The preamble is adapted from Rutgers Global-China Office website: The ROSE Initiative (Rutgers Overseas Semester Experience) is a program designed for first-year undergraduate students from China who are unable to come to the United States to attend Rutgers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Covid situation is largely under control in China, and students there are able to attend classes in person and have a more regular campus life.
The ROSE program offers Chinese students the opportunity to experience their first year of Rutgers at a partner university campus in China. ROSE has three locations in China, Beijing (Guanghua School of Management at Peking University), Shanghai (East China Normal University), and Guangzhou (South China University of Technology).
ROSE consists of a combination of Rutgers in-person classes at a leading Chinese partner university campus taught by Chinese or American professors and instructors (hired by Rutgers to teach locally) coupled with online coursework taught by Rutgers professors. ROSE allows students to interact with classmates in China, New Jersey and around the world to create a unified Rutgers community. With both in-person and online classes, students are accessing the same materials and syllabi that are used on the Rutgers campuses in New Jersey.
With the help of Dr. Steven Henin, Senior Program Manager of the China Initiatives at Rutgers Global, and the Program Coordinators at each site, including Shikun Zhang (Beijing), Ge Qu (Guangzhou), and Anqi Wang (Shanghai), Rutgers Center for Chinese Studies (RCCS) was able to reach out to students enrolled in the ROSE program. Some were willing to share with us their unique experiences in the ROSE program by answering several questions listed below:
Questions to ROSE students:
- What's your name (it's okay to remain anonymous)? What school are you admitted into?
- What does your day look like during a typical week?
- Are you taking classes remotely from professors on the New Brunswick campus? How many? Synchronous/Asynchronous? What courses (it's okay if you don't want to disclose the course names)?
- Are you taking classes in person?
- How do in-person and remote classes compare?
- What is it like to start your Rutgers education this way?
- What have you enjoyed the most in this rather unusual semester? What have you found the most challenging?
- What has surprised you the most this semester?
- How does your experience this semester compare with your friends' in Chinese universities or other universities overseas?
- Is there anything else you'd like to share that we have not asked?
Here are five responses (contents are slightly edited for convenient reading). We are grateful to these new members of our Rutgers community who took the time to respond to our questions.
ROSE Beijing
(Haoyang Li)
My name is Haoyang Li, and I’m a current student in Rutgers University Business School. My day usually starts with a Computer Science or Math class taught by great professors from Peking University (PKU), and then I do a little bit of review. The evening is always for relaxing and chilling. I’m taking Computer Science, Math 135 in person (ROSE Program in Beijing), Intro to Management online but with everyone in ROSE Beijing together, and EAD II online. I enjoy the vibe of ROSE Beijing program. We have brilliant professors, program coordinators who are always helping us, and classmates who are also very nice. The most challenging part is how to put together all the activities for the student association while still getting good grades at the same time, but I felt like I did a pretty good job. PKU is definitely one of the best universities in China, so my friends are all jealous.
ROSE Shanghai
Xinyue (Rita) Fan, Rutgers University - New Brunswick, School of Art and Science: My school days are always busy. Onsite classes are on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and some online classes are by arrangement. I'm taking three classes online. The first one is RU-Fit, asynchronous; second one is Basic Composition (along with reading), synchronous; third is Math 251, synchronous. I'm taking Computer Science and Chemistry in person. In-person classes are better, considering the flexibility of time, because remote classes are always after midnight. It’s been a special year and, of course, we are all experiencing a lot of change. Even though this is not the way I expected to begin my education at Rutgers, ROSE program is a more innovative way of continuing my study. It’s challenging, but I like it. The most enjoyable thing is that I get to spend some time in a new Chinese city, Shanghai, and I get to meet some new friends and teachers. The most challenging thing is dealing with technical issues. It’s stressful. The most surprising thing is that Rutgers is trying hard to provide us international students the opportunity to study in a Chinese college and to make our Rutgers experience more colorful. ROSE program is awesome. My experience is very international.
ROSE Guangzhou
Lei Huang, a first-year student in SEBS. I have a schedule listing all the things I should do in a day, including three hours reading (any reading materials), learning English on CNN news and writing down sentences with vocabularies that I don't know, checking E-mails, exercising every other day and doing my assignments. I am taking a couple of remote classes from the NB campus, Basic Composition is synchronous and Digital Photo is asynchronous. I am also taking classes in person in ROSE Guangzhou. I personally prefer taking remote classes if the schedule is acceptable. The professors on remote classes are professors at Rutgers. They are native English speakers and can precisely express what they want to say so that we can learn both native English and course knowledge from them.
(Yubo Su)
Yubo Su, School of Engineering. I am taking 4 remote classes, half synchronous and half asynchronous. I am also taking a class in person, but it will start in March. For the in-person classes I can have interactions with classmates and professors. Remote class offers better time management since I can watch the lesson anytime I am free. It is a pretty special opportunity and an honor to participate in the ROSE program. I enjoy the environments that the ROSE program offers. I also find the most challenging aspect to be motivation for study. My experience, compared with my Chinese friends, is very similar since we now all study in a Chinese university campus. I have a better learning experience compared with my friends who are studying in other overseas university since their classes are all remote.
My name is Yifan Lv (Ivory), a first year SAS student from Rutgers. During the day I can play with my friends. Sometimes I would go to the coffee shop to do my homework. Because of the time difference, we sometimes have classes in the early morning and in the evening. I'm taking 4 online courses by NB professors, 3 synchronous and 1 asynchronous, and am also taking classes in person. I got a lot of new friends! I think this is my biggest gain. My biggest challenge was the time difference. I'd like to thank Rutgers University for providing us with the opportunity to study offline. As far as I know, not all international schools can provide this offline learning opportunity for their Chinese students. Because of this opportunity, we can make a lot of friends before coming to Rutgers so that we can take care of each other when we come to the United States. We are really looking forward to going to the United States to study at the Rutgers campus soon!
