Chinese Professionals Arrive at NJIT for a Spring Semester of Study

They were newly arrived from China for a semester-long, customized, professional development program at NJIT, and for most of them the journey marked their first time coming to the United States. While some of the 10 employees from the China Triumph International Engineering Company, Ltd. (CTIEC) were still recovering from jet lag, all were happy to be settling in at the university, as evidenced during an official welcome luncheon held Feb. 14.

The group is the third cohort to study at NJIT through a collaborative program between CTIEC and the university’s Division of Continuing Professional Education (CPE). Of the six men and four women, eight are students in Martin Tuchman School of Management (MTSM) and two in the College of Architecture and Design (CoAD). On leave from CTIEC, they are not only earning master’s-level credits and a certificate from NJIT, but also experiencing campus life as dorm residents and learning about American culture, business and industry.

CTIEC is a global engineering firm headquartered in Shanghai, China, that develops new glass, materials, energy technology and equipment. It serves as the engineering technology platform of China National Building Materials Co., one of the world’s largest producers of gypsum, cement and glass fiber, and a partner and financial backer of NJIT’s solar cell technology research center.

“We have our technology to help the overseas market customers to build their own glass factories. I am now working in the glass area and I mainly work in the Indonesia and Bangladesh markets,” said MTSM student Man Zhu, who is in CTIEC’s international business department. “My major is not in anything related to marketing. I majored in applied linguistics…so I’m very much looking forward to this chance to be here to learn something about marketing and something about corporate finance.”

Among the areas being studied by the CTIEC management students are organizational behavior, digital marketing and global marketing management, the last taught by Rajiv Mehta, professor of marketing, who commented at the luncheon that “their participation [already] was phenomenal and far exceeded expectations.”

John Cays, associate dean for academics at CoAD, where CTIEC’s Wanli Zhang and Zifeng Li will spend the semester, said he looked forward to having them at the college to learn about architecture and design. “I am so lucky to have this opportunity,” remarked Zhang, vice director of CTIEC’s architecture department. “My boss told us to learn advanced architecture technologies…so we can work better for our company.”

The CTIEC group also will attend field trips to advanced manufacturing and construction firms arranged through New Jersey’s Construction & Utilities Talent Network, hosted at and managed by NJIT with funding from the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (LWD). This past October, LWD designated NJIT to also host the state’s $1.2 million Talent Development Center for Construction & Utilities.

“This program, the result of a long-term relationship between NJIT and our partners in China, illustrates NJIT’s ability to work in a collaborative way with industry, whether it is a research partnership or talent development or both,” noted Gale Tenen Spak, associate vice president of continuing professional education at the university. “We have been told that after the first two cohorts completed the program, each professional received a promotion and a new international assignment within this company’s multinational organization.”