Jerry Wang

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Slide - 50 Years, 50 Voices - Jerry Wang - 00:00
Hi there my name is Jerry Wang and I'm the Director of Student Recruitment,
International Missions, and also the Office of International Student
Services.


Slide - UPEI's Many Changes - 00:14 
So, since we moved in here since my wife and I joined UPEI in 2006 so quite
many years a lot of changes have happened and majority are great changes
and some are good changes; so programs, buildings, people, faculty members,
students, programs and so from hardware to software, a lot of changes and
you know, just physically the campus has grown a lot, it's much nicer and
more appealing, very attractive but with regard to the community members,
academic and community members on campus a lot of changes. It's way more
diverse now, either with the regard of faculty, to staff members, students
you know, now if you walk around campus I don't know, Tuesday morning, then
you see students going over to classes, to their labs and then you see
people from almost everywhere you know, we have students from almost a
hundred countries, which is very great. I think of course, personally, I
work in the Recruitment Office and I'm really proud of the work that not
only me but my colleagues here on this floor, the 4th floor of Dalton Hall,
Dalton Hall has it all! So my colleagues of course we got a lot of support
from other colleagues around campus, so a lot of very positive, encouraging
changes and the students I hope all of our students are enjoying the
changes 'cause we kind of you know bought the word out to our students
doorstep. You know everybody is here and hopefully classroom learning
atmosphere is enriched and the professors, they get some new, exciting
students in their classrooms. Programs I mentioned that, yes, the new
Engineering, the Math, Arts programs; even the traditional programs, the
Nursing program there are changes; Arts programs there are some changes to
the program; Climate Change those are all exciting programs, which I think
it’s critical for the growth and the development of any university,
especially nowadays, you know the world is changing, people are changing
and you just have to change with the times and I think UPEI has done a
great job at doing that.


Slide - Recruitment and Support - 03:02 
The first impression is 'Oh you have more students' but I think for UPEI
and of course from the recruitment and service perspective we are not only
recruiting students to the UPEI campus and I think probably a lot of our
colleagues on campus all the way from the President, to the Deans, to the
professors, to my colleagues you know in registrar and other you know
admission stuff I think we are pretty much on the same page. We do not only
have students on campus, we want to provide systematic support to the
students, you know, they come register courses they also need a lot of
support of services accounting offices, grades Student Services upstairs is
great and then in residence a lot of people, you really need to work on as
a great team, in order for students to succeed and also have a positive
learning and also life changing experience on campus. Of course, it doesn't
mean everything will be our rules and pleasant there are some changes, and
that's how you grow and then you become stronger and then overcome the
challenges but I think most of our students, they would appreciate that,
the support and of course the changes on campus.


Slide - Learning Opportunities - 04:29 
Getting students not only international students, students from Vancouver,
from Toronto, from away, from other places, to PEI, there are some very
good advantages something we can easily you know talk about and then there
are also some challenges, it's not always easy, you know, so starting with
the good things; We tell students that we are small, interactive,
supportive, kind, welcoming, safe of course, and affordable our tuition is
affordable, as a public university other good things, you know once very
often, once students and their parents, if they are here, experience they
are having the experience and then they really appreciate it and then they
would go: "Oh, when you were telling me about how good UPEI is, that's what
you meant!" But on the other hand you know, it's not easy, internationality
first of all in some countries, Canada as a destination is not very
well-known, even though we are trying to I mean Canada the Canadian
Government is trying it's best to promote Canada as a destination for
international students, but still there's a lot of work to do and then of
course, within Canada, there's MTV, right? There's Montreal, Toronto,
Vancouver, and then the students, they tend to go like, you know, "Oh it
must be from outside Toronto" and I'm like "mmm, no!" So then you have to
explain, you know, Canada how big the country is yet the Canadian system,
how strong it is. You will know we are nothing to Toronto, Vancouver and
Montreal but we still we can provide an excellent learning experience for
students and also provide a very safe learning environment which is very
important for all the parents so, that's something we explain to students
of course our faculty members I'm sure almost all the faculty members they
would agree they try their best to provide the best learning experience to
our students, which is basically the core of it, right? Students come here
to learn and we are pretty confident that students will have a pretty great
learning experience and then they come, they leave, they study, they
change, and they become part of the University.


Slide - Institutional Wisdom - 07:02 
This year we are talking about the 50 years of excellence that history, I'm
just I'm thinking that to a human to a person, if you are 50 years old then
it means you have gained a lot of wisdom and you are ready to achieve some
great things and I think for our University and for a pretty big
institution like UPEI relatively speaking here, I think you know UPEI has
gained a lot of institutional wisdom; has a lot of great university
community members, so I think UPEI is poised to be doing great things, and
to achieve great things so I'm really proud of the UPEI's history and also
achievements.


Slide - Global Village - 08:04 
So I think we have been doing that for a few years, in the past, I think
when I first came, I think we would only have the international dinner
night late February or early December but it’s also like any other thing,
it’s evolving with more and more students from more countries, now we
have the Global Village event so I've been going to the Global Village
event for the past few years, so we have students from different countries,
then you basically you showcase your culture, the history of your country,
the customs, the national wear and different things, so I think students
take a great pride in sharing their country with students from other
countries but it’s also a great learning experience for UPEI professors,
community members to come in and say 'Oh this student is from Jamaica, or
from Tanzania, from Japan, from China; dance, sing so, it was great and
it's really you know, Charlottetown is not big and it really feels like a
global village.


Slide - Final Thoughts - 09:18 
I'm very honored and very happy to be part of UPEI's change and part of the
transformation but of course, I'm just a very small part and what I really
appreciate are the great colleagues that I have worked with, some of whom
have already retired. I used to work in the Registrar's Office, and then
moved to Student Recruitment, and then International Office, and then now
it’s Recruitment in the International Student Office so the most of the
colleagues that I've worked with are so kind, professional, and dedicated 
and hard working and I think that the you know we talk about it for any
organization, not only UPEI. Human power, personnel, and especially if they
are hardworking, professional and dedicated I think that's a great asset
for UPEI, and I strive for that to be part of.