Foreign Olympic Volunteers Made Debuts in Good Luck Beijing

Three sophomore students of journalism Michael, Schultz (sound translation) and Cooper (sound translation) from University of Iowa were in their Olympic volunteer outfits this summer interviewing athletes and people near the Olympic Wrestling Gymnasium at China University of Agriculture during the Good Luck Beijing Sports Events, a series of testing competitions before the 2008 Olympics. They are the pioneering group of 23 volunteers to be sent by University of Iowa to the 2008 Games under an agreement with China’s Tsinghua University . According to the agreement, University of Iowa will select and train students with language and reporting skills and Tsinghua University will provide them with free accommodation. Michael, Schultz and Cooper were voted by their classmates to Beijing to take up “warming-up exercise”. Schultz has been learning Chinese for one year and can speak a little Chinese. Michael was a track and field athlete, Cooper wrote sports news since in junior high school.

According to Xinhua News Agency, 14 prestigious overseas universities (like University of Missouri-Columbia) will cooperate with 6 Chinese Universities in Beijing (for instance, Renmin University) in similar way to enroll and train overseas volunteers for media service of the 2008 Games. Volunteers will collect and note down real-time quotes of the athletes and coaches right after the games and transcripts of the press conferences, a service regarded important by the Games organizing committee.

The recruitment of Olympic volunteers started on August 28,2006. Foreign college students and teachers working in Beijing could apply through their schools. Applicants from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and countries and regions outside China can apply online (http://en.beijing2008.cn/volunteers/recruitment/from) from March 2007 to March 2008. According to a BOCOG official, applicants with special skills, like being capable of speaking several languages or less-frequently used languages are badly needed.

image sources:

www.pku.edu.cn

www.longhoo.com

www.sohu.com

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