By Erin Meyer

As the 2011 China Open comes to an end, our group of 10 MU journalism students that traveled to Beijing to volunteer at the 10-day tournament has dedicated the last few weeks to immersing ourselves into a new culture and to living and breathing tennis.

 The reporting team has logged long hours covering matches and events around the venue and writing articles on them in the Media Center while the PR team has facilitated countless press conferences, interviews and player activities.

 As if the bags beneath our eyes and the frequent yawning is not enough proof of our dedication and tireless effort, we’ve generated the following statistics to help put into perspective just how much our group has accomplished over the last 15 days.

Since day one of our time in Beijing, members of the reporting team have been hard at work covering events and writing articles to be published on the 2011 China Open’s website. They’ve spent long days and nights at the tournament ensuring the public receives fair and accurate information on the tournament. Thanks to their unwavering dedication to high-quality journalism (and plenty of packets of instant coffee), the team has generated over 79% of all the English-language articles published on the China Open website during the tournament.

“I knew we were working hard, I’m really impressed with the amount of the tournament’s news coverage that our group produced,” said Danny Matteson of the reporting team. “I feel like I’m leaving with great sports-writing experience.”

The students on the reporting team weren’t the only ones toiling away during the tournament. Members of the PR team had to be available at each match in order coordinate the post-match press conferences and organize player activities. The PR team had a hand in facilitating over 91 percent of the press conferences held during the tournament.

“It was awesome to see all the efforts that go on behind-the-scenes in such a big tournament with player and media relations,” said Peter Schmidt of the PR team. “Now, I understand why public relations practitioners are considered gatekeepers of information.”

Although we did spend the majority of our time at the tennis center, we each also had a great time exploring Beijing, familiarizing ourselves with Chinese culture and getting to know each other in our free time. This, combined with the invaluable experience obtained through our roles at the tournament, has contributed to making the 2011 China Open study abroad program a truly unforgettable experience for all.
 

To read more about the 2011 China Open, visit the blog our students created here.

Please join the Missouri Transatlantic Center and Humanity in Action Monday, Oct. 17, at 12 p.m. in Fred Smith Forum for a special presentation. “Exploring Diversity in France” is a special discussion series sponsored by the Embassy of France to the United States.

Tara Dickman
Tara Dickman is the National Director of Humanity in Action France. She received her Master's Degree in Comparative Politics from New York University, where she examined how cultural approaches to minority rights in international law impact the understanding of the 2005 riots in the French suburbs. Tara was raised in Paris and in the Parisian suburbs, where she remains active in social, artistic and civil rights issues. In addition to her work with Humanity in Action, Tara consults on racial profiling for the Open Society Justice Initiative and leads community organizing trainings. Tara received her BA from the Institute for European Studies of Paris 8 University, where she also followed a graduate program. She also conducted comparative research on race and urban politics at Brown University. Tara was a participant in the HIA Fellowship program in Paris in 2007.

Soraya Khadir
Soraya Khadir is a Project Assistant and Consultant at IMS-Entreprendre pour la Cité, a network of companies working on Corporate Social Responsibility in France. Her work focuses on preventing discrimination and promoting diversity in the workplace. Soraya holds MA degrees from Université de Cergy-Pontoise and Institut Français de Géopolitique of Paris 8, where she researched the political referendum process and the geopolitical impact of California's "Three Stikes and You're Out" policy. Her interest in diversity issues, which comes from a combination of both personal experience – having grown up in Parisian suburbs – and academic studies, has always pushed her to try to study misperception and bias. She is particularly interested in how misunderstanding of "the other" can lead to unfair and even dangerous decisions and behaviors. Soraya was a participant in the HIA Fellowship in New York City in 2007.

Cédric Maréchal
Cedric J. Marechal is a graduate student at La Sorbonne, where he studies International Relations. His graduate dissertation will examine the effects of U.S. “soft power” diplomacy on race relations in France. For two years, Cedric served as an elected member of La Sorbonne-Student Union, where he focused on organizing student awareness campaigns on university policies. Cedric was born in a suburb of Paris, but grew up in Martinique. He intends to pursue a PhD in International Relations next year. Cedric was a participant in the HIA Fellowship in Lyon in 2010.

About “Exploring Diversity in France”
This program is a special series bringing together American and French scholars, students and audiences to discuss the role and concept of diversity in contemporary France. The program is sponsored by the Embassy of France to the United States and developed in partnership with Humanity in Action, The New School, Yale University, Georgetown University and the University of Missouri.