New Studying Abroad Enlightenment for Chinese Students from Transylvania University’s President’s Visiting to BEIJING CHENJINGLUN HIGH SCHOOL
　　
　　On March 7, 2014, Dr. R. Owen Williams, the President of Transylvania University arrived at Beijing. Transylvania Universityis a Liberal Arts College located in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. Established in 1870, it is the 16^th university in the history of United States. In more than 200 years’ history, the university cultivated many scholars, like fellows including Stephen F. Austin—Father of Texas, two-term US vice presidents, two US chief grand justices, fifty congress members and thirty-four US ambassadors.

　　President Dr. R. Owen Williams studied literature and history as an undergraduate student at Dartmouth; however, he chose to work on Wall Street and the financial industry as a career. In 24 years of his financial career, President Williams worked at Salomon Brothers, Goldman Sachs as well as seating at the first chair of Bear Stearns Asia. When he decided to go back to school, he studied at Yale University for two years to pursue masters in law and doctorate degree in history. “Only after acquiring rich experiences in the ‘real world’ can one teaches others; therefore, although I’m always ambitious to devote myself to the academic world, I chose financial industry at the beginning stage.” said President Williams, “However, after enjoying the days in the financial world, I feel that I did make any sufficient changes or contributions, so I returned to the world of higher education again.”

　　Many Chinese students are very bund up in studying business, and highly look forward to finally stepping into financial field. Facing with the common problem, Dr. R. Owen Williams warned Chinese students and parents in this way, “Maybe what I say would surprise you. Yet I consider that students should not take business as their undergraduate major, and perhaps they should take business as a minor but not as a major. There are two reasons: first, I consider the best learning style of business is practical training and direct participation; second, I consider university as a great opportunity for oneself to learn great ideas, classical literatures and scientific theories of nature. The opportunity is too precious to waste in the things that can be done in other stages of life. You may ask how one should prepare for job? To this, I want to say: one, receiving more education can make students have wider prospect in later life; two, the opportunity that a university provides for students to learn knowledge is very special. My recommendation is that students should cast a big net to broaden their own learning field, study hard and do well in things that should be done in the university. If one does so, he is ready for lifelong success and satisfaction.”

　　When reporters referred to the comparative advantages of liberal arts education and comprehensive universities, President Williams said with confidence, “In fact, Dartmouth College, a Liberal Arts College, was ranked on the top of the USA Undergraduate Education Ranking List for a long time. I was also admitted to Harvard University and Yale University; I finally chose Dartmouth College for my undergraduate education. My daughter also picked her undergraduate education at Dartmouth for the same reason. I later chose University of Cambridge and Yale University for the reason that most Liberal Arts Colleges do not provide post-graduate education. I’m a strong believer in liberal arts education.”

　　In 2010, Dr. R. Owen Williams became the President at Transylvania University. He applied business operation philosophy to operate the university with unceasing integration and improvement, leading to positive results in admission rate (by 20%) and funding increase. In addition, according to the ranking by Forbeson financial condition of colleges and universities, Transylvania University received grade—A. Following the President Williams’ reform, the university opened 38 majors with scope from accounting, computer science, and chemistry to mathematics, and allowed students to independently design majors. The most popular undergraduate majors are business/marketing, social sciences, psychology, biology, foreign languages and literatures, historical science, and visual and performing arts.

　　The university is only 3 blocks away from Lexington, Kentucky. It is a metropolitan district with continuous development and fully vitality. The friendly campus atmosphere and the metropolitan breath of Lexington, the second largest city of Kentucky, bring out the best in each other. The teacher-student ratios of 1:2 and roundtable classrooms ensure academic interaction between students and teachers to the most extent. Many classrooms are altogether set outdoors, for example, history course is completed in the touring of various historical scenic spots in Lexington. The university is only 3 blocks away from Lexington, Kentucky. It is a metropolitan district with continuous development, fully vitality, richly colorful cultural activities and abundant opportunities of internship.

About President Williams

Dr. R. Owen Williams earned an A.B. degree in philosophy from Dartmouth College in 1974, then studied at Cambridge University in England, earning an M.A. in intellectual history in 1976 and setting his sights initially on an academic career. Instead, he began his Wall Street career at Salomon Brothers and spent more than two decades in increasingly responsible positions that took him to assignments from New York City to Tokyo.

During his 13 years with Salomon Brothers, Williams became director and global product manager for the firm's government bond department and was vice president, Salomon Brothers Asia. At Goldman Sachs, he was executive director, developing the company's real estate business in non-Japan Asia. After serving as a senior managing director at Bear Stearns, he became managing director and head of fixed income at First Union Capital Markets in Charlotte, N.C.

In 1999 Williams left the business world behind and returned to his first love, the academy. He prepared himself for a new career in academic administration by studying history and law at Yale University, where he earned a Ph.D. in American history and an M.S.L. in law. He was awarded the Raoul Berger Fellowship at Harvard Law School, the Samuel Golieb Fellowship at the New York University School of Law, the Fletcher Jones Fellowship at the Huntington Library, the Legal History Fellowship at Yale Law School, and the Cassius Marcellus Clay Postdoctoral Fellowship in history at Yale. He has published in several magazines, journals, and encyclopedias. He edited The Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition (Greenwood Press) and was an articles editor for the Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities.

In addition to his previous business career, Williams came to Transylvania with considerable experience in volunteer work for non-profit organizations that included extensive fund-raising as well as the creation of strategic plans.  As president of the Wilton (Conn.) Historical Society, he wrote a long-range strategic plan that expanded the organization's educational outreach. In financial campaigns for Dartmouth, St. John's College at Cambridge, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the Wilton Historical Society, Williams was responsible for raising millions of dollars to support their programs.