嘉宾简介：杰弗里·雷蒙，上海纽约大学常务副校长，北京大学国际法学院建院院长，康奈尔大学第11任校长，密歇根大学法学院第15任院长。
杰弗里·雷蒙是一位国际知名的教育家。在过去10多年的时间里，他一直致力于中国的高等教育事业，在国际学界和教育界作出了突出贡献，并荣获多项荣誉，包括美国国家平等公正奖、中国友谊奖，最近还被评为“中国改革开放40周年最具影响力外国专家”之一。他还被北京大学授予荣誉博士学位，被中国农业大学和厦门大学分别授予荣誉教授头衔。
国际友谊带我来到中国
记者：十多年来，您一直致力于促进中国高等教育事业，是什么让您保有对两国教育和文化交流的热情？您为什么选择来中国实现您的高等教育梦？
雷蒙：这件事非常有趣。我于1998年第一次访问中国，在那之前我对中国一无所知。当时我是密歇根大学法学院的院长，作为美国法学院院长代表团成员之一，我被邀请到中国参加与中国大学法学院院长们的会谈。在那次访问过程中，我交了很多好朋友，比较特别的一位便是北京大学法学院时任院长吴志攀。
我认为，中国的转变对美国极其重要，这两个国家应建构本世纪世界上最重要的合作伙伴关系。所以我希望密歇根大学法学院的教授们都来了解中国。得益于吴志攀院长的友好协助，我开始派他们去北京大学参观、教学，之后还去了清华大学。
当我成为康奈尔大学的校长时，我发现康奈尔大学早在20世纪便于中国大学建立了长期友好关系，我想重拾并强化这份友谊。我们做到了，更重要的是，我也因此和北京大学时任校长许智宏成为朋友，许校长甚至去我在纽约的家看我。
几年之后，许校长向我伸出友谊之手，希望我能帮助他。他想在北京大学深圳校区创建一所新型跨国法学院，他希望中国最好的学生能够在那里学习中国法律、美国法律和能够影响多国人民的跨国法律。他问我是否愿意和他的同事一起合作，去设计这样一所学院。
我很乐意去帮助朋友，并一起设计了这所新型法学院。接着，许智宏校长又问我，是否愿意来中国帮忙启动这个项目。我对他说，我不会讲中文，也不太了解中国，或许我不是最佳人选。同时我向他推荐了我认为更合适的人选。但是他说，这个充满创新精神的法学院需要一位他真正了解并信任的国际友人来担任院长。至于不会讲中文也需担心，他们都表示会帮助我。
我想，那就在深圳待一年，权且试试看。于是，2008年，我来到中国，启动了北京大学跨国法学院（STL）。我们引进了来自世界各地的优秀老师，招收了中国最好的法学学生，我还很荣幸地亲自为他们授课。一年结束后，我想这太棒了，或许我应该留下来，继续守护STL。如我们所愿，时光飞逝间，STL逐渐发展壮大。
彼时，我的另一个老朋友，美国纽约大学校长约翰·塞克斯顿（John Sexton）向我咨询。他说，纽约大学正在和上海、浦东、华东师范大学探讨创建第一所中美联合大学——上海纽约大学。他希望我提一些项目建议给他。我非常荣幸地分享了我的想法。最终，双方达成协议，上海纽约大学启动在即，约翰希望我来上海，担任这所大学的美方校长，与中方校长俞立中协同共建。
我真的感到很荣幸，但那时我刚在深圳创建了STL，或许我更需要留在深圳。不过，我的另一个朋友郝平（当时是中国教育部副部长，现在是北京大学的校长）劝我接收约翰的邀请。我和郝平亦相识已久，他劝我，中国教育部的领导对这所大学很感兴趣，他也特别希望我能去上海。我则担心STL太年轻，但他很快打消了我的顾虑。他说，别担心，STL已经落地了，她备受北大重视，更备受中国重视，必将继续大步前进，STL未来一片光明。
我遗憾地向STL说了再见，从深圳搬到上海。这就是我来上海的故事。回望我在中国的每一步，真正激励我的并不是伟大的哲学，而是友谊。我珍惜和中国朋友们合作的宝贵机会，他们和我一样，都相信友谊的力量。
希望将学生培养成为有力的文化大使
记者：当您成为上海纽约大学的美方校长时，您的初衷是什么，它实现了吗？您有什么感受分享给我们？
雷蒙：当我们创建上海纽约大学时，所有的合作伙伴都想开创一些新元素，一些不同于中国其他大学或纽约大学其他学院的崭新元素。
大家对上海纽约大学寄予厚望。她有“双重身份”——中美联合大学+纽约大学授予学位的学院。大家希望我们可以在那里尝试一些非常大胆、新颖的东西，这将有助于促进中国高等教育，促进美国高等教育，甚至促进全球高等教育。
在这所大学里，我们特别注重培养学生的两个品质：
其一，专注培养学生的跨文化交际能力。身处全球化时代，学生们需要发展一种重要能力，能够与来自不同文化的人们合作。我们希望学生们理解，在不同文化里成长的人存在共性，我们有相似的、深刻的核心价值观，例如我们都需要爱、尊重和信任。但是不同的文化以非常不同的方式表达这些价值观。
