By Mika Brzezinski
Mika Brzezinski: According to The New York Times, its one of the biggest single gifts for education in the entire world. Over the weekend, Stephen Schwarzman, founder, chairman and CEO of Blackstone Group announced his plans to create a$300 million scholarship for study in China.
Brian Shactman: You know, Stephen, I was looking at the Times story this weekend, a great story in The New York Times. You cant buy those as you know.
Mika: No.
Brian: But you got one.
Mika: You did.
Brian: And you know what? I was reading it. You know, theres so many things we do that sort of blow away with the wind and when we die, they are gone. I was reading this and saying this is something people will be influenced by a hundred years from now. Tell us what youve done in China. Its remarkable.
Stephen Schwarzman: What...what were trying to do is bring 200 students of the Rhodes Scholar quality type over to China for one year to learn about China and they are going to get a pretty unique experience. They are going to meet the leaders of the country. They are going to be able to travel around to several different cities. They are going to get a mentor from the community. So, for example, if they were studying law, they would get the head of the largest law firm in Beijing to adopt them and see how a law firm work, and meet their families and so forth. Plus, we are going to have pretty robust program designed by both Western academics as well as the professors at Tsinghua.
There...theres eight Chinese students coming to the United States for every one that goes to China. And, in the world were living in, its not good enough just to be in your home country. Youve got to learn whats going on globally, and in terms of geopolitical power, and economic power, it...it seems pretty clear at this point that China will be that…that place for the balance of this century at least.
米卡·布熱津斯基:根據(jù)《紐約時報》的報道,這是全世界對教育最大手筆的單項獎勵之一。剛剛過去的這個周末(譯者注:2013年4月21日),黑石集團創(chuàng)立人之一,同時也是黑石集團董事長兼首席執(zhí)行官的史蒂文·施瓦茨曼宣布在中國設(shè)立一項3億美元的獎學(xué)金。
布萊恩·沙克特曼:你知道嗎,史蒂文,我這周末還在《紐約時報》上看這篇報道呢,確實是《紐約時報》上的一篇好文章。你知道的,這是花錢買不來的。
米卡:對。
布萊恩:但你做到了。
米卡:的確如此。
布萊恩:你知道嗎?當(dāng)時我在讀這篇報道時就在想,你也知道的,當(dāng)你離開人世的時候,你做過的大多事情也隨之灰飛煙滅,不復(fù)存在。而這篇文章報道的這件事,我知道這將會是一件從此影響人類百年的大事。跟我們說說你在中國做過的事情,這真是值得關(guān)注的事情。
史蒂文·施瓦茨曼:我們要做的事是要把200名具備類似羅茲學(xué)者資格的學(xué)生帶到中國,讓他們在中國待上一年,學(xué)習(xí)了解有關(guān)中國的各個方面,他們會得到一些特別的學(xué)習(xí)經(jīng)歷。他們將與國家領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人會面,去走訪不同的城市,還能得到社會團體最優(yōu)秀導(dǎo)師的指導(dǎo)。所以,舉個例子,如果他們是法律專業(yè)的學(xué)生,他們就能被北京最大的律師事務(wù)所的負責(zé)人接納,看看一個律師事務(wù)所如何運營,還能和事務(wù)所員工的家人見面,諸如此類。此外,我們還會有高質(zhì)量的課程,是由西方的學(xué)者以及清華大學(xué)的教授共同設(shè)計的。
美國留學(xué)生去中國與中國留美學(xué)生的比例是1∶8。然而,在我們所處的這個時代,只待在自己的國家是不夠的。你必須了解全球發(fā)展的趨勢,而從地緣政治格局和經(jīng)濟格局來看,現(xiàn)在似乎很明確的是,至少在這個世紀(jì),中國掌控著整個格局的平衡。
背景小知識
羅茲獎學(xué)金(Rhodes Scholarships)是英國大學(xué)歷史最長、聲譽最高的獎學(xué)金項目,由英國著名礦業(yè)大亨、政治家塞西爾·羅茲先生創(chuàng)立。自1902年創(chuàng)設(shè)以來,每年一次,獎勵學(xué)術(shù)和品格優(yōu)秀的學(xué)生,獲得者將在牛津大學(xué)萬靈學(xué)院學(xué)習(xí)兩到三年,歷史上的羅茲學(xué)者包括多位全球影響力極大的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人、跨國企業(yè)公司董事長、諾貝爾獎得主等等。
而近日,美國著名私募股權(quán)投資基金巨頭史蒂文·施瓦茨曼宣布將在清華大學(xué)設(shè)立3億美元的獎學(xué)金,用于資助來自世界各地的學(xué)生來華學(xué)習(xí)。據(jù)了解,施瓦茨曼本人將捐出1億美元,其余2億美元來自募捐,迄今(編者注:到2013年5月9日)已籌得一億美元,此舉因其獎金之高而引起了廣泛關(guān)注,可謂是與羅茲獎學(xué)金“打?qū)︻^”。
上百年來,西方諸強能夠長盛不衰的秘訣之一就在于廣攬各國人才,各種官方或民間的高端獎學(xué)金就是其中的戰(zhàn)略手段之一。美國人100年前把庚子賠款作為中國留美學(xué)生的獎學(xué)金,培養(yǎng)了一大批“知美”的中國精英;英裔南非礦業(yè)大亨羅茲為“把世界納入大英帝國的統(tǒng)治下”,設(shè)立羅茲獎學(xué)金,培養(yǎng)了40多名各國領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人和70多名跨國公司董事長。而施瓦茨曼此舉是否又是件影響世界百年的大事?