Submitted by
the family of Kent Owen

How far would one graduate go to realize his dreams?  Kent Owen of Silverhill traveled 8,000 miles to his first job straight out of college.  Owen, a 2003 graduate of Robertsdale High School, envisioned traveling to China while studying Business Administration at Troy University.  Owen’s mission is one that builds character, understanding, and goodwill toward foreign nations.

The Chinese students at Troy University celebrated 2008 as the Year of the Rat.  Owen and several of the students were featured in a Chinese traditional dress fashion show.

It must have all began one day while he was eating at a local Chinese restaurant.  He opened his fortune cookie and read, “You will travel to many places.”  He saved the fortune, taped it to the dash of his car, and looked at it every day.

During his college years, Owen met students of all races and nationalities.  “While living in the International Student Dorms at Troy University, I met many foreign students,” says Owen. Many of his new international friends shared stories about their lives and cultures.  Owen was inspired by their tales of growing up in a foreign land and traveling across the world to learn about American culture.

He invited many of these new friends to visit his family in Silverhill for the holidays during Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Their appreciation for his kindness stretched beyond cultures to form a close bond.

Owen knew that these people were genuine, and loved to share experiences from their life.  He was determined to connect with them, and decided to learn more about their native languages.  “Owen recalls, I became interested in different languages after meeting these people.  I learned a little bit of all of the languages that were there.”

A large majority of the international students at Troy University come from China. This is due to the University’s U.S. and China 1-2-1 Joint Academic Program where Chinese students study one year in China, two years in Troy, one last year at their Chinese university and receive a degree from both U.S. and Chinese universities. Since there were so many Chinese students in Troy, Owen decided that he would learn this language first.  “I had many friends from China,” says Owen. “So, that helped to motivate me.  I would listen to language CD's in my car, and learned to understand and pronounce words in Chinese,” Owen recalls.

After learning a little bit of the language, he made even more Chinese friends.  They appreciated his desire to learn about their language and culture.  They encouraged him to visit China, and some even recommended that he become a teacher to Chinese students. 

Owen looked at several Chinese universities and with the help of a Chinese recruiter, choose a school, and accepted a one year contract to teach oral English at the East China Institute of Technology in Linchuan, located in the southeastern providence of Jinagxi, People’s Republic of China. He received his bachelor’s degree at Troy in December 2007, and was immediately hired to work in China.  He bought airline tickets, got his medical records in order, and packed his belongings for his long journey.  Two days of travel, and Owen was in Linchuan, China on Feb. 24.

Owen now lives in an apartment off campus and is learning many of the Chinese ways. He has learned that he must buy his electricity in advance for a certain number of kilowatt hours per month.  If the hours are used up before the month is over, the electricity clicks off and he must go to the electricity store and purchase more electricity for the rest of the month.

China is thirteen hours ahead of Alabama.  The entire nation is on one time zone and never uses daylight savings time.  Owen discovered that his atomic watch, that sets its own time, will not keep accurate time in China.  Our atomic time pieces must be within 2,000 miles of Colorado where the radio frequency is sent that sets our clocks.

Owen has also found that Chinese bargain for almost everything that is purchased. He also discovered that the rules of the road are merely a suggestion. Pedestrians must be aware.

Since Linchuan is mostly a rural, agricultural area, the natives rarely see people from western countries.  Seeing a blue-eyed American walking down the streets invokes stares and comments. When Owen turns and speaks with them in their native tongue a crowd usually forms just to look at him and hear him speak. 

Owen currently teaches ten classes per week at the university and has a lot of support from his Chinese international friends from Troy, Alabama through the internet. Even former Troy students in China have made trips to visit him.  They impressed the dean at Owen’s school to become involved in the 1-2-1 Program.  This is one step closer to improving U.S. international relations with China, and Kent Owen from Silverhill, Alabama had a hand in making all of this possible.

So how far can one person go to realize their dreams?  Through his courage and determination, Owen has impacted lives at the far corners of the earth.  Spanning 8,000 miles, through foreign nations, and cultures far away from our own; one person can follow their dreams and make a positive difference in spreading goodwill to all nations.

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