中国人和美国人表示尊重的方式就不一样，可能导致误解。但是“文化大使”——懂跨文化交流的人，可以消除误解，让我们从一个问题的不同观点中获益。当我们从多个角度看待事物时，我们会对事物有更深层次的欣赏。这就是为什么多元文化团队通常比单一文化团队更有创造力。我们相信，培养学生成为多元文化使者，成为具有全球价值观的文化大使，是上海纽约大学的独特优势。
其二，专注培养学生的创造力。我们相信，每个人都有创造力，每个人都可以发展出前无古人、富有价值的原创想法。但这绝不是偶然事件。我们想创造一种新的教育模式，推动学生尽可能地发挥创造力和创新力。
上海纽约大学从一开始就如此设计，充分尝试各种看起来或有用、或无用的方法。我们期望她是一所不断尝试新方式、获得新成功的大学。
这是一个伟大的梦想，她令我兴奋不已。怀揣对这个项目的憧憬，我离开深圳，来到上海。我接受了又一个宝贵机会，与我的朋友俞立中一道，携手并进，共谋大事。
培养学生既为创意冒险又会礼貌质疑
记者：那么，我可以把培养学生的创造力和创新精神定义为上海纽约大学的独特优势吗？
雷蒙：其实，我想许多大学都认识到了培养学生的创造力非常重要，“多样性”和“包容性”也是如此。只不过，我们在以“独特”的方式追求这些目标。
举例说明，我们的学生结构很独特，一半学生来自中国，另一半来自世界其他国家和地区。我们为每一个中国学生配一个外国室友，这是上海纽约大学独一无二的地方。这为我们提供了巨大的教育机会。
另外，我认为在培养学生的创造力方面，我们比其他大学更具前瞻性。我们有一个关于创造和创新的项目，旨在为每一个学生服务，不管他们的专业是什么。在这个项目中，我教授一门关于创造力的课程。关于创造力的学术研究，是支持这个创造和创新项目的关键所在。
每一个学生都选择一个合适专业并深入研究学习，这一点非常重要。无论他们的专业是什么，如数据科学、神经科学、商业、经济学抑或人文科学，我们都要求他们深入学习，满足该学科的一系列考查要求，最终成为该领域的专家。
同时，学生们还应当兴趣广泛。无论他们的专业是什么，都必须选修“全球社会观”（Global Perspectives on Society）课程，这是一门文化历史课程，他们在这门课程中研读孔子和柏拉图以及当代中国文化理论和当代西方文化理论，同步研究学习中西课题。
所有学生都深入学习所选专业，同时又超越本专业。物理专业学生必须学习思想史、文学和人文学科，人文专业的学生必须学习数学和算法思维。
他们还必须在课堂上“主动学习”，不能简单坐着听老师讲课、做笔记、背诵书本知识。他们必须学会表达自己的想法，尤其学会礼貌地表达质疑，敢于提出与老师意见相左的观点。他们还能在全班面前坦然承认犯错并提出新观点，能够学会在冒险、失败之后，如何优雅地站起来从新开始。
大部分学生每年会选修一门艺术课程，尽管这不是必修课。主修数据科学和人工智能的学生会学习书法、舞蹈或钢琴，从而提高他们在数据科学和人工智能方面的创新能力。乔布斯就曾认真学习书法，这对他在苹果公司的创造力和领导力都产生了巨大影响。
上海纽约大学还有一点特别就是，学生们在上海度过头两年，之后他们会纷纷离开。大多数人会在纽约度过一学期，也可能会去纽约大学位于阿布扎比的分校，或者去华盛顿特区、布宜诺斯艾利斯、伦敦、巴黎、柏林、布拉格、佛罗伦萨、马德里、特拉维夫、阿克拉和悉尼等地，纽约大学在这些地方都设有海外学习中心（Study Abroad Program)，供学生们进行语言和特色课程的学习之用。
记者：诚如您所言，海外学习和生活经历对培养学生在多元文化中发挥创造力非常关键。您能否为我们举一些成功案例？
雷蒙：是的，我们坚信这一点。
我自己的教育履历就是一个很好的例子。我在美国长大，在美国接受教育，我当时并不认为我会成为一个具有全球属性的人。在20世纪70年代，几乎每个人都认定他们终其一生都会生活在自己的国家。
后来机缘巧合，我的大三在法国的大学系统里度过，和一个法国家庭生活在一起，彻底改变了我的一切。我会说两种语言，也能够用两种不同的文化思考。我不仅能以美国视角看世界，也能以法国视角看世界，现在我又具备了中国视角——多元文化视角。
因此，我们希望学生们去海外深入学习，不是以访客或游客身份，更是作为学习者、生活体验者前往。
我们的学生可以不必样样优秀
记者：每年申请上海纽约大学的学生千千万万，但只有300名能够申请成功。什么样的学生才是上海纽约大学的理想学生呢？
雷蒙：上海纽约大学建校之初，每年只招收300名学生，中外学生比例为151:149。我们还在持续发展，今年我们会招收450名，我们的中外学生比例将变为226:224。下一年将增长到500名，届时中外学生比例为251:249。
记者：这对申请者来说真是个好消息！
雷蒙：当然，坏消息同在。每年大约有1.5万名申请者，我们非常想招收更多好学生，有很多申请者都完美契合上海纽约大学的精神，他们学习优秀、聪慧勤奋、英语流利，而且他们对世界充满好奇，迫切接受新观点，无惧任何无解之难题。但很遗憾，我们没有足够的宿舍提供给他们。
