Beijing Olympics officials test Emerson delegation

2/28/08Representatives from the Chinese Olympic Committee visited Emerson Feb. 27-29 to test students who are members of the Beijing Olympics Program.

According to Shujen Wang,visual media arts associate professor and advisor of the Beijing Olympics program, "They tested[ed] our students on their sport news writing abilities, especially 'flash quotes' and brief reviews. Our students [were] also tested on group debates."

According to the Emerson website Emerson is one of five American colleges, including Missouri, Iowa, Ithaca College, and North Carolina, selected to send 25 students to Beijing this summer as part of the Olympic News Service. Students are currently enrolled in a class to prepare, studying sports news writing, Chinese culture, and Mandarin, said Wang.

"To prepare for the Olympics we've been doing a lot of sports interviewing and wire-copy write ups of sports stories. Each week we have to attend a game and interview either a player or coach, and then write up the article," said senior WLP major Crysty Skevington.

The preparation has been grueling, said Helen Todd, a second year grad student in integrated marketing communication. "To prepare, for the past couple of weeks I've been trying to get up to speed on my journalistic skills. This involves listening to endless online interviews and taking notes word-for-word on quotable material," she said.

The Olympic News Service representatives administered a two-part test over the three-day period Skevington said. "The first part was watching video clips of the 2004 Olympics and transcribing them to paper, making three news wire copy stories out of them," she said.

The second component of the test came later in the week when students were divided into groups to debate topics related to the Olympics, Skevington said. "The debate aspect I believe will test us more on our composure and ability to survive stressful circumstances," Todd said.

The students however will not be tested on their fluency of Mandarin. "I'm just glad the Beijing officials don't expect us to be fluent in Mandarin in two weeks!" Todd said.