In July 2019, I was lucky enough to get a chance to study as a visiting scholar in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Indiana University Bloomington (IUB). Indiana University has two core campuses and seven regional campuses, and one of the two core campuses is IUB, which is one of the most beautiful college campuses in the United States. Founded in 1820, IU will be 200 years old so in 2020 and they will celebrate its bicentennial (1820-2020).

    I finished registration and orientation, and then I got my Crimson Card on my first day at IUB. The Crimson Card is like our school card, and it can be used to access essential school resources such as printing, meals, libraries, secure entry to campus buildings, and free buses in the city.

    When I arrived in Bloomington, it was summer vacation and there were few people on campus. With the coming of the fall semester in August, all the students and teachers returned. Freshmen orientations started, and the new semester began. After a discussion with my advisor, Dr. Bidulescu, I applied to audit three courses, including Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Survival Data Analysis, and Statistical Packages in Research. For Chronic Disease Epidemiology, the professor uploaded many materials related to chronic disease and asked us to read those papers before the class. We did a lot of mathematical calculations and made tables and figures in the Survival Data Analysis. For the Statistical Package in Research class, we learned how to use Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) to analyze data and make tables and figures for our research. SAS is one of the most common software programs in statistical analyses, and it is installed on IU’s computers, so we took this course in a computer lab. There are many computer labs in IUB, and we could use any of them if there was no class going on. At the same time, I met two warmhearted and knowledgeable Chinese professors who helped me a lot in analyzing data and drafting manuscripts.

    Because the culture of IU is more open and diverse, it is easy to make friends with others. I found many students who had different backgrounds and come from different countries in our class at IU. All of them were friendly and easygoing, and I made many good friends at IU.

By  Wang Haiping/ Lin Juanzhen

Edited by Office of International Cooperation and Communication