记者：既然有这么多合格的申请者，为何你们最终选择了这450人或500人，而放弃了其他申请者？
雷蒙：筛选学生，真的是一件特别困难的事。
我们的招生团队经验很丰富，他们会按照既定标准完成初筛。
之后，他们会举办一系列“候选周末”，以评估申请者的英语能力，包括听说读写各个方面。
接下来是面试。他们会着重考察申请者那些独一无二、与众不同的宝贵品质。因为我们想要每个班级都充满多样化，我们不希望所有学生性情一致。比如，我们会同时招收一些害羞而安静的学生、一些吵闹而好斗的学生、一些擅长运动的学生、一些擅长音乐的学生，等等。有一点十分重要，那就是我们不会招收样样都优秀的“完美学生”。
我们希望学生们充满好奇心，对一切都很感兴趣，即使是在自己并不擅长的领域里。我们还希望学生们能够深入地关心一些事情，还都有自己喜欢做的事情。
因此，在这所迷你大学里，有来自超过80个不同国家的学生。我们以此帮助学生们不断经历文化差异，但这仅仅是一个开始。
想象一下，某个学生热爱法国文学，对电子游戏一无所知；另一个学生痴迷电子游戏，对法国文学一无所知，两个人在大学相识。一个问，你为什么喜欢法国文学，它看起来并不有趣；一个答，法国文学将我引入新世界并拓展了我的想象力。问的人惊叹，哇，这也是为什么我喜欢电子游戏的原因。
经过这场神奇的交流，他们会发现差异之中必有相似之处。他们变得对未知世界更好奇、更感兴趣，学习力也随之增强。这类交流和学习与背单词、上课听讲无关。这是最直接的、最个性化的、人与人的互动所产生的美妙结果。
通过招生过程，我们试图组建一个类似的班级，可以让这种神奇的学习过程持续发生。
雷蒙校长在菖蒲河论坛“海外学习和人才培养”分论坛上发表演讲
WRSA使命远大
记者：您会给本届菖蒲河论坛带来什么分享？您对这个论坛有什么期望？
雷蒙：我喜欢这个论坛的广度和深度。WRSA的使命非常了不起，这也凸显了中国对国际参与的重视。
中国对我非常友好，我在2011年还获得了“中国友谊奖”。我不知道还有哪个国家用“友谊奖”来表达对外国人的友好和善意。这充分彰显了的中国深厚文化底蕴，中国人民怀揣合作与友谊之精神与世界上有不同观点的人友好交往。我认为菖蒲河论坛以许多不同的、非常健康和有益的方式强调了这一点。这是一次高度国际化的盛会。
我的演讲与“海外学习和人才培养”相关。
来自全世界很多国家的父母们都希望自己的孩子拥有海外学习经历，希望自己的孩子去一所世界著名大学学习，提升教育背景。实际上，这并不是留学的最佳理由。
通过留学，留学生有机会与来自多种不同文化的人长久生活在一起，不仅能够精通双语、流利交流，还能够学习使用第二种语言去思考问题，这才是留学带来的最宝贵的学习机会。
另外，我诚恳地建议那些准备让孩子出国留学的父母们，不要强迫孩子主修“实用”专业。孩子应该自己决定、自主选择专业。他们自己选择的专业，一定是他们渴望并尽可能深入理解的方向，也一定是他们愿意倾注精力去学习和掌握的热情所在。通过主修一门能够拓展他们思维的专业，必将极大地增加他们在未来生活和工作中脱颖而出的机会。
英文采访实录：
Q= Overseas Students Magazine
A=Jeffrey Lehman
Jeffrey Lehman:
Friendship Brought Me to China
Guest Introduction: Jeffrey Lehman, Vice Chancellor of NYU Shanghai, Founding Dean of Peking University School of Transnational Law, 11th President of Cornell University, 15th Dean of University of Michigan Law School.
Jeffery Lehman is an internationally renowned academic leader who has worked to promote Chinese higher education for more than a decade. In the United States he was given the National Equal Justice Award; in China he was given the Friendship Award and named one of the forty most influential foreign experts during China’s forty years of reform and opening up.
