Meet Community College Pathway Student Eddie Lu

Jintao (Eddie) Lu’s family recommended he study at UC Davis because it’s safe and quiet. This motivated him to travel from Changsha, China to Davis, California in fall 2022 to be part of the Destination Davis Community College Pathway.  “I chose UC Davis because it’s easier to join the pathway program and go to a community college than to get a high TOEFL score,” he said.  

Designed to provide international students with the opportunity to graduate from top U.S. universities in the most cost-effective and promising way without a high school GPA, English requirements and standardized test scores, the Community College Pathway has successfully helped students transfer to UCs, including UC Davis and UC San Diego. It is a rigorous college preparatory program that enables students to improve their language and academic skills through a series of core academic prep courses and content-based electives.  

The UC Davis International Program provided Lu with a direct path to one of six partner community colleges in Northern California without requiring TOEFL or IELTS scores. He just completed the pathway program and will start classes at Diablo Valley College in fall 2023, where he will take up to five semesters of credits before transferring to a University of California campus or another four-year university as a third-year student. “My goal is to study business or management at UCLA.”  

When Lu began his studies at UC Davis, he was shy. “I didn’t like talking to strangers and I didn’t want to participate in activities,” he said. “But now I think I can do anything.” The confidence he gained in three quarters at UC Davis has helped him grow beyond his expectations. He raised his English from a 300 Level to Level 700, gave a speech at graduation, organized a group activity with friends and went to karaoke.   

Lu credits the variety of courses and class assignments with helping him expand his knowledge of American culture and global issues, and boost his self-confidence and language skills. “Most of my classmates were not Chinese, so I had to speak English. We also had to interview American students in English,” he said. “I learned new vocabulary and idioms, and I improved my grammar and writing.” Lu said that his homestay family and teachers were also instrumental in helping him with his pronunciation.   

Aside from improving his English skills, Lu says that the program helped prepare him for academic life in the U.S. “I learned how to participate in discussions, write an essay in English and read faster,” he shared. He also learned how to make a PowerPoint presentation, something he had never done by himself before coming to UC Davis. “I learned how to make a plan for getting everything done, how to do research and make a poster presentation.”  

Fellow Pathway students Hiroki Sekido of Japan and Bowen (Harly) Huang from China will be joining Lu at Diablo Valley College this fall. Lu is looking forward to the next step in his journey. “I can stay in my own apartment and have a place that belongs to me in the United States,” he explains. “I can’t wait to meet new classmates.”