Leadership Development: Setting Chinese Students Up for Success
Picture 70 Chinese college students, 10 student volunteers, 10 local expats, and 10 American business professionals. The dress code is business formal, which for most of the attendees means the nicest outfit they own. The setting: the Westin Hotel, one of the premier and most professional western hotels in the city. Everyone is here for one reason: the Xi’an Student Leadership Forum.
This is the fifth year of the Forum here in Xi’an, and it has become for many students the capstone event of their college journey. A few years ago, it occurred to our teachers in Xi’an that students were graduating and getting jobs with no idea of what the workplace was going to be like, and no innovation to the current way business is handled. They were unprepared.
The Student Leadership Forum is trying to change that. A one-day forum with professional guest speakers that lecture on teamwork, communication, setting goals, leadership skills, and personal strengths and weaknesses. The speakers use personal stories and examples to teach these topics with a moral and ethical tone.
As ELIC teachers, the Forum is a great way to have one foot in the campus and one foot in the city. The last Forum had students from 18 of the 28 universities in Xi’an networking, building relationships, and learning about how to be better prepared for their futures, and how to do it without compromising their own growth.
The video below was produced in China to provide a short glimpse into what some of the students learn while participating in the Leadership Forum.
