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This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT.
We talked last week about employment rules for international students in the United States. Now we move to financial aid, which is often limited for international students.
American schools provided aid to almost half of foreign graduate students during the last academic year, but only ten percent of undergraduates.
In all, more than sixty percent of international students paid for their education mainly with personal or family money. Twenty-six percent were supported by their American college or university.
Foreign students represent a valuable resource, especially when public colleges and universities face budget cuts by states. Foreign students pay the higher prices charged for students from out of state. Not only that, they can help schools increase their ethnic diversity.
Some students are supported by their home university or government. A small number receive support from the United States government. Employers, private sponsors and international organizations also help some students pay for school.
A list of American colleges and universities that offer financial aid to foreign students can be found at edupass.org -- e-d-u-p-a-s-s dot o-r-g. The Web site also provides information and advice on scholarship programs. Never trust a program that charges for application forms.
Another helpful site about American higher education and financial aid is educationusa.state.gov.
About half of international students are in graduate school. The Institute of International Education in New York says thirty-one percent during the last academic year were undergraduates. The others were studying English or in training program.
In all, the United States has around eighteen million students in higher education. Last year, more than six hundred twenty thousand, or three and a half percent, were international students.
The United States, though, has the largest "market share," about twenty percent of all the international students in the world. But even as more and more students come to the United States, more and more are also going to other countries. So experts say the American share is likely to go down in the future.
The nearest competitor is Britain, with thirteen percent at last report. Other top countries for international students include France, Germany, Australia, China, Canada and Japan.
And that's the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
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This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT.
This week in our Foreign Student Series, we discuss rules about getting a job while studying in the United States.
International students are permitted to work for the college or university they attend or for a business at the school. But the business must directly provide a service to students. You could work at the bookstore, for example, but not for a construction company that is building something on campus. Also, a foreign student cannot displace an American citizen in a job.
International students can work twenty hours a week while attending classes; more during school breaks. You can work until you complete your studies.
Foreign students normally cannot take a job that has no connection to their school. But the government may give permission if students are suddenly faced with a situation that is out of their control. Examples include large medical bills, the loss of financial aid or an unexpected change in the financial condition of their source of support.
Students must also meet other conditions. They must have attended their American school for at least one year. Government approval is given on a case-by-case basis. Students must re-apply after a year if they want to continue an off-campus job.
Foreign students who will be attending graduate school can apply for some jobs before they come to the United States. A good example is a university job like a teaching or research assistantship.
Some schools pay their assistants. Others provide free education in return. Many do both.
Graduate assistants might teach, give tests, grade work, assist professors with research and hold office hours. Many universities now provide language training to foreign teaching assistants to help them improve their English. Some schools require foreign students to pass an English speaking test before they are permitted to teach.
International student offices at schools have to provide information on students each term to the Department of Homeland Security. Students who violate the terms of their visa -- for example, by working off-campus without permission -- could be sent home.
And that's the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series continues next week. The earlier reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Jim Tedder in Washington.
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
About one-fifth of Americans age six to nineteen are considered overweight. To reduce those numbers, some schools are teaching children to make better food choices.
TEACHER AND STUDENT: "So I can have spinach and what, who can give me one combination. Spinach and -- Diego?" "Eggplant?" "Eggplant. Spinach and eggplant. So here is my first combination."
Hannah Chen is teaching the eight and nine year olds in this math class in Washington how to make sets.
HANNAH CHEN: "We just incorporated food into different types of combinations, like with the pizza we had two types of toppings that the kids can provide, and figuring out the different combinations using those toppings."
The EW Stokes Public Charter School has started to include food topics in its third-grade math and English teaching. The school formed a partnership with Seedling Projects, an environmental group in San Francisco, California.
Peter Nalli is a curriculum director for the program called Farm to Desk. He says they are doing this in part to address the issue of childhood obesity.
PETER NALLI: "One of the main components of our program is our belief that if kids are exposed to positive and healthy messaging about food throughout the instructional day, that has the most potential to impact long-term change."
School chef Makeisha Daye says the school buys most of its food from local farms, but the students grow some themselves.
MAKEISHA DAYE: "They are replanting everything now so that we will be using fresh herbs, fresh vegetables straight from our garden. So, the children, they love it."
Teacher Hannah Chen agrees.
HANNAH CHEN: "We have a salad bar at the school, and now the kids love the salad bar. They love the fruits and vegetables. So I think it is making a big difference in their lives."
She says the third graders have also learned to read the sugar and fat content listed on food packages. She says the EW Stokes Public Charter School in Washington plans to expand the Farm to Desk program to other grades next year.
Charter schools get public money but do not have to follow the same rules as traditional public schools.
Many charter schools have specialized areas of study -- like Environmental Charter High School near Los Angeles. Students learn the importance of protecting the environment. Rigo Estrada says he used to be the kind of person who threw trash on the street.
RIGO ESTRADA: "But now that I have seen firsthand videos, I have done beach cleanups, I have helped develop like water-catchment systems, I have taught elementary schools like the importance of water conservation, I know the importance of green and that it actually is a really serious topic."
Students also learn how to prepare a business plan that they can use to help pay for college. They learn from teachers and outside experts like Nancy Gale. She owns an environmentally friendly business that makes handbags.
NANCY GALE: "The idea behind the program is that if these kids see what they can do together and what they can accomplish, that they recognize that their skills extend into the same real world as kids that go to successful private schools."
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, available online at voaspecialenglish.com and on the VOA Learning English on Facebook. I'm Steve Ember.
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Contributing: Mike O'Sullivan and June Soh
Watch a video about the Farm to Desk program
Watch a video about Environmental Charter High School
Watch a video about Environmental Charter High School
his self-test, like the first examination itself, covers the material in the first three units of the course. Try this self-test as a way to review and prepare for the examination. When you feel that you are ready for the exam, you go back to the Course Calendar and click the link to start the test. Your USER NAME is always your entire college-assigned email address, and your PASSWORD is the four digit PIN that I sent to you at the beginning of the course.
USER NAME = your entire college-assigned email address
PASSWORD = the four digit PIN that I sent to your college-assigned email account As you can see from the self-test below, the exams are a combination of different types of questions: true/false, multiple choice, (and perhaps also) short answer. The questions are based on the HyperTextBook readings assigned for each unit and often the questions ask you to apply what you have learned in the book to fresh examples. The Course Calendar with give you a list of the readings for each Unit. The exam is not timed. There are twenty questions in this self-test. Keep track of your answers on a piece of scrap paper; you'll find more information at the end of the test. To check your answers, simply hold your mouse over the link of your choice, and the answer will appear. Magic! (Those of us using older, non-javascript capable browsers will actually have to click on the link.)
Section 1: True or False?
Good writers don't try to write an essay from beginning to end, but rather they write what seems readiest to be written, even if they're not sure whether or how it will fit in.
A sure sign of a weak writer is that fact that he needs to go back to the brainstorming and research/reading stage of the writing process to develop more information for the essay after he has written a first draft.
An inductive argument provides conclusive proof of its conclusions; if the premises are true, the conclusion must also be true. An inductive argument is either valid or invalid.
Below are three stills from a Coca-Cola television commercial, "I Want to Teach the World to Sing." The primary appeal in this Coca-Cola television ad from the 1970s is
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