UC Bearcat - Weijie Li

My second school year began with the completion of the new Lindner College of Business. Compare with the business students who graduated from the last semester, I am so lucky that I can move and study at new building for the rest of two years. Looking from outside, the new building is beautiful, modern and with many French windows. Going to the inside, the internal design is really creative and there are a lot of high-tech facilities. If I need to use one word to describe the new business, I would like to use “wonderful”. At the same time, I’d love to use this word to describe my whole second year of college period. Because this year I not only get used to the pressure of my study, and have great performances on all of courses, but also I get more involved in the campus and community.

 

Regarding my study, my cumulative GPA rose up this year because I become more productive and find a more effective learning approach. I took five classes for two semesters respectively in this year, and most of the courses are business courses. I almost finished all of the lower business courses, and I found out there are all have some connection with each other, although they are different courses. For example, when I studied operation management and information system, I realized both courses teach the supply chain, and the ultimate goal is to help this process become more efficient. The only difference is IS more focused on creating a system to achieve a goal, and OM focused on process design. After I found out this, I started to organize all knowledge points from different courses, to understand and remember these points from a macroscopic perspective. This makes it easier for me to understand some concepts and help my knowledge become more systemic in my brain.

 

Except for these business courses, I took an acting class in the spring semester, 2019. This course made me have some unforgettable moments, such as weird and interesting practice at the beginning of classes, my first monologue show, the first time to perform with my partner, and the first time to watch an opera. But the most important thing that I have learned from this class is to use the actor's perspective to see the world. If we see our lives as movies, then everyone is an actor, and we are acting in a play all the time. And there is an important concept in acting this professionalism. It is "situation definition." It means the ways of our behaviors that we are defining depend on the different situations that happen in our lives. In this process, we are continuing to understand and respond to the signal from other people. Therefore, this class taught me how to observe, understand, and respond correctly to others. And it is good for me to have a better relationship with others and get along with people in society if I understand this. My second year's study experience not only made me learn a lot of professional and practical business knowledge but also taught me unique thinking-models or perspectives.

 

 

Other than I have achieved some progress on academics for this year. Another thing that I am proud of myself is that I have spent more time getting involved on campus and community. Such as I was treasurer for a student organization called PandaCATs in the fall semester 2019 (and I took over one of the co-president positions since last semester.), be a student leader of an international student organization called Bridge, an active member of a professional business fraternity called AKPsi, and a student volunteer of multiple non-profit organizations off-campus. These experiences taught me many things that I cannot learn from books and significantly developed my soft skills and leadership skills.

 

When I was treasurer of PandaCATs, I was in charge of applying for the funding and came up with some ideas to raise some money for the organization. So I have learned how to write a budget proposal, how to apply for some funding through student government, and there are many resources that student organizations can get operation money and events funding on campus. At the same time, I also organized a fundraiser event called Hand-made Mooncake sale. Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, I came up with the idea to fundraise some money by selling some hand-made mooncakes in the Mid-Autumn festival on campus. Also, this event is good for us to share Chinese culture and traditional Chinese food on the campus. Then I made a plan and implemented the plan with our members together. Even if the process was really hard because they learned how to make mooncakes, bought all material, stayed over-night to make a hundred mooncakes, and sold them all during the event, we achieved our goal and earned over three hundred and fifty dollars after the event. Also, this experience became one of my unforgettable memories in my life. The experience that I was treasurer not only makes me a lot of things but also enhance my sense of responsibility for doing things and try to get the thing done and well. The growth of the first semester drove me to take over the co-president position for the second semester.

 

After I became the co-president of the organization, I have organized the organization structure and built four different committees. Also, I have made a events plan for the whole semester. Even if the pandemic came unpredictably and messed up our plan, we still have held ten events around the campus successfully. Such as the Chinese New Year celebration, Spring Organization Fair, Human First Conference, Career Workshop, Slang Workshop, International Taste, World Fest Fashion Show, Collaborate with College Mentor, Karaoke Night, small graduation for PandaCATS graduate students. The one event that was giving me a deep impression is the Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration. Our event committee and I spent a week preparing this event, and we planned five different traditional Chinese games and Chinese food that Chinese play and eat during the festival at the event. And the result made us feel that our effort is worth totally. Because there were around two hundred students attend the events, and most of them seemed to have a lot of fun and learned some knowledge about Chinese culture. This event helped promote cross-culture communication and is good for students to make international friendships.

 

Also, we held a virtual graduation ceremony for our members who graduated for the past semester. And I came up with a surprising idea for these graduate students. I asked all of the members to draw pictures with wishes and present it for them during the virtual meeting. And all these graduate students are so moved and thankful for it. Being a leader for this semester made me learn a lot, and the most important thing I have learned is that leadership is a person should help and encourage other people to achieve their success in their life.

 

Except to get involved in campus, I have spent some time to serve the community. For example, I volunteered to share Chinese culture and teach students Chinese at local schools three times a month. And volunteering as a guest speaker for College mentor that is a college organization work for many local children who come from low-income families to share my school-life in UC and Chinese culture with the Children. The reason why I passionate about sharing my knowledge with children is I really value education. I think the essence of education is people light up people. I hope that my desire for knowledge can also ignite the children's I believe that desire for knowledge because knowledge can change destiny.

 

As I mentioned, my second year is wonderful, it is not only my school-life that is wonderful but also my life is fulfilled by many experiences. For instance, I have started my start-up business with my other three partners at the last half-semester. I went to two gala hosted by the two non-profit organizations at the end of 2019. I have started to prepare my fly-pig marathon for next year. Last but not least, I have studied aboard in Mexico during the winter break. I have done a lot of things in Mexico, such as visiting five famous attractions, visiting a local university, three local companies, a fancy mall, and a massive farm, learning Spanish, and Sasha dance and took cooking classes. More importantly, I have met many awesome people, such as my home-stay family, the teachers from language school, and even the Uber drives. These amazing experiences just made my whole second year! And I can tell that I have become a better person because these experiences drove me to grow a lot.

 

With the last half-year of 2020 almost finished, which represents my third year will start soon. Even if this pandemic causes many people’s death and inconvenience for our life, I still need to be optimistic because I am the lucky one compare with many people who lost their life. And I always believe what John Lennon said: “ Everything will be okay in the end, if it’s not okay, it’s not the end.” Same does this pandemic; I believe human beings will overcome it in the end. For the rest of the year, I should keep practicing my keywords for this year, which are Specific, Rational, Reliable, Review, and Initiative. I believe that end of this year, I will become a better person than last year.