President Lehman earned degrees from Cornell University and the University of Michigan and served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. He received an honorary doctorate from Peking University and honorary professorships at China Agricultural University and Xiamen University.
During the 2nd Western Returned Scholars Association (WRSA) International Think Tank Forum &Changpu River Forum, Overseas Students Magazine interviewed President Lehman.
It’s Been Friendshipthat Motivated Me to Come to China
Q:You have worked to promote Chinese higher education for more than ten years, what strengthened your commitment to educational and cultural exchanges between the two countries?Why did you choose to come to China for your future higher education dream?
A: It’s very interesting. I really did not know anything about China until I first visited in 1998. At that time, I was the Dean of the Law School at the University of Michigan in the United States. And I was asked to participate in the delegation of law school deans to meet with Chinese law school deans and on that one visit I made friends, especially, with the Dean of the Law School at Peking University, Wu Zhipan.
I realized that the transformation of China was tremendously important for the United States, and that these two countries were going to have the most important partnership of any two countries in the world in this century. And so I wanted to make sure that my professors at the University of Michigan Law School came to know China. And so I worked with Dean Wu and started sending them to visit and teach at Peking University, and also at Tsinghua University.
When I became president of Cornell University, I understood that Cornell has a very long relationship with China, going back to early in the twentieth century. I wanted to renew, refresh and strengthen that relationship. We did, and importantly, I became friends as a result with the president of Peking University, Xu Zhihong. President Xu even came to visit me at my Cornell home, in Ithaca, New York.
