My Story: From Shanghai to B-School

When I grew up, a lot of people teased me, especially when I was an adolescent. At that time, people care about appearance. That was my biggest challenge. However, I kind of conquered that and I’ll tell you how. I read a book about psychology and it said that some people if they have self-esteem problems might act very aggressively. So you would say that person might be over confident. That might come from my situation. The other reason is the experience I had in the middle school. I had a lot of support from the school and the teachers there. I participated in a lot of public events. I became totally confident after that.

The first thing I am grateful for is China’s great economic development in the past two decades. Because of China’s economic reform, the private schools came into existence. While most of my peers were studying in public middle schools, I went to an excellent private middle school, which benefited me a lot. Also, because of the economic development, China established and developed more colleges and universities, and these institutes admit more students. I would say that my entire generation in China has benefitted from this.

The second thing I am grateful for is the love and support of my family. My parents have supported me at each step of my life. They helped me get the best education possible. They tried their best to get me treatment for my cleft palate and lip. They taught me their philosophy about life. No matter what they’ve encountered, they have always shown courage, patience, and hope in dealing with life’s difficulties. My father once told me that a person should not be arrogant or insecure, but should be confident. My mother often says that, “If you think you can, you can.” These have become my mottoes. Without my parent’s love and support, I would not have had as happy a life as I actually have.

The third thing I am grateful for is the great kindness my classmates in the GMBA program gave me. Before I entered the program, I never ever imagined that my classmates would give me so much love. All of them are willing to share their thoughts and to help me in life and study. Bradley Walters and Bret Victor always explain the American culture and life style to me. Will Graves is the best roommate I have ever had. Aaron Landgraf invited me to join his kickball team. And Elize Huleatt introduced me to the Boston Red Sox. All of my classmates have shown me great kindness, which has helped me adapt to my American life.

The three adjectives that best describe the John Hopkins Global MBA program?

First, innovative. The course structure is innovative because it is very comprehensive. One course might be the combination of two of three courses. For example, Financial Resources is a combination of Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, and Corporate Finance. People & Markets are the combination of Human Resources and Marketing. The way in which Carey teaches these courses is very innovative. Now, we are using the co-teaching method, which lets two professors share their different expertise in one class.  We have two projects—Innovation for Humanity and Discover to Market–that are great innovations at the business school. Both of them will give us unmatchable experiences. And both of them will try to teach us how to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity.

The second adjective that comes to mind is humane. The education here is oriented for the good of humanity, which is also an innovation. And finally, career oriented.  Every student talks with a career advisor at least once a month. And, nearly everyday, there is an information session in which a company or an entrepreneur will introduce us to a specific business area and its potential job or internship opportunities. We have a professional development class nearly once a week.

The hardest part of the MBA program is time management. There are too many group meetings. We have a lot of teams for each course, and it takes me a long time to read a case study because English isn’t my native language. Every week, there are at least two or three case studies at John Hopkins so I’m working every weekend.

What I find most surprising about America is how truly prosperous the country is, even during a recession. There are so many choices here, so many places for fast food, so many sports and sports games, so many parks and fields.  I’m amazed that a lot of the fields are free to people, such as tennis courts. This is impossible in China. You have so many TV channels and so many TV shows. And, you have so many colleges and so many doctors. These things might be considered normal, here but I think they display the country’s tremendous commercial prosperity.

I see a lot of rules and principles underlying such prosperity. For example, people show respect to other people during daily life. You greet each other very often. I remember that one day, I saw one of my American friends put a jacket before he went out. I was very curious about this because that day was quite hot. I asked him why. He told me that on his t-shirt had guns on it and this might offend people so he must put a jacket on.

What should other Chinese young people know about the United States? They should know the American people. Actually, we are very alike. We share a lot of the same traits. All the differences are the result of our different environments. For example, we speak Chinese because people who speak Chinese raised us, and people in the U.S. can’t pronounce the names of many things on the menu of Chinese restaurants because they haven’t had these things before. So, if we understand this, we will be able to better understand the world. It is not hard for people from China and from the U.S. to be good friends; at least we can watch the NBA together.

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