Mid-Year GCC Insights Newsletter

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A Message from the Editor

Hello GCCers!

In this issue, the Central Management team at GCC have compiled a summary of events held in the first half of this academic year. Yale-NUS College, New York University, Boston University, George Washington University, Tufts University, University of California, San Diego, Drexel University, etc. are all featured.

If you would like to be featured in our future newsletters, please contact us at claire.xie@gccglobal.org or sunan.qian@gccglobal.org.

Check out the fabulous events and make sure you miss none!

Sunan Qian
Insights Editor

The ASEAN-China Case Competition aimed to develop relationships between students and industry leaders in the region who share a common desire to better understand China and seize the fresh opportunities presented by the rising nation. We shared various socio-demographic, economic and urban planning concerns regarding eco-cities in China to supplement the learning experience with first-hand encounters, and provided opportunities for forging relationships. This also generated interest among youths in Singapore’s forays into China especially in the area of urbanization.

Undergraduate students from universities around the world participated in teams of three to five and created sustainable solutions for the establishment of eco-cities in China. Participants were grouped with other students pursuing different majors/courses to facilitate dynamic, balanced and multi-disciplinary thinking. Through critical deliberation of different ideas and their implementation in the context of China, participants were armed with a deeper understanding of the tangible challenges and advantages of working in China.

The ASEAN-China Case Competition's mission was to promote a deeper engagement with contemporary issues facing China; one of which was Urbanization, specifically in the area of smart cities and eco-cities. As an extension of that, our vision was to educate our members on the applicability of related aspects in other parts of China and the region. In line with the ethos of the liberal arts at Yale-NUS, we achieved this mission through interdisciplinary "real-life" problem solving and through sustained engagement with experts who had experience facing these challenges through our mentorship program or speaker panel. The GCC helped Yale-NUS engage with the region while providing a meaningful and empowering substrate for our student organization.

On October 31st, GCC at New York University organized an Inter-Chapter Social Mingle. GCC’s Central Management team and many GCC chapters, including Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania and George Washington University attended. Approximately 50 GCC members participated in this event.

Each president shared past activities and leadership experiences from their chapters, including basic structure, new E-board members, recent activities and this year’s goals. After each chapter’s presentation, the NYU team organized a social ice-breaker. We concluded with a team-building competition, where teams had to construct buildings out of marshmallows and sticks. Participants from different universities, meeting each other for the first time, had a chance to work together and learn about each other.

Overall, the inter-chapter social event was successful to get chapters in the area together and attendants appreciated the power of our network. It is also intended as a precursor to our professional events, in particular the Annual Summit to be held in New York City in Spring 2016. Attendants expressed the wish for GCC to host more events like this in the future.

Boston University GCC hosted a mixer with all the attending chapters (Tufts, Brandeis, Syracuse, SUNY Binghamton) where we discussed potential collaborations and learned about each chapter's events. GCC President Ben Wang was also in attendance. The visiting chapters also enjoyed a day of fun events around Boston, guided by members of the BU chapter.

On October 17, an inter-chapter mixer held in the Washington D.C. area by our George Washington chapter welcomed a delegation from Johns Hopkins University in nearby Baltimore, as well as newly-minted GCCers from Georgetown University. As our first event, we decided to go on a social bonding trip at Scream City for a little Halloween scare. The chapter members enjoyed spending time with each other, being chased down by all types of ghosts and ghouls. It was a strong kick-off to expanding the network in our region, and we hope to organize more professional-oriented events in the Spring of 2016.

Tufts GCC recently held a career-oriented event on December 3 Thursday at 6 pm in Tufts’ Braker Hall 001, called “Work Visas with the Experts.” Lawyers and a business manager from Business Immigration Group came to give a presentation about the different procedures and types of work visas, including business visas. 20 international students, mostly from China, came to learn about what visa options were available to them post-graduation. Many asked engaging questions and were able to establish connections with business lawyers from B.I.G. to follow up on specific questions. This event was also held in coordination with BU’s GCC branch, which also held a similar event.

GCC at UCSD had a wonderful year in 2015 with multiple successful events held by the club. One of the most inspiring events was called Graduate School Preparation as we saw a need for that. GCC hosts this event on May 26th, 2015 at UCSD. We invited UCSD alumni who were just admitted to graduate schools such as Harvard University, Colombia University, Yale University, Cornell University and University of California, Berkeley to talk about their success stories. The speakers went through the whole graduate school application process and some personal tips for preparing. Later on, there was a short Q&A session with free pizza serving! Overall, it was a very informative and interactive event, and GCC is looking forward to pull out more amazing events like this for the whole campus.

On October 4th, GCC organized a campus talk with the help of UniCareer. This activity was aimed to provide a chance for students to get to know the method to search for appropriate opportunities, process to apply jobs, and how to better manage their time in universities. The three keynote speakers did an outstanding job introducing their experience and answering questions. Overall, it was a great chance for student to build a blue print for their future after attending this activity.

New Board Members

A group of new board members have been introduced to the Global China Connection group in Drexel, ranging from secretary members to marketing. These new board members are given opportunities to bond with current board members enabling a smoother entry into the organization. The new members have been playing active roles in the organization and are getting to learn what it takes to be a member of Global China Connection very quickly. We are very excited with the new faces in the organization as it brings in different backgrounds and ideas for us to develop.

Former president Meet-up

We met former GCC President, Sam Huo, at Joe’s Coffee. Here we got a chance to learn about his previous work with our organization and we also shared our current works and plans. It was a very successful and insightful meet-up.

GCC Co-op Panel

The event was a huge success. It took many inputs to put together this event and it was incredible to see how everyone worked together to make it a success. This event was held on November 19th and we had GCC alumni representatives from JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. Students got a chance to learn from our representatives about working with a prestigious company as well as the opportunities they offer within the Co-op system. Students also got a chance to ask more questions and network with our representatives.

Chinese Speech Contest

This event, combined with a talent show, was again, a big success. Each contestant got the opportunity to present a story on the topic of Chinese and showed their individual talents. Our very own Matthew Teti, EP head of GCC, filled our audience with immense joy as the battle between Captain America and Spiderman went on the way: all to save the girl.

The newly assembled Central Management team kicked off in July. So far, we have had individual conversations with each of our chapters in the network, learning about their strengths, weaknesses, and needs. GCC President Ben Wang, based in Washington DC, personally visited and met with leaders from all of George Washington, Johns Hopkins, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, New York University, Boston University, Tufts, and Brandeis. We are excited to work with you in the upcoming Spring semester and eager to hear suggestions to improve our work.