One of my aims when studying at Tsinghua University, and more generally when visiting China, was to meet and befriend both international and local students. The problem is that it's very easy for an international student to become wrapped up in the international student scene and social networks and before you know it, you've spent most of your time - if not all - with international students. Eating together after classes, playing sport together, sight-seeing together, "studying" together and going out in the evenings together.
It is however not as easy to meet and befriend local students and to do so requires a little initiative, whether this be through language partners, playing sports, teaching English etc.
Let's shAREOne great way to meet local students is, however, to join the University's student societies. It takes a little initiative but can really pay off. A couple of weeks ago, Tsinghua's societies were promoting themselves and I happened to come across an intriguing society named shARE. An acronym for 'Sharing Analysis on Regional Economics', a little heavy I admit.
To be invited to join we were required to submit our CVs and if successful attend an interview! Suddenly I was having unnerving flashbacks from my job hunting process last year. I sent my CV for their review and was invited to an interview which was composed of two rounds; a 1-1 interview with the society president and a group task in which 4 candidates including myself, were required to discuss a subject and address a number of questions and present back.
It was quite interesting because we do not have such a culture generally among U.K. student societies with the exception of some international societies such as AIESEC. After a couple days, I had been informed that I had passed and was invited to attend their first meeting a few days later.
The first meeting introduced the society, it's international structure, ambitions and projects. It descibes itself as follows:
"ShARE is an international, multicultural, non-profit organization for students that strives to better understand the complexities of local socio-economic issues through presentations, conferences and projects"..."ShARE’slong term mission is to generate, share and use knowledge to contribute to regions’ human, social and economic development".
Exciting stuff, although, I'm sure it's not everybody's cup of Jasmine tea. For me however, shARE presents the opportunity to meet and work along side bright and motivated local students at a prestigious Chinese university; to make friends, learn something and even take on responsibilities within the society.
My Promotion!In December, Tsinghua along with fellow branch Peking University will host shARE's annual World Seminar with over 320 attendees and guest speakers from the IMF, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, and Valeo among others. In 2007 it was hosted in Paris and in 2006, in Dehli. This year the seminar's title is "A Changing World Setting New Rules", the main topics being Finance, Energy, and Innovation (including related Corporate Social Responsibility issues).
Following my recent membership I have now since been appointed the manager of shARE Tsinghua's public relations department, one of only three departments responsible for hosting this big event with my main responsibilities being establishing and developing our relationship with both financial sponsors and guest speakers.
All seems quite intense, but with a team of 8 behind me (all local Tsinghua students) and two months to go, this unexpected role should be an rewarding experience and I'll be sure to keep One Jasmine Tea updated on how things go.
Interested to find out more? - Visit shARE
It's seriously a real opportunity to learn something new from people from all walks of life. I often enjoy the variety of ways people articulate themselves- how they structure their ideas, what their priorities are, what has shaped their values...
Posts