A key moment was when, a few years later, President Xu reached out to me and he asked me if I would help him with a project. He wanted to create a new kind of law school, a School of Transnational Law, on the Shenzhen campus of Peking University, their experimental campus. He wanted a place where the best students in China could learn about Chinese law,about law in the United States, and about transnational law – law that affects people from many countries. He asked if I would work with his colleagues to design such a school.
I was happy to do that, and we designed the school. Then President Xu asked me if I would come to China and help to get it started. And I said,“I don't think I'm the right person to do this. I don't speak Chinese, I don't really know China. You can do better.” I suggested other people who I thought would do a better job. But President Xu said that was not what he was looking for. He said the creation of such an innovative new kind of program requires a relationship of trust. He said that he would only try to do such a thing with someone he knew, someone he connected with.“You don't need to worry about not speaking Chinese! We will help you.”
President Xu persuaded me to give it a try, but in my heart I thought I would probably come over and spend just one year in Shenzhen. I came over in 2008, and we opened the School of Transnational Law, which we call“STL.” We brought in teachers from all over the world. We recruited the best students in China, amazing students. And I took the opportunity to teach them myself. At the end of the year, I thought,“This is wonderful! I should stay and keep doing this!” And the school grew and developed, and I stayed and stayed, and the years started to go by.
Then, another friend of mine reached out to me. John Sexton, the President of New York University, had been president of NYU while I was president of Cornell and had been Dean of the Law School at NYU while I was the Dean of the Law School at Michigan. We had known each other for decades. He knew I was in China.
John told me that NYU was having conversations with Shanghai, with Pudong, and with East China Normal University about creating the first Sino-American joint university, which would be called NYU Shanghai, He asked me to advise him on this process. I told John I was of course happy to share my ideas. Well, the partners eventually agreed on a plan to create NYU Shanghai, and John then asked me to come be the school’s American academic leader, working in partnership the school’s Chinese leader Yu Lizhong.
At first I told John that, although I was flattered, I needed to stay with STL in Shenzhen. But then another friend of mine stepped in to reinforce John’s invitation, Hao Ping, who is now the president of Peking University, was at that time the Vice Minister of Education. I had known Hao Ping earlier, first when he was Vice President of Peking University, and then when he was the president of Beijing Foreign Studies University. He said,“Jeff, we at the Ministry are very excited about this first Sino-American joint university, and we think it would be great if you accepted John’s offer.” I explained that I was concerned about leaving STL after only four years, but Hao Ping assured me that STL was already well launched, prized by Peking University, and prized by China. I did not need to worry about STL’s future.
In the end I decided to accept John’s invitation to join NYU Shanghai, even though I was honestly nervous about leaving STL. But Hao Ping was right. STL brought in a new leader, Philip McConnaughay, who has done an amazing job bringing STL to much greater levels of achievement. The school just celebrated its tenth anniversary a couple of months ago, and it is truly admired throughout the world of legal education.
That is how I ended up in Shanghai. I think it is clear that, every step of the way, what has really motivated me has not been some grand philosophy. Rather, it has, been friendship. The opportunity to work with friends who share my belief that this relationship, this partnership between the US and China, is truly fundamental.
A generation of incredibly talented young people is entering adult life at a challenging time for the world. They need the qualities that educational partnerships between the US and China can help them develop. My friends recognized this fact early, and I am grateful to them for inviting me to work with them on such important and gratifying ventures.
We Want Our Students to Be Strong Bridge People
Q: Yeah, so the reason you ended up in Shanghai was not a plan but a result of friendship. Then what was your original intention when you became the American president of NYU Shanghai, and has it come true? What is your feeling?
A: When we created NYU Shanghai, what all of the partners wanted was to create an experiment, to create something that was new, something that was different from other universities in China, something that was different from other degree-granting campuses of New York University.
They all wanted us to found an institution that had what Yu Lizhong and I refer to as a“double identity” (as a Sino-American joint university and as a degree granting campus of NYU). And they all wanted us to found an institution where we could try something very bold, something very new. Something that would help improve Chinese higher education, that would help improve American higher education, that would help improve global education.
