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Thursday, June 20, 2002

By Jim McKay, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Pittsburgh entered this new century as one of the least ethnically and racially diverse metropolitan areas in the country -- a problem that Bing Xu and Alexandra Clochard are trying in small ways to solve.

	Through the Pittsburgh Council for International Visitors, Bing Xu, 24, a native of China, and Alexandra Clochard, 29, of France, are trying to connect the 4,000 foreign students who study in the city with post-graduation jobs in the region. (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette)

Xu and Clochard, young immigrants working for the Pittsburgh Council for International Visitors, hope to persuade some of the approximately 4,000 foreign students who study in the city's universities to stay here after graduation.

They aim to do that by finding jobs that will enable students to work in Pittsburgh with an H-1B visa and by showing them the region's many delights. Their hope is that foreign students will find it easier to stay in a place they know and enjoy.

It's hoped that persuading more foreigners to settle here will give the region more political clout, fill projected future labor shortages and make Pittsburgh a more vibrant, cosmopolitan place.

It can only help Pittsburgh to build better relationships with foreign students, said Brian Kelly, a program director for the Heinz Endowments, which is funding Xu and Clochard's efforts. Even those students who don't stay, he noted, could one day help international business efforts from abroad.

"There are a lot of regions that would be very interested in having 4,000 international students at their institutions every year," Kelly said. "We have this untapped resource."

Xu, 24, a native of China, has the difficult task of finding appropriate jobs that fit a graduating student's visa requirements. Clochard, 29, of France, has the more enjoyable task of showing foreign students what Pittsburgh has culturally to offer.

"The two facets of this are so intricately tied together," said Gail Shrott, executive director of the visitor's council. "You need the businesses, but you have to have people like the region so they will want to stay."

The current economic downturn has complicated Xu's task of identifying jobs for immigrants -- already a difficult chore because of requirements that H-1B visas go to those who are trained in specialty occupations such as accountant, computer analyst, engineer, financial analyst, scientist, architect or lawyer. That means a graduating student who wants to stay here can't take just any job.

Xu is learning how hard it can be to make a cold call to an employer and ask for work. Only a few companies have requested resumes and so far no one has committed to hiring. Information technology companies that have a previous history of hiring foreign students are struggling.

"Lots of them don't get back to me," Xu said.

So he's is focusing for the moment on establishing a network of companies that might have an interest in hiring foreign students once they are financially better able to do so and on raising awareness of the issue.

He said a lot of employers seem sympathetic to the cause of hiring international students to make the region more diverse, but can't hire just now or feel they need an economic incentive to do so.

"This is probably the worst year to possibly try to do something like this," Xu said. "If we did this two or three years ago when the economy was booming, it would be fantastic."

Clochard's task is more light-hearted than Xu's project but just as important. She shows groups of international students the region's sights and helps them to make friends.

"We have all these well-trained people from the universities and the only thing they are thinking about is after here, to go to New York or anywhere else because there is nothing to do in Pittsburgh, which is not true," she says with a laugh.

Clochard has organized hospitality dinners and guided trips for groups of up to 50 to all kinds of attractions, including visits to architect Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, a dairy farm and The Meadows harness racing track.

She and foreign students have been tourists in Amish country. They've gone snow tubing at Seven Springs, done some horseback riding and even a bit of night clubbing, although that activity is not officially sanctioned by the program.

Because most foreign students have no access to a car, Clochard relies on volunteer drivers to get around. She hopes one day to find the funds to pay for a van.

"We are showing them that there are a lot of things to do in Pittsburgh, and also, they are becoming friends," she said. "When you have a friend in a city, you really don't want to go somewhere else."

The eventual prize to Pittsburgh for this effort is easy for Clochard to see.

"When an international student comes to Pittsburgh, they are the best of the best. You do not come to Pittsburgh or anywhere else in America and spend $30,000, [to] $60,000 [for tuition] if you are not at the top in your country," she said. "We have all these good friends, very intelligent people. We need to keep them here."