants as we can, the interviews are quite short—only two to three minutes. A lot of the information that we need is already there in your application, but we like to hear from you, personally, about your travel plans. Sometimes, visa applicants bring stacks of documents, and they seem disappointed when we don’t look at them. But the idea of a personal interview is to speak with you face-to-face—not to examine documents. Many visa applicants pay consultants to prepare their applications. Although some consultants might provide helpful information, many do not. Remember that you alone are responsible for the accuracy of the information in your application. False information or fake document packages could result in permanent ineligibility. If you are a student, you should be prepared to talk about why you chose the university that you plan to attend, and you should be able to explain how you will pay for your studies. It should be easy for us to believe that you will finish the degree at the institution you have selected, and we must be convinced that full-time study is the primary purpose of your travel.

It is best to apply early, but not before you have heard from your first-choice school. (Your visa will be annotated with the name of the school listed on your I-20 form at the time of your interview.) You can apply for a visa up to 120 days before your program is scheduled to begin. However, you may not enter the United States more than 30 days before the report date for your course. If you are applying for graduate work, be sure to apply as early as you can, as administrative processing is sometimes required that might delay the issuance of your visa. Nearly 104,000 Indians are currently studying in the United States. Like you, they were nervous when they faced the American visa officer behind the glass. The situation, admittedly, does not put one at ease. However, if you know yourself to be a credible, qualified student, then you should have nothing to worry about. Take a deep breath, relax, and remember that the person behind the glass is there to help you. We are regular people, too— just like you. Monica L. Shie is a consular officer at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi.

Go online: http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/applyingmain.html http://travel.state.gov

Embracing Technology and saving

Lives By MICHAEL GALLANT

Top: Embrace co-founders Rahul Panicker (from bottom), Naganand Murty, Linus Liang and Jane Chen. Above: Shivamadamma (right) is one of many new mothers who have benefited from Embraceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s entrepreneurial efforts. Left: A newborn baby rests in an Embrace warmer, which can keep an infant snuggled at a steady temperature for up to six hours.

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov JULY/AUGUST 2012 21

INNOVATION

Photographs courtesy Embrace

Courtesy Stanford University

American and Indian students invent a new device to keep high-risk babies warm.

Embrace http://www.embraceinnovations.com

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks about Embrace http://goo.gl/eRGZ5

those high standards to them. The Americans helped us Indians see how better the system could be, and we helped them by finding a more pragmatic common ground for what we can expect to influence and change.” Though Embrace has received widespread recognition, stories from mothers who have used their product mean the most to Murty and his colleagues. “It is tremendously satisfying to hear that all these years of hard work are beginning to truly create an impact,” he says. At the same time, Murty sees such stories as a stark reminder of how much must still be done to improve public health in India. “We also realize that the true unsung heroes of this story are the health workers on the ground who deliver care,” he says. “We see Embrace as an enabler to help them deliver better care.”

Michael Gallant is the founder and chief executive officer of Gallant Music. He lives in New York City.

Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability at Stanford University is an intensive, two quarter, hands-on project course in which graduate students apply design, engineering and business skills to create comprehensive solutions for challenges faced by economically weaker sections across the world. Multi-disciplinary student teams collaboratively design product prototypes, implementation plans, and user experiences for entrepreneurial ventures in developing countries. “Extreme Affordability has fundamentally changed the way that I think about and tackle problems. I have been empowered with the tools to develop products that address significant world problems.... The class has shaped my life course—I never imagined that I would lead a low cost baby incubator company after graduating from Stanford!” Embrace co-founder Jane Chen says on the course Web site http://extreme.stanford.edu/.

Courtesy Stanford University

22 JULY/AUGUST 2012

constant supply of electricity, making it a practical solution for parents living in poor and rural communities. Embrace co-founder Naganand Murty grew up in a suburb of Mumbai and currently works at its Bangalore-based office. During his senior year as an undergraduate at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Murty became aware of the challenges facing the public health system within India. “I decided to seek a better understanding of global health systems so I could figure out how to eventually help fix it,” he says. Murty’s journey led him to the United States and, eventually, to Stanford University in California, where he studied management science—and made the fateful decision to enroll in the Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability course. “Embrace has been a fascinating exercise in the collaboration between two very distinct cultures,” Murty says of his partnership with both American and Indian colleagues. “Looking at our users through both lenses enables us to see above and beyond what either of us would have individually seen. “In India...we’ve sought to ‘hack’ our way through to solutions,” he continues. “The Americans have come to expect much higher standards after years of growing up in a system that did deliver