At NYU Shanghai we especially focus on two qualities in particular.
First, we believe that this is an era of globalization, where students need to develop the ability to work together with people who grew up in different cultures. We want our students to understand that people who grow up in different cultures all have the same, deep core values. For example, we all want love, respect and trust, and we don’t want pain. But different cultures sometimes express those values in very different ways. The way one shows respect in China and the way one shows respect in the United States are different, and that can lead to misunderstanding.
But“bridge people” – people who really know both cultures – can eliminate misunderstanding and allow us to gain the benefits of having different perspectives on an issue. When we see things from more than one perspective, we see it in more dimensions; we have a deeper appreciation. And that's why multi-cultural teams are often more creative than mono-cultural teams.
We believe that helping our students to master this skill, to be multi-culturally effective, to be strong bridge people who have cosmopolitan values, is something that no other university has done as well as we can.
So that is the first goal. The second goal is to really focus on nurturing our students’ creativity. We believe that everyone can be creative; everyone can develop original ideas that no one has before, ideas that have value. But that is not something that happens accidentally.
Certain kinds of education promote creativity and innovation; other kinds of education frustrate creativity and innovation. And we wanted NYU Shanghai to create a new kind of education that would push our students to be as creative and innovative as they can be. We wanted to develop the kind of school where our graduates express this culture of innovation.
So those were the two driving objectives behind this school. And we were designed from the beginning to be an experiment. We try things that work. We try things that don’twork. That is fine. We are expected to be a place that tries to do things in new ways, and to identify the ones that are successful.
From the very beginning it was a big dream and it was exciting. The excitement of this project enabled me to leave Shenzhen and come to Shanghai with a happy heart, to feel like I was having the chance to work on something important with my new friend Yu Lizhong.
We WantOur Studentsto Learn
How to Take Risks WithIdeasandDisagreePolitely
Q: So can we define creativity and multicultural effectivenessas the unique advantages of NYU Shanghai?
A:Well, I think lots of schools recognize the importance of creativity. People are talking about it more and more. I also think lots of schools recognize the importance of“diversity” and“inclusion.” However, we are pursuing those goals in a truly unique way.
To pick just one example, we are structured so that exactly half our students come from China and half come from the rest of the world. That means that we can assign roommates so every Chinese student has a foreign roommate. That's unique, and it provides a tremendous educational opportunity.
The students learn in the classroom, in the library, and also in the dormitory. When one of them says, “I want to go to sleep,” and the other one says, “I want to stay up,” they have a cultural difference, and they need to work together. They need to understand each other, to negotiate, and to find a cooperative solution. That is the skill of multicultural effectiveness that our students all develop. That kind of design is not found at other schools, even at other schools that believe in these values.
The New York campus of NYU is committed to these values. Cornell University is committed to these values. The University of Michigan is committed to these values. I know all these schools very well, and I admire them all very much. They are all diverse communities. But very few of the students who attend those schools end up with a roommate from another country. It’s comfortable to room with someone from your own country, but it’s less educational.
Also, I think, when it comes to creativity we're a bit more aggressive than other schools. We have a Program on Creativity and Innovation that aims to serve every one of our students, no matter what their major. Within that program I teach a course on creativity. I don't know of any other university president who teaches a course on creativity.
The academic research on creativity supports the importance of several key features of our curriculum.
It is very important that every student choose a major and then go very deep in that major. No matter whether they choose to major in, for example, data science, neuroscience, business, economics, or the humanities, we demand that they go very deep. They must fulfill a lot of major requirements and become expert in the field.
At the same time, it is very important that every student also become very broad. No matter what they choose to major in, they must take a course called Global Perspectives on Society, which is an intellectual history course where they read Confucius and Plato and contemporary Chinese intellectual theory and contemporary western intellectual theory, and they study these topics together. Our physics majors must study intellectual history and literature and the humanities. And our humanities majors must study mathematics and algorithmic thinking.
