What makes you a Difference Maker?
It’s a great honor for me to be a Difference Maker at UM-Dearborn as the president of Chinese Students and Scholars Association. It’s a great challenge for me to bring something exciting and to enrich the life here for our Chinese students while bring the culture diversity to the entire UM-Dearborn community.
I’m a graduate student and working as a research assistant in the ergonomics lab. I used to think if I can do a good job in academics, then I can confidently say I have a wonderful life here at UM-Dearborn. However, after being part of CSSA, the partners here are so active and energetic which make me change my mind that a wonderful life here in our campus is far beyond just being a good learner sitting in the classroom.
I successfully worked with my partners in CSSA to hold a lot of meaningful and influential events like Chinese Spring Festival Celebration, fitness class and electronic sport competition.
Campus Achievements:
As one of the most influential Chinese associations around Detroit, CSSA of UM-Dearborn has successfully held spring festival celebrations for years and received many positive feedbacks from the audience. Each time, students and teachers gather together to have delicious meals, watch wonderful performances and have a great time. Considering the emotional requirement from overseas Chinese students have and the feasibility of holding a delightful celebration, we tried to make progress to provide students with a wonderful experience. Of course thanks for those amazing works with my partners, we finally made it with satisfactory from over 300 attended students.
We also built good relationships with other Chinese Students and Scholars Associations from other campuses like UM-Ann Arbor and Wayne State University. We hope to have more cooperation and make improvements to serve our students better and hold some events across different campuses. This can improve communications with students from different academic and cultural backgrounds.
Leadership Experiences:
Frankly speaking, it was really a hard time for me to hold such big event to accommodate more than 300 students just after I was elected to be the president of CSSA. Thankfully, I have a bunch of helpful CSSA friends. After the whole preparing procedure, we have made a very efficient team with each functional part totaling over 30 people. Hopefully after this big night, we can carry on more events more effectively not only to enrich the cultural and recreational activities for Chinese students, but also enhance cultural communication with all students in our UM-Dearborn community.
What is your Dream Career?
When I just arrived at UM-Dearborn, I made an important decision of my career, changing my major from Mechanical Engineering to Industrial and Systems Engineering. At the very beginning, I was nervous like a lot of people are when facing an unknown field. However, UM-Dearborn, a place that has an open and free study atmosphere with some professional and helpful professors, really gives me extra courage to be a future data analyst. On the other hand, being the president of CSSA, I will devote my time and energy serving students and making a difference in UM-Dearborn. As an international student, I have a lot to learn. Knowing more about American culture and developing better communication skills will help me be a proud resident here. Being a Difference Maker is only a beginning, my story will go on.
What was your Defining Moment at UM-Dearborn?
I think my defining moment is the day I received UM-Dearborn 3+2 program admission which gave me the chance to imagine how I could make a difference of my life in a foreign land. UM-Dearborn didn’t let me down. The whole senior year here was great, during which I started to love this place. All the faculties are professional and kind, and always ready to help students with their problems. Of course, the students are so amazing. With all these friendly and proud UM-Dearborn students around, I am deeply affected, motivated and inspired.