This is the fourth year in a row that Northridge students have received such awards, making the university the only higher education institution in Southern California to receive such an honor.

"It's wonderful," said Justine Su, director of CSUN's China Institute. "I think our students really develop a good understanding of the culture and education in China and they become excellent ambassadors for us. We're really very proud of them."

The two students who received the scholarships are graduate students John Greer, who has bachelor's degrees in English and film production from CSUN, and Jennifer Lew, who has a bachelor's degree in art from UC Berkeley. Both spent the past year working as English tutors for visiting scholars from China.

Greer will spend the next year at Sichuan University in Chengdu studying Chinese philosophy.

"The Sichuan area will afford cultural and philosophical study opportunities that would be almost impossible in the United States and might even prove more difficult in other parts of China," Greer wrote Su upon learning he received the scholarship.

Lew will study art at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

"Hopefully, after a year of study in China, I will have a better grasp of the Chinese language, a better understanding of the people, the culture and the country, and a broader perspective on life in general," Lew wrote.

The first CSUN student to receive a Chinese Government Scholarship Council award to study there in was Angus McNellis in 1999. McNellis spent a year at the Beijing Film Academy. He is currently in China making a documentary film about the new generation of Chinese filmmakers.

Graduate student Bernard Foster received a scholarship in 2000 and spent a year studying and doing research in Shanghai. He went back to China earlier this year to work with the Shanghai television station on cross-national television projects.

Last year, two CSUN students received scholarships. James Lo spent a year at the Beijing Film Academy and Olive May studied at the Nanjing Normal University.

Su noted that all the previous scholarship winners have remained in China to continue their studies, joking that CSUN was experiencing a "brain drain."

"They have become so involved in their projects that they remain to continue their work," she said. "They may come back home for visits or vacation, but then they go back." For more information about the China Institute, call (818) 677-3939 or visit it's web site at http://www.csun.edu/~chninst/.

California State University, Northridge has more than 30,000 full- and part-time students and offers 59 bachelor's and 41 master's degrees as well as 28 education credential programs. Founded in 1958, it is the only four-year university in the San Fernando Valley and the third largest in the 23-campus CSU system. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges recently said CSUN "stands as a model to other public urban institutions of higher education."