01 Why DKU?
As a third-year undergraduate student at Duke Kunshan University (DKU), I initially chose DKU considering both undergraduate and postgraduate studies. DKU is a rising star in the field of higher education, and being able to be one of its builders can not only exercise my abilities in all aspects, but also help me connect with the international community in an environment where China and foreign countries communicate with each other.
02 Story About My Major And Me
When I first entered University, I didn’t know what major I liked and what my future career direction would be. I tried courses in Environmental Science, Biology, Economics, Art, and Psychology. After two years of exploration, I gradually became interested in Behavioral Science, but I didn’t fully understand the differences and connections between this major and other disciplines, such as why I needed to take social science and statistics before studying Behavioral Science. I am very grateful to Professor Claudia Nisa of the Psychology major for answering my questions logically and clearly at the beginning of the introductory course. Simply put, society is made up of individuals, so studying the Behavior and Psychology of individuals and groups can more efficiently carry out social governance and resource allocation. Statistics, as a very important research tool, can convert abstract theoretical concepts into concrete data and clearly show the distribution and trend of problems through charts.
Professor Claudia also clearly listed the layout of each professional course of the Behavioral Science major, encouraging us to think about the similarities and differences between Sociology, Psychology, and Behavioral Science. Sociology focuses more on the analysis of macro groups, Psychology focuses relatively on micro individuals, and Behavioral Science studies the behavior patterns and influencing factors of individuals and groups through economics, psychology, and policy, so as to further serve more macro needs such as policy making. Inspired by Professor Claudia, I realized that as a student, I cannot blindly accept the acquired knowledge in its entirety, but also have the ability to analyze, think, research, and solve problems. This is why I finally chose her as my mentor for my landmark graduation achievement.
Signature Work Performance & Photo With Mentor
03 Interdisciplinary Academic Practice
What impressed me most at DKU was interdisciplinary learning and the value of academic and practical complementarity.
Behavioral Science and Economics have a lot of intersections. In the course of Behavioral Science 102, we simulated a classic economic game such as the prisoner’s dilemma to focus on analyzing the behavioral patterns and decision-making logic of individuals when faced with the choice of cooperation and betrayal, which made me have a strong interest in behavioral economics. So, in the subsequent learning process, thanks to DKU’s flexible course selection mechanism, I consciously took more economics courses. In Professor Zhang Luyao’s economics class, I learned more about Bitcoin and Ethereum, and was fortunate to publish a polemical academic article on how to use blockchain technology to promote the development of financial technology on the SciEcon academic website. Among them, the resistance of some groups to the challenge of traditional trading methods by financial technology not only deepened my understanding of the application of psychological theories, but also aroused my interest in finance.
During the summer vacation of my junior year, I was fortunate to get an internship opportunity at a private equity investment company. During the internship, I was mainly responsible for the policy summary and market layout research of new materials, AIGC, intelligent manufacturing and other industries that the company is concerned about, analyzing the technical paths, industrial chains, competitive landscapes, etc. in these fields, and paving the way for subsequent investment projects. At the same time, I also conducted comprehensive due diligence on three target companies, compiled investment highlights, risk assessment, financial analysis, exit plans, and wrote three complete comprehensive analysis reports. The three-month full-process experience was a very valuable learning experience for me. It gave me a clearer understanding of the steps of primary market investment, and also made me feel the great impact of national policies on corporate development and personal investment.
Not only that, I also gained research inspiration from the characteristics of the industry and daily communication with colleagues, and then determined the topic of the landmark achievement project. Due to the frequent fluctuations in the stock market, practitioners in the investment industry often face tremendous psychological pressure, which reminds me of the role of positive psychological suggestion learned in social psychology class, and I want to further explore investment resilience: the impact of successful narratives on investment losses. Considering the cost and practical feasibility, I designed an online simulation investment game for this purpose and recruited some experimental subjects. Preliminary experimental results show that visual ingenuity such as game web design can effectively intervene in investors’ subconsciousness, making them more confident in continued investment.
04 Plans After Graduation
I will go to the United States to study at the Paul Nitze School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Unlike traditional business school courses, the innovation of this program is similar to DKU’s liberal arts education, that is, after taking a small number of required international economics-related courses, you can freely choose elective courses in different majors such as finance, environment, and law. At the same time, we will also learn programming languages such as Python and SQL, and train and apply quantitative skills in practical projects. In today’s big-data era, this will be able to better connect with future work and have a broader employment space.
05 Meaningful Leadership Practice
I started learning table tennis at the age of 5, and it have become a habit of mine for 16 years. So as soon as I entered DKU, I joined the school table tennis varsity. In my four-year table tennis career, I was fortunate to be the captain of the varsity for 3 years, and met coach Li Bingfang, who was both a coach and a friend, and a group of players who encouraged each other and fought side by side. As the captain, I shoulder both honor and responsibility. I need to take into account various matters during training and the emotions of the teammates and strive to ensure the cohesion of the entire team. In many exchanges and exchanges with Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Ningbo University of Nottingham, Shanghai New York University, Wuhan University, Kunshan Dengyun Vocational College, and surrounding professional clubs, our skills have become more and more mature, and the team spirit has also grown.
Table Tennis Varsity Photo
06-Growth During 4-years Undergraduate
I am grateful to DKU for inspiring me to become a more purposeful and self-disciplined person. This self-discipline is reflected in my academic exploration and my orderly life. During my four years in DKU, I developed a good habit of going to bed early and getting up early, becoming one of the few students who went to bed at 11pm and got up at 7am. In addition, I also became a frequent visitor to the school gym, insisting on training in the gym five times a week. In addition to table tennis and aerobic and anaerobic exercise, I also fell in love with swimming. Running 1,200 meters at a fixed time every day not only helped me strengthen my body and exercise my ideal body, but also became a rare period of time in my busy schedule without any interference, giving me the opportunity to clear my worries and sort out my thoughts.
Fitness Achievement Record
In terms of study, I also started learning a second foreign language, German, and made full use of resources such as the school’s language learning center.
Self-discipline makes my life more relaxed, comfortable and happy, which is a very ideal state of university life. Thanks to DKU, I have gained the motivation to constantly improve myself, balance study and physical and mental health, and become a person who loves life and works hard.
Photo with German Language Professor
07 Suggestion To Fellow Students
Explore bravely and turn persistence and self-discipline into habits.
It is normal to feel confused and anxious at the beginning, but this should become our motivation to relieve anxiety, rather than scars that we dare not touch. Just like fitness, the efforts of the day will not be effective immediately, but if we repeat simple actions day by day, maybe a few months, maybe a few years, we will eventually transform from the inside out into a healthier and more confident self. So, don’t be afraid, learn if you want to, and stick to it once you start, and you will definitely become a different person.
Translated and Edited by Zhenyu Tian, Class of 2027
