Vol11:Cell Fate Decision & Career Development

Dr Wanlu LIU

17th October 2019 (Thursday) has marked the start of the “ZIRC Development Fellow Workshop” project. Dr Wanlu LIU from ZJE Institute had shared her opinions and thoughts towards career development to our fellow students. Her speech is entitled “Cell Fate Decision & Career Development”. In her speech, she has creatively linked the relationship between cell fate and career development. She described that career development has the same pattern as cell fate decision. Dr Liu shared her own opinions on how to make decisions for life. She stressed that it is not ideal to make decisions blindly and students should be honest to their own feelings. She suggests students to make their career decisions based on 2 aspects:understanding ourselves and understanding the environment. She noted that it is important to have future perspective by knowing the future potentials and trends of different career choices. Students should do research and communicate more with each other and even tutors to gain more useful information. 

Vol13：How to learn and succeed globally

Prof. K. C. Ting

On 28th November, Professor K. C. Ting, the Vice Dean of International Campus, Zhejiang University delivered a lecture entitled “How to Learn and Succeed Globally”. Prof. Ting began his lecture by sharing his life journey and experiences as an example. In his lecture, he has covered certain features such as the global environment, holistic educational experience, personal and professional skills in facilitating the road to success. He further emphasised that it is essential for every individual to master “systems thinking”, a critical and creative thinking technique, as this help in shaping a holistic whole person. He defined systems thinking as a holistic approach emphasizing the performance as a whole based on the understanding of all components in the system and the interrelationships among the components, for example, think systematically to make things work better, as well as making things work together. He ended his lecture with his quote:“Empower with knowledge and wisdom for life to make the world work smarter, better and together”.

Teachers and students who attended the lecture were benefited a lot from Prof. Ting’s enlightening talk in terms of a new thinking perspective. They were eager to ask questions and interact with Prof. Ting even after the lecture was over.

Vol14:L.I.F.E. – Living In Foreign Environment

Dr Wee-Liat ONG

On 5th December 2019, entitled “L.I.F.E. – Living In Foreign Environment”, Dr Wee-Liat ONG, initiated his enlightening talk with a famed saying that goes, “When in Rome, be a gladiator!”. Surviving in a foreign environment, we need to acclimatise ourselves into the unknown surrounding, as well as weaponizing ourselves with interpersonal skills that allow us to immerse into a foreign culture. Looking back at his own overseas experience, Dr Ong mentioned that the progress from amateur to master is not always easy. There will always be trials and tribulations that halt you from achieving what you dreamed of. But he wanted students to bear in mind that they must never be discouraged by any “F”, because “F” does not define your Failure, but “F” can be Fantastic. Everyone is worth what they are living for, know your worth and never underestimate upon yourself. Other than his academic research back at Carnegie Mellon University, Dr Ong shared his albums of photos showing how he travelled and enjoyed his life in the US with friends from diverse nationalities. He said that we should not be imprisoned in a mindset that foreign people are difficult to befriend with. To them, we are “foreign” as well. Students who attended the talk that night were deeply motivated by Dr Ong’s captivating speech. For students from ZJUI, Dr Ong is not merely a lecturer, but a mentor, and a close friend at the same time.