(Left to right) Kate Tsoi (GBS, batch 9), Kendy Tse (IBCE, batch 5) and Winnie Lee (IBCE, batch 4) in the back row; Christopher Wong (IBCE, batch 1), Dr. John Lai, Wendy Leung (GBS, batch 3) and Arnold Chan (GBS, batch 3) in the front row
Both Global Business Studies (GBS) and International Business and Chinese Enterprise (IBCE) undergraduate programs are perceived as the “A-list” programs and mostly sought after by high-caliber students. However, the public often has a wrong perception, thinking that students who pursue them are merely seeking a springboard for landing a high-paying job in investment banks after graduation.
To help secondary school students and their parents better understand GBS and IBCE and to inspire them for making good JUPAS program choices, a press meeting was arranged in the afternoon of 22 June at the School with six GBS and IBCE alumni/students attended. The group included alumni Arnold Chan (GBS, batch 3), Christopher Wong (IBCE, batch 1), Wendy Leung (GBS, batch 3), and students Kate Tsoi (GBS, batch 9), Winnie Lee (IBCE, batch 4) and Kendy Tse (IBCE, batch 5).
Led by Dr. John Lai, Assistant Dean (Undergraduate Studies) and Director of Global Business Programs at CUHK Business School, the GBS/IBCE alumni and students shared with journalists from mainstream newspapers in Hong Kong including am730, Hong Kong Economic Times, Ming Pao Daily News, Sing Tao Daily News and Wen Wei Po regarding how the programs nurtured their global mindsets, inspired them to better serve the community by applying their gained business knowledge, and to tackle social problems with entrepreneurial approaches.
Five media stories have been generated to date with extremely positive and encouraging messages. The media stories have appeared in Hong Kong Economic Times‘ Topick online news portal, Hong Kong Economic Times, Ming Pao Daily News, Sing Tao Daily News and Wen Wei Po. The Sing Tao Daily News one has also been reprinted by popular internet portal Yahoo! Hong Kong and Sina Hong Kong.
The secondary school students who applied for the GBS and IBCE programs were asked situation handling questions such as “What business would you start on Mars?” during the admission interviews in early June. Christopher Wong shares with reporters that the question aims to examine students’ presentation skills when facing unplanned situation. He offered his support as one of the interviewers in the admission interviews for IBCE applicants. Dr. Lai also shares that during the admission interviews, he was deeply impressed by the applicants who showed strong commitment of social contribution. He says that the school’s undergraduate admission interviews not only focus on applicants’ academic performance but also their IQ, EQ and CQ (Courage Quotient). Dr. Lai advises GBS/IBCE applicants that it is unnecessary to memorize those ‘model’ answers by rote for the admission interviews, as he appreciates interviewees who have courage to innovate and can demonstrate their presentation skills and abilities in dealing with stress and challenges.
Kate Tsoi also shares her tips with secondary school students saying that the determinant of an eye-catching résumé is about the applicant’s depth of understanding of the activities that he/she has participated in. She suggested that applicants could proactively ask questions to give the interviewers an impression that they are well prepared for the interviews.
Many GBS alumni are committed to social contribution by applying their business knowledge to tackle social issues, such as Arnold Chan who is a role model with a strong passion in teaching underprivileged students. Graduated from the CUHK Business School in 2010, he worked at Goldman Sachs’ asset management division. Having worked at the investment bank for three years, Arnold quitted the high-paying job and founded a nonprofit organization called “Teach4HK” in 2013. Teach4HK is a nonprofit organization with a mission to enlist outstanding university students with diversified talents to serve in schools with underprivileged students through a one-year teaching fellowship program.
So far, six secondary schools and more than 2,000 students from grass-roots families have been benefited by Arnold’s NGO. Arnold shares that by studying business administration at universities, students can be trained how to tackle social problems with a practical mindset and the most efficient approaches. After having completed an MBA at Harvard Business School, Arnold has started working full-time at Teach4HK from early this year to manage the NGO. Teach4HK has so far raised more than HK$5 million from the government and private donation for the NGO’s operations.
Graduated from the IBCE program this year, Winnie Lee has started up her own business “Spread-IT.” Spread-IT is an online marketing promotion platform engaging university students to be “micro-influencers” for consumers brands to promote their products/services through Instagram. Winnie points out that companies are used to consume huge amount of budget to hire celebrities to represent their brands for advertising. However, consumers easily recognize that photos featuring the celebrities and consumer products are hard sell. Instead, consumers would be more receptive to products/services that his/her friends are using. Spread-IT has been working with famous brands such as H&M and McDonalds to promote their products with the online platform’s university student ‘Ambassadors.’
Wendy Leung joined a multinational consulting firm as a management consultant after having graduated from the GBS program. She worked there for three years before she founded her own food business “Waffleman” in 2014. Waffleman is specializing in Belgian waffles and drinks with its first store located at Stanley Plaza. Wendy came up this business idea when she first visited Belgium with GBS in 2009. She came back to Belgium and visited a number of waffle stores there and obtained the recipes and ingredients for baking waffle and finally opened her own store.
To read more about the media stories (in Chinese) by Hong Kong Economic Times, Ming Pao Daily News, Sing Tao Daily News and Wen Wei Po, please click on the images below.
Media: Hong Kong Economic Times, Hong Kong Economic Times‘ Topick, Ming Pao Daily News, Sing Tao Daily News, Wen Wei Po, Sina Hong Kong and Yahoo! Hong Kong
Section: Local News – Education
Date published: June 22 & 23, 2016
Re: Dr. John Lai, CUHK Business School alumni: Arnold Chan (GBS, batch 3), Christopher Wong (IBCE, batch 1), Wendy Leung (GBS, batch 3), and students Kate Tsoi (GBS, batch 9), Winnie Lee (IBCE, batch 4) and Kendy Tse (IBCE, batch 5)
Ming Pao Daily News
Hong Kong Economic Times
Sing Tao Daily News