Over the past decade, more than 200 international students have been introduced to the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois through the International Student Immersion Program (ISIP) coordinated by the ACES Office of International Programs. ISIP helps ACES maintain and facilitate strategic partnerships with key international universities, identifies potential graduate students, and serves as a bridge for cultural understanding, for both the visiting students and their hosts at Illinois.

ISIP is an intensive program of work and study; the students do a lot in a short amount of time. Visiting students are matched with an ACES faculty member as a mentor and spend five weeks working in his or her lab while also participating in a series of educational seminars and cultural field trips. The program culminates with a poster session, where the students have the opportunity to showcase their research.

This year’s program, which concluded on August 9, included 20 students from China’s Zhejiang University and Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University. Past programs have included students from Mexico’s Autonomous University-Queretaro and South Korea’s Chungnam National University.

Each year the visiting students leave with new skills and friendships as well as lifelong ties to Champaign-Urbana and the University of Illinois. Since 2011, at least 30 ISIP participants have returned to enter graduate programs at the University of Illinois. The program also benefits ACES graduate students as they gain experience in mentoring the younger students.

The ISIP students expressed much thanks and appreciation for their mentors, lab mates, and the Office of International Programs staff members Suzana Palaska, Megan Davis, and Rachel Sellars, who coordinated the program and accompanied them on field trips.

Some additional reflections included:

“I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the Illinois campus and experiencing what real lab work is like in the U.S. Within my mentor’s (Dr. Andrew Margenot) guidance, I learned to see and think about things in different ways. In the lab, I learned not only how to properly plan the day but gained approaches for how to solve an almost impossible problem and to extract useful information quickly. This lab experience helped me prepare for further study.” - Han Xu

“The experience at Illinois was amazing! I love the campus scenery which is totally different than Zhejiang’s. It is more natural, and I enjoyed seeing squirrels and rabbits every day. I learned a lot from Zhao’s lab, especially from Menghao, a PhD student who always told me ‘no hurry and no pressure’ and encouraged me when I had trouble with an experiment. I learned that what really matters is not quantity but quality. The experience made me want to go to graduate school and create something new.” - Yiyi Ren

Than you to ACES Faculty Mentors

The Office of International Programs would like to especially thank our ACES faculty mentors and their graduate students who provide an exceptional experience for our ISIP students and without whom this program would not be possible:

Agricultural & Biological Engineering:

 Xinlei Wang

Yuanhui Zhang

Richard Gates

Tony Grift

Animal Sciences:

Phil Cardoso

Crop Sciences:

Alexander Lipka

 Erik Sacks

Youfu Zhao

Mohammad Babadoost

Matthew Hudson

Food Science and Human Nutrition:

Matthew Stasiewicz

Yuan-Xiang Pan

William Helferich

Pawan Takar

Anna Arthur

Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences:

Jennifer Fraterrigo

Carmen Ugarte

For more information about the ISIP, visit:  http://intlprograms.aces.illinois.edu/content/international-summer-immersion-program.