A Letter to the Parents

亲爱的家长们，

我们欢迎您的孩子来到密西根学院（JI）。我对他们的优秀学术成绩表示祝贺。我们很高兴你们全家将加入密院的大家庭！

密西根学院是两所著名大学密切合作的成果。所有教师的录用标准与密西根大学等美国知名大学相同。学生将接受美国顶尖大学的教育。学院旨在培养未来的创新领导者，帮助学生实现他们的学术潜力，人格发展，培养专业技能，领导力，并致力于社会贡献。为了实现这一目标，我们需要你们的支持，因为你们最了解自己的孩子也是他们信赖的朋友。
当你们的孩子适应个人责任的更高期望时，请帮助他们培养独立性和自我管理的意识。帮助他们适应大学的要求，并能够独立生活。大学与中学最大的区别是，我们将把他们作为成年人，并期望他们表现为成年人。我们相信他们能够管理自己的时间并会对自己负责。
他们大多在你们的精心呵护下长大，可能缺乏自我管理的经验。然而，现在是让他们理解和履行其责任和义务的时候。请在这个关键转变期帮助他们，这意味着提供他们比过去更少的帮助。我们希望你们能提高对他们负责和独立的期望。这些都是他们生活和未来的重要技能，他们在密西根学院的几年将是他们锻炼这些技能的时光。
根据我们的经验，如果孩子们无法适应进入大学后的变化，许多人可能遇到很多问题。即使他们在小学和中学很优异，这也可能发生。为了更好地适应大学生活，以下项目非常重要：
a）时间管理。这是大学生活的关键。教学和学习方式与高中显著不同。讲课时间少得多（每星期约16至20小时），但我们希望学生花费课时的2-3倍以上在于掌握知识和完成作业。我们也鼓励学生积极参加各种课外活动，这对他们的群育发展和获取职业成功所需的非工程技能非常重要。要平衡所有这些要求，时间管理是必要的。
b）心理调适。密西根学院的学生在高中时都是出色的，尤其是他们的学习成绩。但是在第一学期，有些学生由于其不同的背景可能面临困难。我们希望每个学生都能应付新的挑战和永不放弃。我们希望他们有信心和有毅力去克服任何困难。在他们独立生活，面临许多新的学术和社交状况时，我们也希望家长能帮助他们建立他们所需要的信心。
C）学习方式。密院学生的最大优势是，他们很用功，想为自己解决问题，这是他们以前一直成功地做到的。但是，这可能会妨碍他们充分利用教师和助教为他们解答的宝贵资源。既然您为了密西根学院的教育和为您的孩子创造机会的能力而选择了它，就应利用其资源来实现这一目标。我们希望你能提醒你的孩子，当他们遇到学术问题时他们应该找教师和助教帮助。
最后，我们希望你尽可能加入密西根学院的大家庭。我们真诚期待您的合作与支持。我们建立了家长会，所有的父母都是会员。家长会提供许多重要的功能，经由它我们可以收集您的意见，让你表达你的想法。我们藉由家长会向你汇报学院动态和学生进步的成果。我们也希望你与家长会合作，以帮助我们继续建设世界一流的研究机构，达到它潜在的更大历史性成就。我们需要你参与招生，推广学院，和筹款。
如果你想成为家长会的主席团成员，请联系艳春杨博士（yeung_1981@sjtu.edu.cn）。我们将于9月14日举行第一次新生家长会，选出了家长会的新主席团成员。
再次感谢您选择了密西根学院。让我们共同创建学院的荣耀，使你的孩子和所有的学生知道，他们享有中国最好的学术经验并将永远以密院人为荣！

黄佩森
教授和院长

Dear Parents,
We welcome your child to the University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute (JI). Congratulations on your child’s excellent academic achievements to be admitted. We are thrilled that your family will join the JI family!
JI is a close partnership between the two parent universities. All the faculty members are hired at the same standard as at the University of Michigan and other leading US universities. The training that JI students get is that of a top US university. JI aims to cultivate innovative future leaders, assisting students to achieve their academic potential, develop personally, and build their professional skills, leadership, and commitment to contribute to society. To achieve this, we need support from you, since you understand your children best and you are their trusted friends.
Please help your child to develop their independence and sense of self-management as they adjust to the higher expectations for individual responsibility. Help them to adapt to the requirements of a university and to living independently. The biggest difference between university and secondary school is that we will treat them as adults and expect them to behave as adults. We trust them to manage their time and to be responsible for themselves.
We know that many of them have grown up with your intensive care and may lack experience in self-management. However, it is time for them to understand and to implement their responsibilities and obligations. Please help them in this significant transition, which may mean you provide much less help for them than you have in the past. We hope you can increase your expectations for them to be responsible and independent. These are such critical skills in life and for their future, and their years at JI are the time when they will develop them.
According to our experience, we find that many children may meet many problems after entering universities if they cannot adapt to the changes. This can happen even though they have been excellent in their primary and secondary schools. To better adapt to the college life, the following items are extremely important:
a)     Time management. This is crucial in college life. The teaching and learning style is significantly different from high school. The lecturing time is much less (about 16 to 20 hours per week), but we expect every student to spend 2-3 times more than the lecture hours to master the knowledge and finish the homework. We also encourage students to actively participate in various social activities, which is so important for them to develop socially and to acquire the non-engineering skills needed for professional success. Time management is necessary to balance all of these demands.
b)    Psychological adjustment. The students who come to JI excelled in high school, especially their academic performance. But, in the first semester, some students may face difficulties due to their different background. We hope each of our students will respond to the new challenges and never give up. We hope they have the confidence and perseverance to overcome any difficulties. We also hope that parents could help them to establish the confidence they need as they face so many new academic and social situations while living on their own.
c)     Learning style. The biggest advantage of our students is that they work hard and like to figure out problems by themselves, something they have always done successfully in their prior studies. However, this may prevent them from taking advantage of the instructors and the TAs, both of whom are available to them to answer questions. This is a valuable resource. You chose JI for its ability to educate and create opportunities for your child. Use its resources to achieve this. We hope you can remind your child that they should go to instructors and TAs for help when they meet academic problems.
Finally, we want you to join the JI family as much as possible. We genuinely want your cooperation and support. We have established a Parent Teacher Association (PTA), and all parents are members. The PTA provides important functions. It gives us a way to collect your advice and for you to express your ideas. We use the PTA to report to you what is happening at the JI and the progress of students. We also want you, working with the PTA, to help us continue building the world-class institute we already have but which has potential for even greater historic accomplishments. We need you to participate in JI student recruiting, promotion and fund raising.
If you want to be a member of the PTA’s presidium, please contact Dr. Yanchun Yang (yeung_1981@sjtu.edu.cn). We will hold our First Freshmen Parents Meeting on September 14^th and elect the new members of the PTA’s presidium.
Once again, thank you for choosing the UM-SJTU Joint Institute. Let us create the glory of JI together so your child and all JI students know that they have had the best academic experience in China and remain forever proud of being JI family members!