Editing and proofreading English Essay
ykemerald
yao_yang-extension.docxYao Yang
Professor Winter
English 1A
12 May 2015
University of California, Riverside, Extension
People always say that language connects the world and ties people become closer to each other. In University of California, Riverside, Extension, thousands of students comes from foreign countries choose to study here every year and this is the place where each of them need to use the same language to feel connected. UCR Extension is a “continuing education branches” of University of California, Riverside. It offers different kinds of academic programs that help students meet the highest standard of University of California. Programs involve in many aspects, for example, global business, personal interests, cultures and so on. However, form what I learned is the major programs are related to English learning. These programs attract numerous young people eager to experience and study here. While, would these programs be suitable for everybody? What are exact influences will these programs bring to students from the surface.
Compare to the University of California, Riverside’s main campus, UCR Extension Center is much smaller. It is more like a class building but away from the campus. It locates in 1200 University Ave. Riverside, which is two-block away form the main campus. Most of the students will walk between two places to attend classes. Every time when I drive from home to school, I can see the Extension on my right hand side and there is a tall, blue sign with the word “UCR Extension” standing in front the building. I used to think that building is the only place where all students take classes, but actually there is more learning space than I expected. The closest place that belongs to the UCR Extension is one of the buildings in the University Village and it is next to the Chase bank. Moreover, from Extension’s information desk, I happened to know there are classes provided in Chino, San Jacinto Valley and Coachella Valley, including UCR Palm Desert Campus. But general courses are primarily held at the UCR Extension Center in Riverside since here has more professional workforce.
Last Thursday, I checked the UCR Extension Center’s website and it notices that it opens all day from Monday to Friday and half day on Saturday except Sunday, so I went to visit there. When I arrived there, I found out that parking is a little bit difficult since most of the parking spaces are preserved for instructors and students with parking permits. Therefore, I parked at the pay by space area that is at the left side of the building. Before I enter the Extension, there is a shed setting in front of the gate door. After I went inside, there’s a bookstore on the left side, then I saw a security guard standing on his “electrocar” next to it. Since this was my first time went to UCR Extension, so I asked the security guard to generally introduced the building construction to me and I went inside by myself after the talk with him. Walking straightly into the second door, you will see a public space where people can eat, relax, and study. There is a dining room next to the public area, which provide fresh meals everyday. This area counts as the middle part of the building on first floor, and there are huge conference rooms around this area which may accommodate an up to a hundred people at the same time in each room. Across the building, I saw a backyard with tables and chairs and the security guard told me many activities held here every year, such as Halloween party.
UCR Extension Center’s building has five floors in total and one underground floor. Except the first floor, the basement is a relaxing room; the second floor is mainly a working space for instructors; third floor is for classrooms; fourth and fifth floor are dormitory, which called the International Resident Center (IRC). Usually, students who choose to live here are international students. Besides of the IRC, students can stay at the International Village, which is very next to the parking lot of Extension. But the rent price is more expensive than then other one.
UCR Extension Center is an academic space where combines studying and living together. However, for the most importance, it is still a place for gaining knowledge. Normally, people will choose a specific program to study with before they decide to come to Extension and the program could be short or long. Certainly, learning programs are aimed to help students and improve their skills, while does these programs indeed benefit students or not? On last Thursday, I brought this question and interviewed the instructor of Admission Preparation Program and her name is Shannon Horrillo. Her office is in the University Village’s second floor. I told her I am also an international student and I was interested in student’s real study life in the program. Shannon firstly showed me their class schedule, and it’s from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., which I thought was appropriate. I asked her about the daily attendance and she replied that:
“To let student keep attending classes everyday is much more harder than we expected. Many of them try to find various excuses in order to skip classes. Maybe they think once they are away from their home country and family, they can do whatever they want. But they never realize what consequence they will finally meet due to their behavior.”
I asked: “According to their wrong attitude, does school have any polices to restrict them?”
“Yes, we do. If a student is absent more than 20 hours in this whole school year, he will be asked to leave this program and his I-20 will be canceled immediately which means he will have to return to his country” said by Shannon.
“But I think for those students, they don’t care about being dropped, right?” I posed.
“Exactly, this might be the most difficult park of work for us. We cannot force students to study unless they really want to,” answered by Shannon.
Although that was a brief talk, I could still feel the helplessness form Shannon. I believe every teacher wishes his or her students to be successful but sometimes students are just too young to understand teachers’ kind intension. Obviously, study aboard is not suitable for everyone. Shannon told me students in the program could be divided into 3 groups: students who work hard and try to get into universities, student who doesn’t have goal and they just want to pass classes, and lastly students who doesn’t care about school and their own future at all. As rational people, we cannot simply judge whether these programs are beneficial to young people or not, but fit for them or not. Everything in this universal has both positive and negative side; therefore, it is impossible for everyone get the same result even though they have been through the same experience. Each one has different expectation to their futures and plans, for students choose to not attend classes often, I really suggest them to think over about if they should continue to be like this or make some changes. Otherwise, they are wasting their time and being meaningless.