Go Online

hroughout India, many parents of newborn children face a momentous challenge—how do they keep their babies warm? Especially in poor and rural areas, traditional incubators can be scarce and expensive, while other impromptu solutions such as warming babies with light bulbs, hot water bottles and space heaters can prove dangerous and undependable. Add to that the fact that one in three babies in India is born underweight—and therefore even more vulnerable to hypothermia—and it’s easy to see the magnitude of the problem. Worldwide, a stunning four million children die annually within their first four weeks, according to www.embraceglobal.org. Beginning in 2007, a quartet of Stanford University graduate students set out to reduce that bitter statistic through innovation and entrepreneurship. As members of a class called Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability, the team was asked to create a device that would keep babies warm, yet cost less than 1 percent of a traditional incubator’s $20,000 price tag. A complex challenge for sure, but the team of American and Indian students persevered. After the course ended, the team decided to continue on their own, first working at Stanford and then moving to Bangalore. After extensive research, development and testing, they began distributing their invention, the Embrace Infant Warmer, to Indian hospitals in 2011. Since then, the award-winning company has expanded its program to help high-risk babies in China and Somalia. In a speech at the U.S.-India Higher Education Summit in 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called out Embrace as “a simple idea born out of conversations between students from both of our countries talking about shared hopes for a better world that led to action.” To use the Embrace Infant Warmer, caretakers begin by warming a soft “WarmPak” to body temperature using a custom-designed heater. The WarmPak, which contains a special heat-absorbing material, is inserted into the “BabyWrap” and the child is placed inside. Simple and effective, Embrace can keep a child snuggled at a steady temperature for up to six hours. The device is also portable and easy to clean, and doesn’t require a

Above: Stanford University. Below: Naganand Murty (from left), Linus Liang, Jane Chen and Rahul Panicker.

In-V-Ent-ED n-V-Ent-Ed™, a program developed by Columbia Business School, debuted in New Delhi in November 2011. Tailored for students in high school, college or graduate school, the five-day program consists of an intensive set of interactive lectures and short case studies focused entirely on the process of planning a new venture. In-V-Ent-Ed stands for

I CHRIS SZABLA/Wikipedia

Innovation, Venture Creation, Entrepreneurship, Education.

Top: Uris Hall at Columbia Business School in New York City. Above: Karlee Blank, program development manager at In-V-Ent-Ed, helps a student at the November 2011 session in New Delhi. Right and far right: Students at the In-V-Ent-Ed session.

Photographs courtesy Columbia University

“We’re constantly trying to engage with other countries to support the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the targeted region,” says Jack McGourty, director of community and global entrepreneurship at Columbia Business School, who spearheads In-VEnt-Ed. “We felt a global entrepreneurial program for young students would be a good way to initially engage a region, start building a pipeline of young entrepreneurs, and create partnerships with critical stakeholders to drive economic development in the future. We’re in the early stage still, but local government, corporate leaders, and the investment community are already interested in getting involved.” In India, the program has been conducted three times; twice in New Delhi,

and once in Mumbai. At the end of each program, selected student ventures are further supported with some seed funding and continued mentoring by the faculty. In November 2011, high school student Shreya Bahl took first place with her idea for a mobile application dedicated to medical benefits. In-V-Ent-Ed helped flesh it out and fine-tune the details. “They made me look at it from different angles and consider multiple situations,” she says in the newsletter, Columbia Engineering. Another participant, Urvi Raghbeer, says he learned more about starting a business than he had expected, and also had fun doing it. “I didn’t expect it to be such an enjoyable and memorable experience.... We learned about key concepts in an interesting manner and were able to reach our potential within five days.” http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu

JULY/AUGUST 2012

MEGAN NADOLSKI/Kenyon College

Towers, Quads

enyon College, a highly respected liberal arts college, combines a breathtaking hilltop setting in central Ohio with some of the finest examples of Gothic revival architecture in the United States. Old Kenyon Hall (right), built in 1827, is one of Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oldest such Gothic buildings.

A three-meter-wide trail, known as Middle Path (above), runs the length of the campus, serving as a combination footpath and village green where students can gather. Another striking building is Rosse Hall (far right), Kenyonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s concert and lecture hall, constructed in the 1830s.

HOWARD KORN/Kenyon College

Kenyon College

this article write to editorspan@state.gov

A photo sampling of some of Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most striking and beautiful college campuses and their

By HOWARD CINCOTTA

Modern American campuses reflect the diversity of the country itselfâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;whether in location, size, students or academic mission. But they also demonstrate the powerful pull of tradition with their frequent mix of Gothic, neoclassical and modern architecture, grassy vistas, and the open squares, or quads, which serve as centers of college life. From thousands of American college campuses, large and small, here are a few compelling examples that are notable for their iconic buildings and beautiful and evocative settings.

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov

JULY/AUGUST 2012

TRAVEL

landmark buildings.

JEFF CORWIN/Kenyon College

s, Vistas

If you

Photographs courtesy Brown University

Brown University

26 JULY/AUGUST 2012

Photographs by ROSE LINCOLN/ Harvard University

University of

lthough the exact date remains fuzzy, few dispute Harvard University’s claim to be the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. The main campus (top) is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “While the brick buildings...and the neo-Georgian river Houses depict the expected image of ivy classicism,” writes the Harvard Gazette, “the University actually has a sweeping range of building styles that, taken together, amount to an informal history of American architecture.” One of the landmark buildings of the Harvard University Library is the Beaux-Arts Widener Library (above right), which was opened in 1915 and contains more than three million volumes. The Harvard Business School (above), founded in 1908 and famous for pioneering the “case study” approach, comprises several Georgianstyle buildings on the Boston side of the Charles River.

