International students come to China to study in Sino-foreign joint-venture universities. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Joint-venture universities are giving foreign students access to valuable Chinese experiences. Zhang Zefeng reports.

Earlier this year, when many fresh graduates in the United States started their journey in the working world or academia, Kelley Reardon stepped out of her comfort zone and opted for a different path.

She quit her new environmental consulting job in Boston, flew across the Pacific Ocean, and enrolled in a Sino-foreign joint-venture university.

"China is a huge economic powerhouse," says Reardon, 24. "There's so much potential for China to become a leader in environmental areas like renewable energy and climate action."

Reardon is studying for an International Master's of Environmental Policy at Duke Kunshan University in Jiangsu province. The university is jointly set up by Duke University in the US and Wuhan University in Hubei province.

She believes the university is a perfect fit. She can immerse herself in Chinese culture and language, and still be part of a global community interacting with schoolmates from different backgrounds.

Reardon takes a wide range of classes, including economics and statistics, with high-profile professors from Duke University and Stanford University. She also works as a research assistant on projects such as wild panda conservation, the formation of national parks in China and the Belt and Road Initiative.

"Globalization is happening and we just have to harness the benefits and really get to understand people from other cultures and then apply that to your professional field," she says. "Being in China is a way to do that."