Carlson Scholar

“Carlson Scholar” is a designation g🌠iven to graduating students who earn a grade point average of 3.85 or higher in their coursework. These students represent the highest level of academic achievement throughout the school.

 

CHEMBA19 天然温泉飞Felix （右四）

Just like any other assignments of CHEMBA courses, for this little piece of “memoir” of our cohort 19 I waited till the last minute to start writing. Prior to CHEMBA I only know this is called procrasti𒅌nation, but now I know it is “pacing style”. It’s a personal trait, not a shortcoming.

Thanks ꦅto Wechat, where I dropped the bits and pieces of my CHEMBA thoughts and feelings here and there on the internet, I can now collect and string them all together. And hopefully it will be an interesting and meaningful reflection of such a significant t🍒wo year of my life.

2019.10.

It was a month full of changes. I started my CHEMBA journey, got elected as the class “president”, finished the Organization Behavior course. The view from Lingnan Hall was bright and clear. And when I waꦬs doing squat in the gym I know I was “balancing body, emotion, mind and spirit”, a closing remark from OB’s Michelle. There was no COVID.

   

2019.12.

We finished Financial Accounting. Tony’s favorite phrase was “so easy.” Pervin was so energetic and restles♈s that we🎶 would beg for a halftime break. And there were endless exercises, tables, and numbers. It had been a long while since we took a classroom paper test.

   

2019.12.

Statistics & Decision Making. Regression, simulation, and modeling were the basics. More importantly, Prof. Wang and we talked and discussed how to use these tools for more data driven decision making. And afteꦏr all, it was all about the manager’s vision to challenge and relax the constrains so that new possibilities could be discovered.

   

2020.1.

Operation Management. “Is it Art or Science? M🗹ore like both, I think” Why did I make that comℱment?

 

And then the🔜re was the first few cases reꦑported which were later know as COVID-19. We talked about the case study of Cisco responding to H1N1 in OM and asked “is your supply chain ready for COVID-19?”

   

2020.2.

Masks were in shor♛t supply and thanks to CHEMBA Alumni Association, we all got some timely support.

   

2020.4.

Ethics and Leadership. Ian🐎 and us both take ♎chances on ZOOM. It was a bit challenging in the beginning and we all thought it was just a temporary remediation.

   

2020.6.

Financial Management. 80+ videos, 4 zoom sessions, 9 homework, and 1 take-home final❀ later, another milestone is reached. Until the next of course. And we celebrated Tim’s birthday together, with wine glasses in ou♌r hands, virtually over ZOOM.

   

2020.7.

Marketing Management, anoth✱er fun and exciting course. Wished there could be more case sharing. And finally, one month summer vacation. Thanks Bodo and Seth!

   

2020.9.

Law and Business. Nine months later, we got back to face-to-face classroom teaching, at least partially. We talked about Ginsburg and Kant among many other controversial subjects and contradicting arguments. Prof. Wang quote🧜d Kant as last remark for the course. “Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.”

   

2020.9.

Prior to Strategic M🌳ark🌸eting I liked Apple’s Think Different Ad. After Strategic Marketing, I knew why I liked it. Thanks Tony!

 

2020.10.

Welcomed the new cohort, with lov🎐e, from CHEMBA 19.

2020.11.

What was IT Management about? I believed the essence was abou⛎t finding and implementing order among chaos. ཧI hoped I didn’t misunderstand Prof. Xia.

   

2020.11.

Business Strategy. William talked about his Apple investment. We studied Zappos’ case in class. I finished the final while getting my car serviced. Zappos’ Tony Hsieh passed away a few days later. In a job interview later on, the founder and I talked about what🥂 was more critical to success: making right choices or working hard?

   

2020.12.

International Business Environment, the last course of 2020. Sion-US relationship and COVID were🃏 the main topics. There was no war between R✤ussia and Ukraine, not even the most remote possibilities.

 

And we orgꦫanized a party for New Year, and for CHEMBA 2020.

   

2021.1.

Key takeaways of Managerial Accounting: beware of unit cost, decision making relies on incremental analysis, and you get what you measured. It was two wonderful weekends spent with cohort 18, and our graduation was getting closer. I just wanted to spend a few more minutes under the shade, take a few more deep breaths with the smell of trees, feel the warm sunray passing through the leaves and branches, and let my mind drift softly to an endless abyss. When was the final due?!?!

 

2021.3.

AFM, part I. Yes, this was how we improvised in taking the online course. Rented a vacation house, ate delicious🐻 food, drank some beers and still managed to get up on time the next morning to take the class together.

 

2021.4.

Catching the nice💧 spring weather of Guangzhou to get our graduation photos done. We want you!

 

2021.5.

CHEMBA Twenty Year Anniversary Party!

And International Residency, which 🅠was taught by Mochen and S𓆏vjetlana, should have been in Minnesota if there were no COVID. I must retake it, on site, sometime in the near future. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be called a “residency” course. I hoped Susie and Carlson wouldn’t mind.

꧟And along the way, the Gl♏obal Team Project was all done virtually.

 

An✅d finally, representing cohort 19 to give a graduation speech: To connect with each other near and far is a basic human desire. It cannot be deterred by pandemic nor by differences in race or perception. CHEMBA program is a best testament of China and the United States getting connected and having deeper understanding of each other. It has also been at the forefront of the globalization tidal wave. When President Ronald Regan visited China in 1984, he said to the Chinese students: “history is a river that may take us as it will. But we have the power to navigate, to choose direction, and make our passage together. The wind is up, the current is swift, and opportunity for a long and fruitful journey await us.” We, the cohort of CHEMBA 19, sincerely wish the CHEMBA program flourish and beco꧑me the unfading bond between China and the United States.

2021.7.

AFM part II. We set another bar for classroom teaching. C൲himelong Resort, known for its safari park and resort. I was sure we got a deeper understanding of Fin Tecܫh taught by Prof. Liu under this setting.

2021.8.

Benhong and Ivy’s International Human Resource Management was the last stop of the 19-month CHEMBA journey. At the beginning, I could never imagine such a wonderful journey. Thanks to all the classmates and teachers I met. Everyone said that I had changed the mos🅷t. I hoped I could be calmer and more relax in the journey of finding myself and living out life to its full extent.

2021.11.

Getting the report card and diploma:

Two years ago, in October

I started a journey.

I could imagine a happy ending.

But couldn’t have gues🔜sed the twists and turns of the process.

 

Today's report card

Like a traveler's passport full of stamps

Just numbers that did not matter anymore.

What⛎ were left were friendship and truths for the rest of life’s adventure.

   

2021.12.

I wrote down these final thoughts as I turned the calendar to 2022: Once I shared with cohort 20 my CHEMBA expe✃rience and made a casual remark "just relax and enjoy" and it was often quoted later on. It caused me to think again about what subconscious made me say that. Maybe it was triggered by OB's Michelle: "treat CHEMBA experience as a gift, a gift to yourself". Indeed, CHEMBA was the first time I went to school not for certificates and credits, but for an experience and a pure desire to know. Maybe I was late to discover such a simple fact. That was what learning was supposed to be. 🍷I had also been asked, was this CHEMBA useful? I said, it was a gift! 

Thank you CHEMBA! Thank you all for everything!