Reported by: YAN Mingxing
Translated by: DENG Ke
Edited by: Patti Broderick
Updated: 2012-3-12
"HICA - Local community and world stage", was the vision President WANG Shuguo cast for the HIT International Communication Association (HICA), upon its first anniversary, June 28, 2009, celebrated at a farewell party for overseas students. Six simple words, expressing hopes and expectations that might inspire the then-fledgling HICA to pursue unwaveringly!
"HICA strives to promote HIT's grassroots globalization, boost awareness of opportunities at HIT for international exchange, and enhance HIT's worldwide influence," according to FAN Hongbo, Director of HIT’s International Office. FAN explained that April 22, 2008 the International Office originally established HICA as the Student Center for International Communication to strengthen the international atmosphere on campus and increase the number of students’ participating in international activities abroad.
With more than 120 members, HICA is organized into a Steering Committee and three Subcommittees: Language, Lecture and Cross-cultural Activities. Despite its size, HICA provides its members with an intimate local community as they work side by side organizing countless campus-wide activities. Having operated for more than three years, HICA has become a well-known brand on campus, hosting foreign language-related activities, studying abroad information sessions, a Chinese Corner, various culture weeks, and an English Chatting Café.
Perhaps HICA is best known for its sponsorship of HIT’s Model United Nations (Model UN) which, like its name suggests, is an academic simulation of the United Nations that aims to educate participants about current events, topics in international relations, diplomacy and the United Nations agenda. More than three million people participate in various types of Model UN activities annually, yet these simulations have only recently emerged in Chinese universities.
HIT’s first Model UN was launched on May 16, 2009 and acknowledged with a congratulatory letter by CHEN Jian, UN's former Under-Secretary-General and concurrently, UN Association of China President. One participant commented, "Through my participation in the Model UN, I practiced my English, understood the principle of retreating in order to advance, and learned to solve practical problems through team work."
To date, HICA has hosted three Model UN conferences, growing from a single issue and 44 participants to four issues and 130 participants including both foreign students and students from three neighboring universities: Harbin University of Science and Technology, Northeast Forestry University, and Heilongjiang University. Campus winners represent HIT at international competitions held elsewhere in Asia. Having excelled in The Second HIT Model UN, eight students participated in the World Model UN, which was the first time for anyone from China’s Northeast Region. In 2010, HICA registered as a member of the Model UN Association of China and is making application to host China's National Model UN in 2013. When speaking of Model UN, PEI Hanzhang, Chairman of HICA’s Language Committee, speaks effusively considering the time and effort required to organize it and other programs like the GRE and TOEFL exam simulations.
HICA’s Lecture Committee organizes six series of more than thirty lectures each semester according to MA Ding, Lecture Committee Chair, on topics that include scholarship programs, consular policies, foreign study application procedures, as well as cultural information and advice for cultural adjustment. Former HICA Vice President REN Xuefei said that, in addition to foreign experts, invited lecturers include internationally renowned HIT Professors. "I attended HICA’s TOEFL and GRE lecture confident in my preparation, but quickly learned that I needed even greater effort to guarantee success; I was thankful to be forewarned," a student shared.
"It's the nature of our work that no two activities are the same within any given year," according to former Activity Committee Chair, MIAO Yuanjun. HICA organizes myriad cultural activities to engage the 1,500 or so foreign students from approximately seventy countries studying at HIT annually. HIT’s Modern China Summer Camp attracts international students from the U.S.A., throughout Europe and parts of Asia to participate in an intensive ten-day program of language classes, culture lectures and activities as well as tours of scenic sites. HICA also organizes the Anheuser-Busch International Beverage internship competitions and the "HIT Cup" English debate.
"HICA strives both to broaden HIT students' global vision; and promote HIT's image overseas by providing visiting foreign scholars, professors, students, and teachers with the highest quality HIT experience so that they return to their countries of origin as informal ambassadors for HIT" explained HICA former Vice President ZHANG Yunfeng, currently studying abroad. HICA has a strong track record of achieving its goals. Having now pursued the vision cast only three short years ago by an inspired leader, today HICA fills HIT with an ever-increasing international ambience. HICA is that local community and world stage on campus and to the world.
2011 Model UN delegates gather for a group photo.
