"Greetings from Nanjing!
With spring semester having just begun, I wanted to take an
opportunity to reflect on the recently completed SAIS Asia Career Trek while
also looking forward to upcoming events at the Center.
Over the winter holiday, SAIS Career Services Director Ron
Lambert and I had the good fortune of accompanying 20 students from the HNC and
SAIS to participate in the 7th Annual Asia Career Trek. The Asia Career Trek is a week long
educational experience, whereby students have the opportunity to travel to
Shanghai and Hong Kong to meet with representatives from a variety of
companies, including APCO, Wells Fargo, Bain, Citi, Goldman Sachs, and Deloitte
to name a few. While all the
representatives offered unique experiences and backgrounds, one thing they all
had in common was a commitment to helping students in their career
development.
The Trek began in Shanghai with a visit to Pudong to Wells
Fargo to meet with Han Lin, Senior Vice President of Global Banking. Mr. Lin is a SAIS alumnus who, prior to a
career in finance, served both US Marine Corps and the Peace Corps. His experience in China coupled with his
natural gift as a teacher made for a fascinating presentation, which included
discussion about issues surrounding the convertibility of China’s currency and
how international banks operate within China.
Following our meeting with Mr. Lin, we visited Nicobar,
where HNC alumni Andrew Forrester and Matt Shernit hosted us to learn about
working for a nuclear consulting company. Nicobar provides knowledge of China’s nuclear energy policies and
regulations to North American and European companies looking to build facilities
in China. During their presentation,
they presented us with information about the entire nuclear fuel cycle: from
mining to disposal.
Our next stop was to meet with HNC Alumnus Morgan Keldsen
who works as the China/Asia Pacific Senior Product Business Director at
Converse. During this meeting, Mr.
Keldsen showed us many exciting Converse products, such as customized converse
all-stars that were made for pop stars. Mr.
Keldsen shared that he began his career in China in a hotel management-training
program, just before he transitioned to Nike.
After spending many years with Nike, where he held positions like “GM
for Basketball Asia/Pacific,” he came to Converse where he has been since 2008.
Mr. Keldsen epitomizes the advice he
gave our students, which was to find what you enjoy and do it with passion.
HNC Students with HNC Alumnus, Morgan Keldson
After our visits on Monday, the Shanghai Alumni Club hosted
Trek participants at T8 in Xintiandi.
During this reception, students had an opportunity to meet alumni and
learn how they have been able to leverage their HNC education for various
career paths. Additionally, students got
to see the Xintiandi site, which was developed by another Asia Trek host, Shui
on Land. As we would learn in our visit to Shui on Land, the developers wanted
to preserve the 19th century “shikumen” (stone gate) architecture in
developing the site. Today, it is one of
China’s most fashionable and successful shopping districts and proved to be the
perfect site for our alumni reception.
Following our visits in Shanghai, we flew to Hong Kong to
begin the second leg of our Trek. Our
Hong Kong leg of the Trek was incredibly intense; 12 visits in three days. Although all of the visits featured unique companies, one thing that was consistent was they all had hired alumni
from the SAIS community. Whether the
company focuses on financial services, such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley,
and Credit Suisse, or media and public relations like APCO and the Economist,
or Consulting such as Bain; all these organizations had members of the HNC and SAIS
community serving in various positions.
Coming back to the Center, there are many exciting events
coming up. On March 14, we will hold our
annual Career Day in Shanghai. Career Day is a day-long career seminar where
students participate in industry panels to learn about various fields and
organizations, while establishing relationships with members of our alumni
community and beyond. That evening we
will host an alumni reception for our alumni to network with one another,
make new friends, and meet this year’s graduating class.
Shortly after Career Day, Beth Keck, the Senior Director of
Women’s Economic Empowerment at Wal-Mart, will come to the Center to teach a
course on Corporate Social Responsibility.
In addition to being a SAIS alumna, Ms. Keck is the keynote speaker for
this year’s Career Day and has spent significant amount of time in China
throughout her career, representing organizations such as Boeing and the
Federal Aviation Administration.
April’s arrival means spring break at the HNC. During this time we’ll conduct the annual Beijing Trek, from April 1-4. For
this trek, we will bring 20 HNC students to Beijing to meet with employers
largely focused in media, non-profit and, government. Among the employers we’ll be visiting this year
are Greenpeace, the Gates Foundation, the US-China Business Council, the US
Embassy, and Weber Shandwick. We will
also have an opportunity to meet with our Beijing alumni community, who always knows how to make visitors from Nanjing feel welcome."