Courtesy University of Virginia

ew campuses embody the early history of the United States as well as the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, designed as an “academical village” by Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States. Jefferson modeled the Rotunda (right) after the Roman Pantheon, but reduced its dimensions to fit the buildings that flank the school’s celebrated green space known as The Lawn. The Rotunda was rebuilt in an elaborate Beaux-Art manner after being destroyed by fire in 1895, but architects restored Jefferson’s original design in 1976. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Virginia remains one of the premier public universities in the United States.

Harvard University STEPHANIE MITCHELL/ Harvard University

rown University’s reputation as a venerable Ivy League school didn’t prevent it from erecting the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts in 2011—an innovative open-space building with transparent walls designed to foster artistic collaboration. Its most dramatic feature is a set of split, or offset, floors so that each half floor is connected to two others, helping foster a high degree of artistic collaboration. The center (left, below left and below) contains spaces for a remarkable range of artistic endeavors. Among them: a 200-person auditorium for performance and film, a gallery for the visual arts, four interdisciplinary production studios, sound recording studio, multimedia lab, outdoor amphitheater and a physical media lab for research in sensors, robotics and advanced computing technology. Brown University, founded in 1764 and located in Rhode Island, is one of America’s oldest institutions of higher learning.

Virginia JULY/AUGUST 2012

Yale University

28 JULY/AUGUST 2012

Courtesy Wikipedia

Photographs courtesy Yale University

ale University in New Haven, Connecticut, is an architectural showcase. Although traditional stone structures in the Georgian and Gothic Revival style dominate much of the campus, Yale (left) also has buildings designed by some famous 20th-century architects. The Yale University Art Gallery combines both old and new elements in a single building. The original structure was completed in 1928. Noted architect Louis Kahn designed the modern brick-and-glass wing of the museum, which opened in 1953 and was Yale’s first modern building. Eero Saarinen’s Ingalls Rink, home to the college hockey team, is affectionately known as the “Yale Whale” for its striking aerodynamically shaped roof (below). The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (below right) is one of the largest buildings in the world devoted to such materials. Among Yale’s newer modernist buildings: the “green” Sculpture Building (right), completed in 2007.

JASON SMITH/University of Chicago Courtesy University of Chicago

University of Chicago any notable institutions of higher learning that are located in cities, such as New York University, have no campus at all. Not the University of Chicago, considered by many to have the finest urban campus in the country. One reason is its attractive Hyde Park neighborhood— home to Barack Obama before he became president—which features a slender green park, known as the Midway (above left), that is 200 meters wide and runs for 1.6 kilometers through the campus and the surrounding community. Chicago has one of the country’s finest collections of neo-Gothic architecture, largely because its chief benefactor, John D. Rockefeller, wanted to ensure the school’s prestige by emulating the buildings of Oxford University in the United Kingdom. The University of Chicago, however, is part of a city famous for its modern architecture, and today the school has many notable modernist buildings, including the School of Social Service Administration Building by Mies van der Rohe and the Law School Building, designed by Eero Saarinen. The newest: Mansueto Library (above), opened in May 2011, which holds millions of volumes underground, beneath a glass dome.

JULY/AUGUST 2012

Photographs courtesy Lewis and Clark College

Lewis and Clark College ituated on a forested hilltop, and adjoining a nature preserve, it’s hard to believe that Lewis and Clark is actually an urban college in Portland, Oregon. With its green setting and unique architecture, Lewis and Clark has been termed one of the 10 most beautiful campuses in the United States by The Princeton Review and the independent architectural blog StructureHub. Many of the student residences

have themes; the multicultural dorm, Akin Hall, houses international students and American students with international experience. The campus hub is the Frank Manor House (above left), a graceful 35-room Tudor-style mansion built in 1925, which serves as its administrative center. Lewis and Clark’s newest building is the Gregg Pavilion (above right), which adjoins the school’s chapel and is used for worship services and performances.

University of

California,

EncycloPetey/Courtesy Wikipedia

Berkeley Berkeley

30 JULY/AUGUST 2012

very different historic landmark from Virginia’s Rotunda stands on the campus of another elite public university—the 94-meter-tall Campanile of the University of California, Berkeley (left). The Campanile, named for its resemblance to the Campanile di San Marco in Venice, is one of the tallest bell-and-clock towers in the world, with its massive bells, or carillon, weighing between 9 to 4,800 kilos. Musicians play three brief concerts a day that echo through the Berkeley hills, with a longer concert on Sundays. Seaside campuses of the University of California at Santa Cruz and San Diego may have more spectacular settings, but the 72hectare Berkeley campus is a forested oasis with more than 500 species of native trees and vegetation, along with fragrant eucalyptus groves.

