Regent to Offer Training Opportunities in China

By Rachel Judy

April 13, 2012

Values based, ethical leadership training. Regent University is taking its reputation for these concepts and applying it to training and relationship-building activities in China.
"The future of business in China is based upon the opportunity for every individual Chinese person to use his or her gifts and talents in areas of leadership and entrepreneurship," explained Dr. Paul Bonicelli, executive vice president. "Through a number of opportunities and initiatives, Regent is helping the Chinese people learn best business practices from a new perspective."

In March, Bonicelli, Julianne Cenac, assistant vice president for professional and continuing education, and Clare Huang, director of operations for the Professional & Continuing Education (PCE) division, traveled to China to meet with a number of business and education leaders interested in bringing more of Regent's values-based training to their students and employees. The first trip for Bonicelli and the third for Cenac, both were struck by the opportunities to exchange ideas with the people they met.

These opportunities include leadership and business training programs, student summer exchanges, a virtual conference on global leadership and executive leadership development programs.

China is in its 20th year of a period of high economic growth, with a rapidly expanding economy. Until recently, the Chinese government and the private sector haven't taken time to study and educate themselves on issues such as best business practices, corporate responsibility, efficient government and servant leadership. This is where PCE comes in. "There is no one better suited to provide instruction in these areas than a Christian-based institution of higher education such as Regent," Bonicelli said. "Christianity enables us to understand the whole human person, ethics and morality in order to encourage employees and employers to do their best for an organization."

One of the most notable exchanges to date came in summer 2011 when Regent hosted three groups of scholars from China. Representing a number of ages and areas of interest, the groups spent several weeks studying leadership, American culture and the English language on campus in Virginia Beach, Va.

Ten college students and one accompanying teacher came from the China Youth University for Political Science. Regent also hosted 16 faculty members from the Lanzhou University for Finance and Economics and 15 students and an accompanying teacher from Jiaxiang High School.

"The Chinese are eager to work with universities like Regent, who emphasize values and who walk in exactly who they are with excellence so that people are drawn to it," Cenac explained. "They know it's going to make an effective change in their organizations and that it's what the Chinese business leaders and organizations need. It's a privilege for Regent to represent that."

The important thing, Bonicelli and Cenac stressed, is that, in its training programs for these Chinese organizations, Regent has not changed its faith-based curriculum. The principles and values of scripture are still integrated. "Every bit of our Biblically based foundations are still there. Regent is taking those foundations and helping them learn how use their abilities and positions of leadership," Bonicelli explained. "It's good for the Chinese people, it's good for relations between China and the United States, and it's good for the world.

Learn more about Regent's Professional & Continuing Education efforts in the United States and worldwide.

PR/NEWS CONTACT:
Mindy Hughes, Public Relations
Phone: 757.352.4095 Fax: 757.352.4888
E-mail: mhughes@regent.edu