All of our students go deep in their chosen major. All of our students go broad beyond their major. And all of our students must experience a style of teaching which we call“active learning.” They cannot simply sit and listen to the teacher and take notes and learn what the teacher thinks. They have to learn how to express their own ideas, how to disagree with the teacher politely. We do want them to be polite. But if they are going to be creative, they have to learn how to question, how to disagree. If they are afraid to challenge the accepted wisdom, then they will never innovate.
That's how people become creative. They learn how to take risks with new ideas. They learn how to say,“I recognize that everybody thinks X, but I don't believe that is the whole story. It might be only part of the story. It may be one way of addressing an issue, but I believe there might be another way.” We want all our students to learn this skill.
Of course, when they offer a new idea, they will often be wrong. They will often make mistakes. We want them to be comfortable making mistakes in front of the entire class. But that means they need to learn another skill. We want them to learn how to take a risk, to fail, and to recover gracefully. So whenever they suggest a new idea for consideration and later decide that their“new idea” is wrong, they need to learn how to say,“Oh, what I said before was wrong! I think differently now!” The most creative people say that all the time.
In my course on creativity, the students study what today’s neural science research has shown about how people develop creative insights. That happens when what is called“the executive attention network” cooperates with two other networks in the brain:“the default mode network” and“the salience network.” To enable those three networks to work together effectively, we need to develop abroad“idea inventory.”We develop a broad inventory of ideas in our brains by studying different things and doing different things.
We are very happy that most of our students take a course in the arts every year, even though it is not required. Students who are majoring in data science and artificial intelligence are also studying calligraphy,or dance, or piano, and thereby enhancing their ability to innovate in data science and artificial intelligence.
I think everyone knows that Steve Jobs, studied calligraphy very seriously, which had a huge impact on his creativity and his leadership at Apple. There are many examples like that. That is why we want all of our students to have a broad variety of experiences while they are undergraduate students.
Another way we are different is that, after our students spend their first two years in Shanghai, we require them all to go away. We require them to leave China for a year and study on another campus within NYU’s global network.
Most of them go to New York for one semester and somewhere else for another semester. They may go to Abu Dhabi, where NYU has another degree-granting campus. And NYU also has Study Abroad Programs in Washington, D.C., Buenos Aires, London, Paris, Berlin, Prague, Florence, Madrid, Tel Aviv, Accra, and Sydney.
Every graduate of NYU Shanghai has not only studied with classmates from many other cultures; they have not only had at least one roommate from another culture; they have also had the experience of living in one or two other cultures.
Q: Do you think doing overseas studies is a critical part for your students when they learn how to be effective multi culturally and being creative?Could you give me some successful example?
A:We believe that overseas study is a critical part of learning how to be effective multiculturally and learning how to be creative. I can give a very personal example: my own education. I grew up in America and I certainly didn't think I was going to become a global person. Back in the 1970s, almost everybody sort thought they would spend their lives in their own country. American people thought they'd be with other Americans; Chinese people thought they'd be with other Chinese people; French people thought they’d be with other French people.
But for some reason I decided I wanted to spend a year studying in France. I spent my junior year inside the French university system, living with a French family, and it completely changed everything. I became bilingual. I became able to speak and think in two different languages. I learned how to see the world not only through my American eyes, but also through French eyes. After I studied in France, I still had my American soul, but I also had acquired a French soul. I had a trans-Atlantic soul. And now, after living in China for more than a decade, I also have a Chinese soul. I have a transnational soul.
That kind of change only happens if you really live inside another culture, another society. That is why we expect our students not just to be visitors or tourists, but to really live and study in one or two more countries.
We Want Students Who Have CaredDeeply About Something;
They Do Not Need to Be Great at Everything
Q: There are so manythousands of applicants every year, but only a fewhundred are admitted. Can you tell me about the size of NYU Shanghai?
A: When we started, we only had 300 students in each class, 151 from China and149 from the rest of the world. We're growing. This year, we’re up to 450. Then in this fall we will have 226 from China and 224 from the rest of the world. And after that, next year we will go to 500 students total, 251 from China and 249 from the rest of the world.
Q: Woo, that’s good news for all the applicants!
A: It is. The bad news, however, is that we have more than 15,000 applicants for those seats. We donot have nearly enough room for all the students we want to accept.