Photographs by MARC CAMPOS/Occidental College

Occidental College outhern California has no shortage of attractive college campuses, but few are as distinctive as the tile-roofed Mediterranean-style buildings of Occidental College (below left), located in Los Angeles and one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the U.S. West Coast. The campus has been a favored setting for Hollywood movies since the 1920s. Occidental is a small school, with barely 2,100 students. “The campus features gorgeous tree lines and superb social gathering areas [and] also ranks as one of the top universities in California,” according to the Web site thebestcolleges.org. Erdman Hall (above), built in the classic Mediterranean style in 1927, remains one of the most popular buildings on campus, with coed residences for 80 students. One of the school’s most immediately recognizable landmarks is Gilman Fountain (above left), with a kinetic water sculpture called “Water Forms II.”

JULY/AUGUST 2012

Photographs by LINDA A. CICERO/Stanford News Service

Stanford University

t 3,200 hectares, Stanford has one of the largest campuses in America, populated by distinctive sandstone and red-tile buildings in a Spanish-influenced architectural style known as Mission Revival. It has a remarkably diverse student body: about 60 percent of undergraduates are Asian, Hispanic, African American or Native American—or are international students. The campus (left and below), located in Palo Alto, California, features a number of scenic quads that are hives of student activity, along with such attractions as a 1,600-square-meter cacti and succulent garden, and an arts center featuring 24 art galleries, sculpture gardens, and one of the largest collections of bronze artwork by Rodin outside of Paris. Among its landmark buildings: the 87-meter Hoover Tower, Stanford Mausoleum, and a large radio telescope in the foothills known as “The Dish.”

32 JULY/AUGUST 2012

f any place captures the myth and mystery of the American South, it may well be the school officially known as Sewanee: The University of the South, even though, strictly speaking, it is located in a border state, Tennessee, and not in the so-called deep South (generally defined as South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana). Sewanee’s gorgeous campus (below right) and town is perched on a mountaintop known as the “Domain” and occupies a total of

Sewanee: 5,300 hectares. Filled with Gothic-style architecture, including the landmark All Saints’ Chapel (far right), Sewanee is home to the Tennessee Williams Center, named for the noted American playwright, who left his literary estate to the university.

Photographs courtesy Princeton University

Princeton University rinceton University in New Jersey (right), one of America’s best-known Ivy League universities, is renowned for its gray-stone neo-Gothic architecture, a style that can also be found on campuses throughout the country, from Yale University in Connecticut to Duke University in North Carolina. “The entire campus gives the sense of a huge opened up space, filled with beautiful archways, benches, footpaths or plazas that ‘invite’ students to a nice walk in the nature or for an academic debate,” says the architecture and design blog Colorcoat. Like most campuses, however, Princeton combines the old with the new, including cutting-edge architecture like the soaring and colorful Lewis Library (above right), which holds the university’s major science collections, and was designed by modernist architect Frank Gehry.

The University of the

South

Photographs courtesy Sewanee University

Howard Cincotta is a U.S. State Department writer and editor.

JULY/AUGUST 2012

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Below: Shaiva l Sheth at a beach on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbar a.

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Left: Shreyasi Das (center) with classmates in the animation lab at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

a student at the University Left: Moen Sen (far left), . Ohio in ti of Cincinna friend at Christmastime. Above: Sen (right) with a

Above: Anjali Venkatesh (from left), Allison Indyk and Colin Ogren enjoy the sun during a picnic on the quad of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.

Prakhya Bhatnagar

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Above, top left and top right: Prakhya Bhatnagar with friends at the University of Minnesota.

Right: Upasna Sharma, dressed up as a dacoit with a rock star’s wig, at a Halloween party in Harvard University’s Annenberg Hall. Far right: Sharma (fourth from left) at a freshman event at Annenberg Hall. Far right: Sharma (right) with friends at a freshman event at the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel in Massachusetts.

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(from left), Prak ota students Shraddha Pai Above: University of Minnes rma celebrate Holi. Sha i yan Dev and u Sah Kshitiz Thapa, Ankita

JULY/AUGUST 2012

Infographic by SARAH SMITH

36 JULY/AUGUST 2012

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov JULY/AUGUST 2012 37

Illustration by QASIM RAZA, photographs courtesy Khan Academy, ÂŠ Getty Images

The Khan Academy provides learning opportunities to anyone, anywhere.

