Supported by the International Program (INT) and the Division of Material Sciences (DMR) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, two Illinois State University (ISU) Physics students, Brian Mavity, a senior, and Josh Matsko, a junior, joined Dr. Shang-Fen Ren, a Professor of Physics at Illinois State University, for a three-week summer research experience in Beijing, China. In this summer research experience, these two students and Prof. Ren collaborated on research with scientists and graduate students in the Semiconductor Institute of the Chinese Academy of Science (SICAS) and the Department of Physics at Peking University (PKU). The SICAS and PKU provided all the research facilities. They arranged the research activities for ISU students together with Prof. Ren. Two SICAS graduate students worked in pairs with two ISU students. While in Beijing, the students stayed in the guesthouse of Peking University, where they made their own friends. The students also explored the Chinese culture by themselves at leisure times. 

This summer research experience has provided ISU students an exceptional research and cultural experience that they will never be able to gain at ISU. For participating students, this was their first experience of going abraod and visiting such leading edge research institutions. Both students made excellent progress on their on-going research project which they started at ISU and continued after they came back. The international experience gained by students in the early stage of their career has broaden the students' perspective on and prepare them for their future participation in a more globally-oriented workforce. It will better prepare the students to be leaders of next generations in academia, industry and the government of the US and to take leading roles in the global competition. We beilieve that this will benefit both the students and the United States in a long term.