Attorney Nix, who has been teaching in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Valparaiso University for the last six years, welcomed the opportunity to teach Chinese college graduate students about the criminal justice system of the United States.
The course she taught was entitled “Law and Society-American Perspective.”
Nix worked as a prosecutor for 20 years before deciding to try teaching.
She said, “I like to know that I’m having an influence on this generation of criminal justice professionals.”
Nix said she received an email from the dean at Valparaiso University asking if any of the teaching staff would be interested in taking the trip to Beijing, China and immediately volunteered.
Nix said the trip was originated in part by Fanzhidu. Fanzhidu is a private Chinese educational consulting company that helps prepare students to attend advanced classes in a number of countries including United Kingdom, Russia, New Zealand, the United States and others.
“Valparaiso University works as partners with Fanzhidu and we are expanding our outreach to undergraduate students as well,” she said.
An integral part of her classes included helping the Chinese students learn to actively participate in the classroom.
“The Chinese universities are all lecture based and students only listen,” she said. “Many professors at Valparaiso and other universities actually mark students down percentage points who do not participate in class.”
Nix said she assigned homework every night that involved both reading and written work.
She found all of her 15 students very open.
“They were all hardworking and motivated,” she said. All 15 chose American sounding names to make it easier for Nix to call on them.
Nix, who speaks no Chinese, said the only challenge for both the students and her was English proficiency. Of the 15, Nix said four spoke English proficiently, four had limited English skills and the rest had an average ability to communicate.