Mason Goes to China, Korea for Students

By Connect Mason Asst. News Director Rashad Mulla

Potential graduate students in China and Korea may be calling George Mason home next fall.

Mason’s School of Public Policy sent Tennille Haegele, their assistant director of graduate admissions, to Seoul and Busan, South Korea and Shanghai, China from March 23–April 9.

• Click here to read Haegele’s chronicle of her trip in the School of Public Policy blog.
• Listen to Haegele talk about the school of public policy.
  

There, Haegele and Jennifer Tkacz of the Undergraduate Admissions office visited universities and education centers to attract students to the school’s graduate programs. They also set up booths at American International Education Fair job events.

“We want to get George Mason’s name out there in the world,” Haegele said after returning from her trip.

Haegele said students in all three cities showed heavy interest in Mason’s Public Policy graduate programs. According to a survey conducted by the SPP, the majority of the Public Policy graduate program’s international students come from three countries: China, Korea and India.

The AIEF’s schedule placed them in two of those countries, and SPP staff decided to send Haegele, who has been on numerous national recruiting trips, along to increase the department’s exposure.

“There was quite a bit of planning,” Haegele said. “We wanted to [accompany] a fair that was to locations where we were getting our applications.”

In that regard, Haegele’s journey was a hit.

In Seoul, she spoke to Yonsei University staff and students, 12 of whom said they were interested in coming to Mason for Masters and PhD programs. Yonsei staff wanted her to come back from another information session, she said.

She also met with officials from Seoul National University, a school already well-versed in international programs. As of 2007, it had over 1,500 international students.

Other stops on her trip included:

• Job fairs with the AIEF in all three cities
• The Korean-American Fulbright Commission
• The U.S. Campus Center, a non-profit organization in Shanghai that promotes international education

“There are plenty of colleagues out there who want to help students study in the United States,” Haegele said. “Studying abroad is very important for the students of Korea and China. That's what it seemed like to me.”

It’s so important that most students shouldn’t be bothered at all by the U.S. and China’s sensitive political relationship, she said.

“Education is not something you want to put in the black box,” Haegele said. “One of the major components is keeping your mind open to what's happening in the world, because what's happening in the world affects public policy in the United States.”

“Bringing in students from China, and making sure we have colleagues and connections in all countries, is going to help our school be successful.”