"When you are surrounded by supportive people…"
This is Karen from Shanghai, China. I got my bachelor degree in economics one year ago and I will get my master degree in leadership, soon in June. Now I am working on my thesis with my partner Isabel and after that, I will try every possible way to stay longer in Sweden since it is such a nice country with such nice people!
There are so many stories to tell about this year in Leadership program. The most impressive part and also my favorite part is to find those amazing supportive people here. I’ve never had such a great experience that when you need help, there is always somebody there ready to help.
The staff in university are always ready to support
From accommodation to study, I get numerous supports from the staff working in our university. I enjoy free Swedish courses, free lectures in another campus of our university Växjö, book reservation service, and millions of help. One story I want to share is that once I used to lose my glasses in library and five days later when I reminded of that, I asked for help from the reception desk. The next morning I received a call telling me that they found it for me! What a surprise!
The professors and teachers are always ready to support
I have no idea how the relationship between professors and students in other countries could be but here, we are friends. We never call Philippe “Dr. Prof. Daudi” although he has Phd degree and he is a professor. I have a lot of disturbing things to bother our professors and they never said “Nej”. I ask feedback from them, seek advice for my study, and also discuss my future with them. They are most trusted people and never too busy to give a hand.
The lovely classmates are always ready to support
Basically except toothbrush and boyfriend (or girlfriend), we share everything. Anytime when you get a problem, don’t forget you are not alone. We have lots of teamwork to do this year and we benefit a lot from each other. After school, we are close friends and always play together, movie night, bowling games, barbeques, international dinners and endless parties! It is so nice to check my email account in the morning and find one saying that “since you are doing the thesis about female entrepreneurship, I think this article is gonna help you!”
Even the “strangers” are willing to support!
This is a surprising part. Before we conducted our thesis interviews, we wrote a few emails to some female entrepreneurs from the list of “101 most talented Swedish young people in 2010”in the Veckan magazine and we did not expect much since “celebrities” are not accessible at least in my country. But we received several positive replies and they gave us more contacts. With these more contacts, we are getting more and more female entrepreneurs to work with, like snowball rolling. Now the problem for us is that we could not do all the interviews since the time limit!
Now I am also ready to support! If you have any question about our program, just shoot! My email: yw222af_AT_student.lnu.se