Carolina Scholar
Dorman High School
Spartanburg, S.C.
International Business, Finance, Economics
Career plans: I plan on returning to Taiwan for a year to study Chinese before starting my job in management consulting at Bain & Company in Houston, Texas. My career goals are to one day work in China as a consultant who helps small to medium-sized US businesses enter the Chinese market. I want to be involved in US-Chinese economic relations in the private sector.
UofSC story: I came to UofSC with the goal of joining the IBCE cohort and going on an adventure
in Hong Kong for three semesters. I certainly got that adventure and was able to travel
all over Asia and make lifelong international friends. However, along with that adventure,
I got to experience intense conflict abroad firsthand, from political protests to
the COVID-19 pandemic. I was evacuated from my university, stuck inside countries
and placed in quarantine, all things that were less than ideal. However, those experiences
had the most profound positive impact on my college career. In addition to learning
in the classroom, I learned to be resilient, adaptable and more accepting of the change.
I also stopped taking experiences for granted and never let an opportunity pass me
by. Overall my time abroad greatly shaped who I am today, even with its complications,
and I will carry its lessons long into the future.
Most impactful experience: My most impactful experience in college happened when I was studying abroad in Hong Kong. After seeing a Microsoft wallpaper showing a field of flowers, I decided I was going to go to Japan to see the place the photo was taken. I ended up doing my first solo trip, renting a car and exploring Hokkaido, Japan. I visited the flower fields, a caldera lake and even a hot spring town. It showed me all that I can do with willpower and travel blogs.
Best part of being a Top Scholar: The thing I enjoy the most about being a Top Scholar is the community. Every day I get to be around ambitious, yet kind people who inspire me. I get coffee with people who are going to amazing law schools, live with people who are entering cool careers and hang out with people who are going to be traveling the world.