There are so many applicants who are perfectly qualified to study at NYU Shanghai. They are super smart. They are at the top of their high school class. They know that our classes are all taught in English, and they speak English well enough to study in English. They are curious about the world. They are eager to encounter new ideas. They’re not afraid of studying problems that don’t have answers.
Q: So since they are all so brilliant and good at everything. But why do you choose the 450 or 500students you choose and not others?
A:It is very difficult, and we rely on a very experienced admissions team to make these judgments.
The team knows that, to begin with, we want all our students to share some qualities. They have to be top students. And they have to speak English well enough to study in English.
Each year they hold a series of“candidate weekend” days where they invite students who have excelled in high school and assess their readiness to study in an English environment. They look at candidates’ ability to understand spoken English, to speak, to read, and to write; all of those things. This is to assess the essential shared qualities.
But then they hold interviews where they are looking beyond the shared qualities. They are trying to determine what makes each student unique and special. We want each class to be diverse in many, many ways. We don’t want all our students to have the same personality. We don’t want them all, for example, to be loud and aggressive. We want some who are shy and quiet, some who are loud and aggressive, some who are fantastic at athletics, some who are fantastic at music.
It is important to know that we are not looking for students who are great at everything.
We do want them to be curiousabout everything. We want them to be interested in everything, but that includes being interested in things even when they aren't any good at them at all.
And we also want students who have careddeeply about something. We want them to have had something that they have loved to do. They may not expect to love that same thing in the future. But we want them to have known what it means to commit oneself passionately to an idea or an activity.
Our admissions team is looking to build a collection of students who share certain qualities – things like intelligence, curiosity, and work ethic, but who are also very different from one another. This goes back to the research on creativity. We want our students to be constantly encountering difference. That will enable them to fuel the idea inventory in their brain, not only with their own ideas and their own way of thinking about the world, but also with as many different ways of looking at the world as possible.
Right now we have students from more than 80 different countries in our little university. That’s one way we help to ensure that our students are constantly encountering one kind of difference, but that is just the beginning.
But think about what it means for our students’ learning experience. Imagine a student who just loves French literature, that's the thing they care about. And they know absolutely nothing about video games. And their roommate just loves video games and knows absolutely nothing about French literature. And they talk to each other. And one says,“Why do you like French literature so much, what's so interesting about that?” And the other says,“It transports me to a new world and stretches my imagination.” And the first one says,“Wow, that’s exactly why I like video games! They transport me to a new world, and they stretch my imagination!”
What a tremendous learning experience these two students have had. They discovered similarities inside their differences. Each became more curious about a world in which they previously had no interest. And their learning was more powerful because it was associated not with words on a screen or the voice of a teacher. It came through direct, personal, human interaction.
Through our admissions process we try to assemble a class where that kind of learning can happen all the time.
The Mission of WRSA is Fantastic
Q: What will you bring to the ChangpuRiver Forum? What do you expect from this forum?
A:I love the breadth and depth of this forum. The mission of the Western Returned Scholars Association is fantastic. And I think it really highlights the value that China places on international engagement.
Let me give you just one example. In 2011, this nation very kindly honored me with its “Friendship Award.” I don't know of any other countries that describe its award for foreigners in terms of friendship. That speaks volumes about a profound feature of Chinese culture: an eagerness to engage with people who have a different perspective on the world, in a spirit of cooperation and friendship. This conference highlights that feature in many different, very healthy, very helpful ways. It is a very cosmopolitan gathering.
As for me, I’m going to be speaking about“overseas study and talent cultivation”. I will be sharing the messages I sometimes give to parents who ask me about their children’s undergraduate education. I tell them that overseas study will give them a chance to learn how to thinkin more than one language (not just to communicate). And it will give them a chance to learn how to be really at home with people from many different cultures. I also encourage parents not to push their child to major in a“practical” subject. Students dramatically increase their opportunities to excel in life if they build their idea inventories by majoringin a subject that stretches their mind, a subject they are hungry to understand as deeply as they can, a subject they are willing to pour their energies into mastering.
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