Back in the 1950’s, letters and packages addressed to people living in Seattle, Washington, were sometimes mistakenly directed to Washington DC by the US Post Office. In those days, people who only thought they knew where Seattle was used to say it was "near San Francisco". How times have changed! Microsoft, Intel, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Institute, not to mention the Boeing Company and a host of other enterprises large and small, have all long since put this area "on the map".

Washington State is no longer just a pleasant backwater "up in the left-hand corner". Thousands of new residents arrive every week, and the state’s economy is among the best in the nation. Washington State is also one of the most internationally-minded states in the Union. Europe is a relatively short hop over the Pole and one look at the map shows why the state has unusually close links with Asia. The state’s economy (wheat, timber, computer related products and financial and shipping services) is more dependent on foreign trade than that of any other state. In 1996, Gary Locke become the first Asian-American state governor in the continent USA. Meanwhile visitors, students, and business-people from other parts of the world are discovering the state in ever greater numbers.

Washington State is a very attractive place to stay and study. The state has majestic forests, snow-clad mountains, the mighty pacific Ocean and the sparkling blue inland waters of Puget Sound, as well as the vast and semi-desert lands of the interior and, further east, the rolling green hills of the Palouse. Mount Baker and mount Rainer stand out above the rest of the Cascade Range and divide the state into two very different halves. Most of the state has a mild climate without the extremes experienced in many other parts of the USA. The ski slopes are just an hour away from the main cities, and the natural beauty of the state is not far to seek. Golf, sailing, scuba-diving, hiking, camping, are all popular activities, while the Colombia Gorge is renowned for wind-surfing.

Culturally, Washington State is quite diverse. Native American nations are present at dozens of locations throughout the state. The European settlers, mostly from further east or from Scandinavia or Germany, were joined very early on by Chinese and Japanese immigrants later still by Mexican and people from various other parts of the Pacific Basin. One of the very first settlers in the state was George Washington bush, an African-American looking for freedom and opportunity, who took a land-claim outside Olympia, then the territorial capital. Some people can still show you pianos brought around Cape Horn by ship long before the coming of the railroads or the Panama Canal. Since the major change in immigration law in 1968, the Vietnam War, and unrest and dislocation in other parts of the world, a much larger and more various array of people has moved into the state. Meanwhile, incomers from California continue to seek lower prices and a safer and less hectic way of life in our state.

Washington State truly is the cultural center of the Pacific northwest. Seattle is a music and movie center. In fact, new movies are sometimes market-tested in Seattle because of the size and the sophistication of the audience. Several other Washington cities can boast of a lively cultural scene and two very special cities. Vancouver BC, in Canada, and Portland, Oregon are only just over the state border. California, too, is not very far away.

Hopefully, students will want to study as well as travel around and enjoy what is available! In regard to education, the states is unusually well-provided. The "flag-ship" of the state university system is the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, a university with a world-class reputation, which includes one of the finest medical schools in the country, the Jackson School of International Studies, and dozens of other highly-regarded departments. International students at UW are mostly in graduate (post-graduate) programs. Washington State University ("Wazoo") in Pullman, about 300 miles to the east, is the second university and a favorite choice of foreign undergraduate students. There are two other general or comprehensive universities in the system in Bellingham and Ellensburg and one undergraduate Liberal arts institution, the Evergreen State College in Olympia. Evergreen has attracted national attention for many years now. Parallel with the state university system are a number of private university, most of them in Seattle and Tacoma.

Finally, there is the large network of 27 public two-year Community Colleges, of which the state is justly proud. These "commuter" colleges are designed to serve a specific district and provide vocational and technical education as well as the first two years of the four-year BA program for students who want to go on to a university. Washington is unusual in the large number of international students attending the two-year colleges; even at smaller two-year colleges in more isolated parts of the state, students from around the world will be found enjoying a new kind of life in a small community. The ratio between international two-year and four-year students is much higher than in most states. In this state, more than in almost all other states, the four-year and the two-year colleges and the universities are well integrated with each other and operate as a unified system.

Washington State is a wonderful place to study. I hope you will decide to look into the educational possibilities in our corner of the USA!

Contributed by Dr. Patrick Cavendish, Director of International Education, Pierce College, Lakewood, Washington

This article first appeared in Educational Courses in Britain & America