W FREE online A World-Class Education,

and

By MICHAEL GALLANT

38 JULY/AUGUST 2012

If you

this article write to editorspan@state.gov

http://www.elearners.com/ educational-resources/

Hippocampus http://www.hippocampus.org/

Go Online

A compilation of Web-based education resources

Smithsonian Education http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/ students/

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence http://free.ed.gov/

Discovery Education http://www.discoveryeducation.com/ students/index.cfm

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov JULY/AUGUST 2012 39

ONLINE EDUCATION

free, world-class education for anyone anywhere?’ Back then, it was a bit of a delusional statement to make,” he says, laughing. “But given what we’ve grown into, it’s become surprisingly fitting.” Khan Academy has achieved stratospheric success, boasting more than 150 million “lessons delivered.” The site’s popularity is not only due to its preponderance of accessible and intelligent instructional videos, most shorter than 10 minutes, but also its variety of self-quizzing tools; the Web site even provides

Courtesy Khan Academy

hen Salman Khan began creating educational videos for his cousins in 2004, little did he know that, less than a decade later, a nonprofit organization bearing his name would help tens of millions of people worldwide learn subjects ranging from math and finance to biology and chemistry. “When I set up the Khan Academy as a not-for-profit organization in 2008, I had to write a mission statement for the IRS,” says Khan, who was working in finance at the time and creating Webbased educational content as a hobby. “I thought, ‘okay, how about to provide a

Left: Khan Academy provides an interactive learning experience through individual exercise modules and progress trackers. Below: Salman Khan, the founder of Khan Academy.

“ ”

We’re already translating into

videos

Photographs courtesy Khan Academy

Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Tamil.

40 JULY/AUGUST 2012

functionality for teachers or coaches to assign exercises and track student progress as they proceed from lesson to lesson. Since he began, Khan has personally created roughly 3,000 of the academy’s 3,300 videos. Each video can take him between a few minutes and several hours to produce. “I want the videos to be organic and conversational,” he says. “I normally have a framework in my head of what I want to go over, but working without a script makes the content sound more natural. That humanity makes it feel like I’m talking to my cousin, or to each watcher individually, and not like Left: Salman Khan with students at Egan Junior High School in Los Altos, California. Below: An 8-year-old practices addition using a Khan Academy Web exercise. Below right: Khan Academy staff members.

20 people on a committee wrote a script and hired an actor to recite it.” Khan has big plans for the Web site’s future. “We’re already translating videos into Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Tamil,” he says. “We’re also planning to start localizing the actual platform into different languages, so the whole experience can be had anywhere.” Khan also plans to expand the Web site’s content with more videos and exercises. “We want to touch high-need subjects like accounting, law and medicine,” he says. “We want to make it even more interactive and engaging and want to find ways for users of the site to help each other better. We want to build a community of learners where peers tutor each other.” Khan, who grew up in New Orleans with an Indian mother and a Bangladeshi father, sees the success of his academy as part of a larger trend toward Web-based education resources. “Universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT] have had video lectures available for decades, but for me, it’s our exercises, quizzing resources, and data and analytics that make us unique,” he says. “Harvard and MIT recently announced a Web-based education project called edX, and they’ve cited Khan Academy as inspiration, which is very flattering for us.” (See box.) Khan also points to the academy’s tremendous user base, and a continuing wave of business investment in similar online resources, as

EdX Brings MIT and Harvard to Your Computer nline course materials from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, self-paced learning, online discussion groups, assessment as you progress through a course: It’s about breaking down barriers to education in a whole new way. EdX, the non-for-profit joint venture between the two top American universities, will develop an open-source tech platform to offer free, online versions of their classes. Because it is open-source, the platform will be improved regularly. Moving beyond the standard model of online education by watching video content, the platform will offer an interactive experience for students through real-time

feedback. Available to anyone with an Internet connection, credentials will be granted to students who show mastery of a subject for a modest fee. Such certificates, however, would not be issued under the names of Harvard or MIT.

further evidence of the migration toward Web-based learning. “There’s very clearly a trend going on,” he says. Though some fear otherwise, Khan affirms that his goal for Khan Academy is not to replace teachers, but to make classroom experiences more vibrant, efficient and interactive for students and teachers alike. “Right now, a lot of teaching is done through lectures, which is a very passive way for students to learn,” he says. “If lectures were all automated,

“MIT and Harvard expect that over time other universities will join them in offering courses on the edX platform. The gathering of many universities’ educational content together on one site will enable learners worldwide to access the course content of any par-

classroom time could instead be all about peer tutoring, mentoring from faculty members, and more open-ended exploration and creativity.” If students are gathered in a room, Khan asserts, they should be interacting, “not sitting there passively receiving information.” Khan has been happily surprised by how quickly the academy has been adopted not just by individuals around the world, but by schools as well. “I originally imagined Khan Academy to be

ticipating university from a single Web site,” says an MIT statement. EdX will build on both universities’ experience in offering online instructional content. The program will be separate from the ongoing distancelearning initiatives at both institutions. EdX will also support the Harvard and MIT faculty in conducting research on teaching and learning. MIT and Harvard have committed $60 million in institutional support, grants and philanthropy and launched the collaboration in May 2012. Anant Agarwal, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, will serve as the first president of edX. http://www.edxonline.org

something entirely outside of the normal schooling system,” he says. “The fact that schools everywhere are adopting it is great. It’s making people ask questions about how classroom learning should work. Not only are we helping people around the world learn, but we’ve also been inserted into the public dialog about education—and that’s a great thing.” Michael Gallant is the founder and chief executive officer of Gallant Music. He lives in New York City.

