International student trades worlds for internship

Published 1/22/98

Perhaps it is only fitting that someone raised in a country heavily managed by its government would get an internship working for an international trading organization in America.

Zemin Xu, a 34-year-old Point Park College senior, was born in Chonqing, a town south of Beijing, in 1963. During this time, China's schools consisted of a single education system that had identical curricula and requirements throughout the country. When Xu graduated high school in 1980, he took an admissions exam to get into the state-run college system and was granted permission to attend.

The government sent him to Chongqing University because the policy at the time, Xu said, was for the state to send someone to a school where the government felt they would be most beneficial to society. "You have no choice. At that time, you go to what school they offered you," Xu said.

The government decided not only where its students went to college but also what they studied. If a person didn't want to continue in studies the government selected for him, the student could drop out during his first year and retake the entrance exam.

But getting another opportunity to enter college wasn't guaranteed because the exam was highly contested by other students throughout China. "If you dropped out, for the next year you couldn't take the exam again. You have to wait one year. After the one year you could maybe take the exam again, but you know the competition is very hard. After three years you may forget something. You take a risk when you take the test again," Xu said.

Even if someone would pass the exam again, the government could still place that person in an undesirable career field. "The state overemphasized group achievement over individual achievement. The state will tell you 'you start this one (job). You should love it. If you don't like what you're doing, you train yourself to like it,'" Xu said.

Xu graduated from Chonqing University in 1984 with a degree in mechanical engineering and got a job as a mechanical engineer at the QingFeng Machinery Factory in HuBei Province. After a year of designing mechanical parts and packages, Xu was promoted to associate director where he was responsible for preparing product quality examination reports.

As an associate director in the late '80s, Xu began to come into contact with western countries, although he still had no ambitions of leaving China to live in the United States. Instead, Xu went to China Mechanical Engineer Continuations Education University part time and received a certificate of advanced study.

In 1987, Xu asked to be transferred to another factory because he was homesick. Although he received a month's vacation every year to visit his family, Xu said he still felt he didn't spend enough time with them. The government allowed Xu to start working closer to home at the Chonqing Third Machinery Factory in 1988.

Xu would start out again as a mechanical engineer, but after receiving a certificate of advanced study in business administration from the school of Beijing United University in 1989, Xu was promoted to associate director and engineer. Three years later, Xu became director and engineer of the factory's business management division.

By 1994, Xu said he couldn't feel excited with his job anymore and felt he could do more with his life. After receiving letters from friends he knew who moved over to America and told him how great the country was, Xu finally decided to move to America.

One difficult choice Xu faced was leaving his family behind, but he felt the result will make it all worthwhile. Seeing pictures of America that were sent to him by his friends convinced Xu to make the trip. "The pictures opened my eyes and my mind," Xu said.

Xu left his wife, Xial Yan Liu, and 4-year-old daughter, Lily, in China until he could get settled. Xu arrived in Pittsburgh on May 26, 1995, and registered to study mechanical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. The classes weren't difficult for Xu, as he had been studying engineering for more than 10 years, but a difficult obstacle stood in his way - the English language.

A professor over at the University of Pittsburgh suggested to Xu that he take some English classes in order to improve his communication skills. After discovering all the available classes that he had to register for were filled, Xu began looking for another college. During this time, Lily and Xial Yan Liu came to America.

Xu enrolled at Point Park in the Spring '96 semester and passed his English courses, but he still wasn't confident about his writing skills. As a result, Xu took additional English classes while he still continued to pursue an international business degree. Xu received help with his English from Lily, who learned English while she was in school. "Sometimes I would have trouble talking in English at home and she would laugh and say 'Dad, I'm tired of correcting you,'" Xu said.

In November, Xu was told by Rebecca Cole-Turner, internship coordinator, of an engineering internship opportunity at the World Trade Center, a nonprofit organization that promotes international trading, located in the Koppers Building along Seventh Avenue in Pittsburgh.

After arranging for an interview with the company, Xu felt the technical side of the internship wasn't the most difficult challenge he would face. Learning how to adjust to the more informal culture of the American workplace, Xu said, would be harder to master than any new skills he could read about in a textbook.

In preparation for his interview, Xu practiced for days at home and in the office of career development answering questions that his employer could ask him. On Jan 28, Xu had his interview. Even though he said he was constantly nervous throughout the interview, Xu said he felt more comfortable than he thought he would be. On Feb. 2, Xu learned that he had been offered the position and is expected to start his internship within a week or two.

"I think Xu will do wonderful at his internship. He's well prepared and has an extensive engineering background," Cole-Turner said.

Xu expects to graduate from Point Park in the fall with a MBA in international business. If Xu stays in America, he thinks settling in California would be a strong possibility, citing the number of international companies located there. However, Xu hasn't ruled out moving back to China. "I've been in America and I've been in China. I feel I can be some kind of bridge between the two worlds," Xu said.

Caption: Zemin Xu has come a long way to get to Point Park.

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