What is GrokChina all about?

North Americans and Chinese share vast areas of commonality and surprising areas of difference.

Today's youth will be responsible for bridging this divide and building a future that is peaceful, prosperous and healthy. As China emerges as a global superpower, a connection to this enigmatic country is essential for North American youth, especially those who aspire to leadership in finance and business, public service and science.

The next generation of Chinese citizens and leaders will rise to a better role in the world if they have broad intellectual, social and cultural experiences. North American schools at all levels continue to offer tens of thousands of Chinese students access to an outstanding western education, providing not only direct job-related skills, but also in many cases complementing China's education process by providing greater emphasis on deductive reasoning, intuitive thought and creativity.

Done correctly, international education is good for North American and Chinese youth.

Most international institutions are, at least in part, motivated to recruit Chinese students because they want their campuses to be a reflection of the greater world. We believe that a narrow focus on extracting Chinese students is limiting, if not self defeating.  The mutual goals of student recruitment and building a global institution are both best served if the North American institution engages with institutions and students in China in more mutually beneficial and meaningful ways.

These are the some of the beliefs that drive us. This is why GrokChina has chosen to focus its business on working with Canadian and US education institutions to run sophisticated programs in China - programs that benefit Chinese students and institutions, and help North American schools become more truly international in scope.

We are not an agent. Instead we operate more like an outsourced field office - helping you to execute on your strategic and direct recruitment goals with a view to your institution's holistic, long term best interests.

Our Beijing-based Grokkers are young Chinese nationals who are fluent in English and have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in either a scientific or linguistic discipline.  GrokChina’s management team is comprised of two Canadian citizens with a combined 25 years experience in business development and strategic marketing and more than fifteen years of experience as entrepreneurs in China. We maintain a sales office in New York City, but our main office is in Beijing.

Kim Morrison, GrokChina’s Principal Partner and founder, is a successful entrepreneur with a background in strategic marketing, business development, and operations in the biotech and internet sectors. An alumnus of University of Waterloo and MIT, she has worked with Bausch and Lomb, BBN, and GTE, and she founded internet startup, e-smith, which she sold to Mitel Networks in 2001. Since then, Kim has been studying and working in China in both the high technology and education sectors.

What does the word "Grok" mean?

Grok means "to understand something so thoroughly that it becomes second nature." It was a term invented by Robert Heinlein in a book written in 1961 called "Stranger in a Strange Land".  The word "grok" is perfect to our purpose - to succeed in China, you have to grok it. Moreover, the book "Stranger in a Strange Land" has a certain appropriateness to westerners, like us, who have developed a love of and commitment to China.