Infographic by LOREAL LYNCH/www.schools.com

42 JULY/AUGUST 2012

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What to

By CARRIE LOEWENTHAL MASSEY

Teaching styles offer diverse academic experiences at American universities.

t American colleges and universities, students can study everything from astrophysics to anthropology, politics to ethnomusicology. Generally, students choose particular areas of focus, but they still take an array of classes across disciplines. The assortment of teaching methodologies students encounter can add variety and interest to their academic programs.

The Internet: A game changer

In her classes,

Shah merges regular readings with current blog posts and articles.

44 JULY/AUGUST 2012

No matter a course’s subject, the professor’s teaching methodologies will likely include an online component. “Online education is radically changing the face of the classroom…in terms of what you can bring into a traditional classroom space,” says Priya Shah, lecturer in the Department of Women’s Studies at University of California, Irvine. In her classes, Shah merges regular readings with current blog posts and articles. She also creates a space— sometimes on Facebook—in which students generate their own online postings and reflect on the readings and class discussions. Students work individually and, at times, collaboratively on their online contributions. Shah finds the Web-based aspect of her teaching helps draw out students who are less likely to speak during the class. “Some people like to have after-class time to think about these difficult topics. They can write up their thoughts and I can bring the posts back into class,” she says.

These educational tools help American universities provide an enriching and exciting academic experience, during which a student “might be asked to consider new topics and challenge [him/herself] to learn more,” Shah says. It’s an environment in which, according to Shah, “exploration is encouraged.”

Different models Given the variety of teaching styles at U.S. universities, these explorations take different courses. Just ask third-year San Diego State University student Daniel Citron, a pre-medicine candidate who is also studying international security and conflict resolution. Citron’s general science classes— organic chemistry, cell and molecular biology among them—accommodate as many as 500 students at a time. Held in large lecture halls, the classes comprise two or three weekly lectures and one weekly lab. For the lectures, a professor stands at the front of the auditorium, often reading from notes or employing a visual aid such as a PowerPoint presentation. Some professors rely on a traditional chalkboard. Others will provide students with notes in advance, which serve as a lecture guide. “There’s no discussion and it can feel impersonal, but there are ways to make it more personal,” Citron says of his science lectures. He has made an effort to get to know small groups of classmates in each course, and also reaches out to his professors outside of class. The lab component of the science

Expect in an

American Classroom

courses brings groups of 25 or so students together. They work in smaller groups or individually to conduct handson experiments.

From lab to literature In his international relations classes, Citron at times experiences a parallel academic universe. Because he is in the university’s honors program, he can take seminars capped at 20 participants, allowing for intimate exchange with fellow students and the professor. Citron enjoys the chance he has in these classes to express his “opinion and have discussions.” “There’s just not much to debate when we’re learning about photosynthesis,” he says, as a comparison to his science classes. While the seminar format is common in advanced humanities courses, introductory courses often follow the lecture format. It can be a different sort of lecture than the one Citron describes in his science classes, however. “In the humanities we’re very concerned with dynamic learning. Students are a very important component of a class,” says Shah. Even in her lectures, which she punctuates with multimedia like film, music and PowerPoint presentations, Shah asks questions of the students so they are “dynamically engaged with the material instead of passively taking it in.” Carrie Loewenthal Massey is a New York City-based freelance writer.

Ask the Experts

I am interested in doing a master’s degree in hospitality management from a U.S. university. Could you please guide me? I am completely clueless. —Atul Sareen

SPAN asked its readers to submit questions related to

studying in the United States. Here are the answers from EducationUSA at USIEF.

I’m a dentist by profession. Being a great fan of music, I would like to pursue a course in sound engineering. Will I be able to get a visa? —Yankee Chhabra

We understand the dilemma you are facing. Quality, choice and flexibility are some of the factors that make students choose the United States, over other countries, when it comes to higher education. Graduate school applicants should have excellent grades, particularly in their chosen field of study. Graduate courses assume that students are well prepared in the basics of their field of study. Considering your limited academic training in sound engineering, you might want to consider a two-year technical college. If you are admitted as a full-time student to a community college, you would be eligible to apply for a U.S. student visa. Please note that you earn an associate degree at a community college, and would need to transfer to a college or university to complete your degree. You can learn more here: http://www.aacc.nche.edu. It is important to understand all the steps of the admissions and visa process. Please visit www.EducationUSA.state.gov for more information or write to EducationUSA at USIEF to discuss your plans in detail.

We are glad to note your interest in pursuing a master’s in hospitality management. There are more than 1,200 accredited graduate institutions and programs in the United States. A good place to begin researching suitable universities would be GradSchools.com or Petersons.com, which have graduate school search engines. You can search for suitable programs by several parameters—subject, highest degree offered, location, public/private, and many others. For more information on the process of selecting and applying to an accredited institution, please visit www.usief.org.in/Study-inthe-US.aspx or www.EducationUSA.state.gov.

