From ESU to China, Professor Connolly Discovers Anything is Possible

Tim Connolly, associate professor of philosophy and religious studies at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, refuses to become ‘that professor who students think has been teaching for far too long.’ For the sake of keeping things fresh interesting in the classroom, he took a trip to China, funded by a grant from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) Faculty Professional Development Council. In the PASSHE system, 131 faculty members applied for the grant and 51 were awarded.

“As a professor, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut,” he said. “Studying in a foreign country forces you to refresh the way you teach and bring new, exciting ideas to your students.”

Connolly spent a month in China during the fall semester talking to graduate students and professors there about Greek Philosophy and Confucian philosophy while bringing back some lessons about their culture. He gave a total of six lectures at three different universities — Remnin University of China and Beijing Normal University, both in Beijing, and East China Normal University in Shanghai.

Connolly, who has been teaching at ESU for a little over seven years, admits that he was very nervous to step outside his comfort zone and inside a new classroom.

“I kept thinking, what if they don’t like me there?” he said. But Connolly found the Chinese people to be even friendlier than expected, and from the minute he arrived they treated him like he was a ‘long lost friend.’

Spending most of his time with students and professors, Connolly’s favorite thing quickly became studying the differences between Chinese and American culture.

He described Chinese students as ‘diligent’ and ‘willing to learn’— walking into a classroom he found all the students had not only read the lecture materials but came to class prepared with detailed notes. Connolly found that at the universities he visited, classes generally involved less active participation and more attentive listening on the part of students. While he initially found it challenging to get the students to open up in discussion, he ultimately learned a great deal from them in many conversations both inside and outside the classroom.

Another observation was that students in China seemed to always be studying. Taking a high-speed train ride into Beijing one day, Connolly glanced at a student whose eyes were on a piece of paper which displayed three columns of vocabulary in English, German and Chinese. Curiosity brought Connolly to discover that the student, studying to become an engineer, was learning three different languages at once — something that is not very ‘unusual’ to Chinese students.

Because most Chinese students are so adept in other languages, Connolly was thankful to be able to deliver his lectures in English, though he also had plenty of opportunities to practice his Chinese.

Much like American students, students in China are fascinated with American pop culture. “It was really odd hearing someone compare the Great Wall of China to Game of Thrones,” Connolly said.

When Connolly’s visit came to a close, he thought of how much he would miss his new friends and how he would survive living without ‘real’ Chinese food. [Especially Sichuan food!]

“I am going to have to start going to Chinatown so I don’t get withdrawal from not eating the food,” he said. He will also miss the more communal way of eating that he experienced at many mealtimes.

Connolly will get back into teaching in ESU’s classrooms spring semester. He wants to tell his students the most valuable lesson he learned on his trip to China – people should spend more of their time in life expanding the range of what they think is possible. After his trip, Connolly finds himself thinking anything is possible.

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