Falzerano, a UMM graduate, will be joined on the trip by Min Zhou, who teaches German at UMM and is originally from China. This is the first group of UMM students to visit China.
While Jiashan schools send most of their graduates abroad for a college education, explained Falzerano, U.S. students don't tend to go there. In today's world, Falzerano said, students need to understand China as part of their growth and development as future citizens.

Students were selected by application from among more than 70 applicants, according to UMM Chancellor Sam Schuman.
Consideration was given to their grade point average, on-campus activities and an essay they were asked to write. Preference was given to freshmen and sophomore students.
Students who will travel to China are: Robert Goodfellow, Mound; Zachary Clemens, Minneapolis; Lauren Johnson; Myah Hayle; Christa Mims, Bear Lake; Daniel Moore, Champlin; Savannah Schulze, Ely; Ajeng Puspitasari, Jakarta, Indonesia; Natalie Kinsky, Woodbury; Brianna Martin, a UMM graduate from Eden Prairie High school whose parents live in Glenwood; Paul Carlson, Plymouth; and Michelle Handlin Burnsville.
Program, housing and food costs for the trip will be paid by the city of Jiashan. Additional expenses will be covered with assistance from the UMM Chancellor's office and the students.
This trip for students was an unexpected bonus following a recent trip to China by Schuman, Falzerano and Schuman’s wife, Nancy, who paid her way to be part of the experience.
Also on the trip were Dr. Hong Yang from the University of Minnesota China Center. Focus of the trip was to explore exchange options and to recruit students for UMM.
Schuman, who traveled to China last fall, was part of the International Education Exposition in Beijing. The University of Minnesota was the only American institution at the three-day expo, which was attended by an average of 30,000 students per day, he said. “That was an eye-opening experience,” Schuman said. “What we saw there was tremendous interest and hunger for American higher education. We wanted to see if we could make connections for the University of Minnesota, Morris, not just the University of Minnesota.”

On the recent trip, Schuman stated that they had production discussions both with two officers of the Shanghai American Consulate regarding visa issues for Chinese students seeking to come to the U.S. and with Shanghai University.
While in Jiashan, they visited a private college and the area's leading high school, which is where the invitation was extended for UMM students to visit. In Beijing, they met with the vice president of Beijing Union University and the director for international education. They are less enthusiastic about student exchanges but eager to establish faculty exchanges, said Schuman. A general accord of cooperation was signed with Beijing Union University.
The UMM and U of M group met at Shanghai University with two vice presidents and other officers of their international programs office, and they seem eager to establish student and faculty exchanges, Schuman said.
The university has a number of colleges, including a College of Liberal Arts. It currently enrolls about 25,000 undergraduates, Schuman said. “Shanghai University would like to see from us a draft exchange agreement,” he said. “They offer a considerable number of courses in English."

At Capital Normal University in Beijing, they again met with a vice president and International Programs staff.
"They have a new and quite splendid facility for international students, and offer a good range of liberal arts programs and programs in Chinese language for international students," said Schuman. "They are eager to establish a student exchange, and we signed with them, too, a general accord of future cooperation. They propose sending a delegation of six to seven members, including faculty and administrators, to Morris in the relatively near future. They, too, have attractive short-term courses for international students on their campus that might make for good May term possibilities. "Finally, we visited the private Beijing Royal School (a high school), spoke with students and the headmaster, and distributed information about attending UMM," said Schuman.

The Chinese appear more interested in science education, and in areas such as business, technology and economics, Schuman said. “The hard sciences interest them a lot and they see (the U.S.) as a world leader,” Schuman said. The University of Minnesota system doggedly maintained relations with Chinese universities at a time when it was difficult for Chinese students to get American visas and many universities gave up trying to recruit them, Schuman said. “We haven’t given up,” Schuman said. “That work has made it possible for truly interested Chinese students to come to the U.S.”