My son is completing the 2nd year of his M.S. degree. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. Is it necessary for him to submit his GRE and TOEFL scores along with his application? Are GRE and TOEFL scores from tests taken two years ago still valid? If a student has completed his M.S. degree from a U.S. university, does he need to submit his GRE and TOEFL scores while applying for a Ph.D. program in America? —Krishna Prasad Most graduate departments require scores on at least one academic admissions test such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and TOEFL or IELTS. Check with the programs you are considering to find out if you need to take one or more of these tests. GRE scores are valid for five years and TOEFL scores are valid for two years. Current scores should be submitted directly to U.S. schools. Please visit www.ets.org for more information. Keep in mind there are no universal cutoffs for admissions tests. A high score will enhance the application and maximize chances for admission with financial aid.

I completed my Ph.D. on “NGO Responses to HIV/AIDS in West Bengal,” and graduated in social work. I am interested in pursuing postdoctoral research with a scholarship from any university in the United States. Can you suggest a university? —Dr. Tarun Bikash Sukai

If you are interested in postdoctoral research opportunities in your field, it is recommended that you do the following: a. Use online search engines and faculty contacts to identify departments in universities in the United States; check for post-doc listings on the university Web sites. b. If there are open listings, follow the application process and submit the materials—usually online. c. If not, write to professors in the departments in your field and inquire about post-doc opportunities. Be precise and clear about what you are interested in doing. You should also include your skills and publications as part of your résumé. You may also refer to the following Web sites: www.internationaleconomics.net/postdoc.htm www.nationalpostdoc.org/careers/ institutional-career-development-resources For more information on the process of applying to U.S. universities, you can also visit our Web site www.usief.org.in/Studyin-the-US.aspx

EducationUSA at USIEF—your official source on U.S. higher education www.EducationUSA. state.gov and www.usief.org.in

SPAN JULY/AUGUST 2012

he pantheon of graphic novel heroines dramatically expands with the publication earlier this year of “Tina’s Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary,” which follows 15-year-old Indian American Tina Malhotra as she weathers an especially fraught semester at her elite Southern California prep school. Required to keep an “existential diary” for her honors English class, Tina turns that diary into a series of candid letters to

Novel

Life

By JEFF TOMPKINS

Jean-Paul Sartre, in which she describes having to juggle some of the more typical teenage travails—boy trouble, cliques, and acting in the school play—while also grappling with bigger questions of identity and purpose. A collaboration between writer Keshni Kashyap and illustrator Mari Araki, the book is both poignant and laugh-outloud funny as it moves between the specific condition of growing up Indian American and the more universal agonies of adolescence. Kashyap shared with Asia Blog, via e-mail, some insights into Tina’s origins, Asian American teendom, and her collaborative process with Araki. Keshni, before “Tina’s Mouth,” you wrote and directed a handful of short films. Why choose the graphic novel form to tell Tina’s story, and not a screenplay? Yes, I had directed five or six short films and after I finished film school, I was introduced to literary comic books upon reading “Persepolis.” Perhaps because I am trained as a director, I was

Take on Indian American

“Tina’s Mouth” Asia Blog

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BOOKS

“Tina’s Mouth” is a collaboration between writer Keshni Kashyap (left) and illustrator Mari Araki (above). The book is both poignant and laugh-out-loud funny as it moves between the specific condition of growing up Indian American and the more universal agonies of adolescence.

mixed (I’m not). But, in a certain part of Punjab, I look precisely typical! Some amusing moments stem from Tina’s seeming lack of interest in any conversation that has the word “diaspora” in it. Is this an aspect of her being only 15, or could it be the next generation of Indian Americans might have less patience for that word? I think that it is a combination of both. When I was 15, it was a different world in America—pre-9/11, pre-Obama. All I wanted was to be funny and have friends, but I was constantly asked about my culture and where to go for Indian food, http://www.tinasmouth.com/ what the caste system was about and whether I had read “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse. I was a very socially http://asiasociety.org/blog/asia awkward teen. So, ironically, I actually gravitated to those questions. I made them my area of expertise because they ble—society, by its definition, makes you made me feel special and they gave me adopt a persona; it makes you do things something to talk about. that aren’t necessarily authentic. The hard Watching my brother grow up—who is part is to be authentic and break the illu12 years younger than me—and my sion of yourself. If you’re not authentic, cousins, I’m not sure being “the India you’ll end up in the hotel room of death á expert” as a way of connecting to people la “No Exit”! would really fly these days, nor are they That’s perhaps making things overly as interested. Certainly in L.A., being intellectual, but it’s the long answer to Asian or Indian is hardly exotic these why Tina buys a plug-in Krishna. days. It is more a part of the dialogue of “Tina’s Mouth” struck this reader as our country, I think. It doesn’t mean the a notably successful collaboration. How dialogue isn’t changing and evolving, did you and Mari come to work togethbut—yes—it felt true for Tina to have er? Do you have other projects in the less patience with the word “diaspora” pipeline, either together or individualthan, say, her sister. ly? A recurring theme in the book is the We met through a friend of Mari’s I way teenagers constantly adopt new met randomly at Art Center of Pasadena. personas in an attempt to figure out I walked around campus—knowing they who they want to be. This is true of had a good illustration program—trying Tina too, but in terms of her values she to find an illustrator for my “graphic also seems much more grounded than novel” (six years ago, back when it was a a lot of the kids around her. In this three-page story). He said his friend Mari context, how significant is her attrachad time off from school and maybe to tion, late in the story, to the little plug- call her. I did and fell in love with her in Krishna icon? portfolio of paintings, which mixed sadWell, again, I guess I watched my little ness with whimsy and absurdity in a brother grow up and he had me and my totally unique way. other brother to play off of and learn Over the years, we’ve developed a sort from. I do think kids who are that much of special communication and working younger than their siblings—the way style. She’s one of my very best friends Tina is—are in some ways more ground- and—this is key—we are able to sit in a ed. In some ways not. Tina’s attraction to room for long, long hours together and Krishna, I think, has less to do with her not get sick of each other! We do have adopting a new persona than owning her another project that we’re pecking away persona—and that is actually the arc of at, but it is very early right now. the book. Everyone has to adopt a persona. It’s why Sartre suggested that Jeff Tompkins is a senior producer with Asia breaking free from society is impossiSociety (http://asiasociety.org).

Go Online

genuinely excited by the form. It allowed for so much experimental visual storytelling. Stuff you couldn’t do easily in a movie. I did write a screenplay—a bad one— many years ago that was loosely related to the characters in the book. But, when you are an inexperienced director, realizing ideas such as “the mysterious heavenly expanse” is pretty hard. It’s hard in comics, too, but it made more sense to me to approach it from that angle. It is such a simple story that its execution was really important. Tina is obviously Indian American, but she almost seems to be drawn in such a way that any Asian American girl or woman would be able to identify with her. Was this a conscious artistic choice? No. Mari drew a girl who physically conveyed sweetness and sharpness at the same time and that is what I wanted, what we wanted. Sometimes I would say, “Mari, she looks a little too East Asian,” and I’d give her some photos of my family or “Amar Chitra Kathas” to look at and we would go back and forth. At the end of the day, India is a huge country and people look different all over. I am often told that I don’t really “look” Indian or that I look

48 JULY/AUGUST 2012

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nigdha Nandipati celebrates with her father and brother after winning the 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee championship in May. The 14-year-old Indian American from San Diego, California correctly spelled “Guetapens,” French for ambush, to bag the crown and a $30,000 cash award besides other prizes. Fluent in Telugu, Nandipati tied for 27th place in the 2011 Spelling Bee. In her spare time, she enjoys reading encyclopedias, particularly about topics related to science and history, says her profile on http://www.spellingbee.com

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erala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy (second from left) released the “Ask America” booklet in Trivandrum on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day in May. Former Kerala chief secretary C.P. Nair received the first copy. Also present on the occasion were Anand Krishna (left), information officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Chennai, and B.A. Rajakrishnan (right), managing editor of Keralasabdam. The booklet celebrates the collaboration between the U.S. Consulate General and the Keralasabdam Weekly. http://www.facebook.com/chennai.usconsulate

he Chairman Emeritus of Infosys N.R. Narayana Murthy was presented with the two highest honors of the University of South Florida in May. University president Judy Genshaft (second from left) presented the Global Leadership Award and the College of Business Free Enterprise Award to Murthy at the university’s campus in Tampa, Florida. Murthy spent the day meeting students, faculty and members of the Indian community where he emphasized the importance of embracing innovation. Fortune magazine listed him among the “12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time” in 2012. http://www.usf.edu

Courtesy Namaste America

amaste America, the Indo American Association for Art and Culture, felicitated actor Vidya Balan for her contribution to Indian cinema at an event held at Hotel Trident in Mumbai in June. Acting Consul General Michael Mullins met the Bollywood star and also gave a speech about the work of Namaste America. http://www.namasteamerica.in/

Courtesy University of South Florida

Photographs by SAMEEK GHOSH and RUPAM SEN

clean-up drive in a city area, postermaking, a recycling activity and a green walk were among several acts of green that 120 high school children from Kolkata participated in as part of World Environment Day on June 5. The events were organized by the U.S. Consulate General Kolkata. The grand finale, which drew a flurry of comments and “likes” on the Consulate General’s Facebook page, was a fashion show held at the American Center where participants designed apparel and accessories made of jute and walked the ramp to fashionably say “yes” to green. http://www.facebook.com/kolkata.usconsulate

Members of the U.S. Embassy cricket team and other staff welcomed Indian cricket captain M.S. Dhoni during his visit to the Embassy in May.

Photograph by HEMANT BHATNAGAR

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A SPAN video on the visit generated nearly 1,500 views. You can watch the video at

http://goo.gl/ce80T