Author: sunwahAdmin

 

A. GYLN Internal Discussion Session 

Venue: Ito Campus, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

Date: 30 October 2016

Time: 09:00 – 16:30

• Ms Betty Chan, Executive Director of Sunwah Foundation to introduce new development for the Global Young Leaders Network, including Sunwah’s support for business start-ups business by members.
• Presentations by Chapter representatives on their activities during the past year and what members have learned from organization of events.
• Group discussions on global citizenship: What is global citizenship? What are the challenges? How to develop?

B. GYLN Exchange Session with Prof Gordon Houlden, Director of China Institute, University of Alberta

Venue: The New Otani Hotel, Fukuoka, Japan

Date: 30 October 2016

Time: 17:30 – 18:45

Topic: How to develop a balanced and positive global outlook

C. Attend Kyushu Forum on Dr. Sun Yat-sen

The Kyushu Forum on Dr Sun Yat-sen comprises two conferences. The Conference on Dr Sun Yat-sen’s International Legacy and Inspirations for the Future and the Conference on Kyushu as a Frontier of Asia Pacific Cooperation.

1. Conference on Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s International Legacy and Inspirations for the Future

2016 is the 150^th Anniversary of the birth of Dr Sun Yat-sen. The Conference is organized by Kyushu University and the Institute of Dr. Sun Yat-sen Studies of Zhongshan University with Sunwah Foundation and Kyushu Economic Forum as co-organisers.

Venue: Inamori Hall, Ito Campus, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
Date: 31 October 2016

Pre Conference Ceremony
13:00-13:30 Ground-breaking Ceremony of the Jonathan KS Choi Cultural Centre of Japan at Kyushu University

Conference
13:30-18:00
Opening:
Moderator: Prof. Reiko Aoki
Speech by President Chiharu Kubo, President of Kyushu University
Speech by Dr. Jonathan KS Choi, Chairman of Sunwah Group and Sunwah Foundation
Speech by Mr. Susumu Ishihara, Chairman of Kyushu Economic Forum

Session1: Moderator: Prof. Takeshi Hamashita (Zhongshan University)
1. Prof. Lin Jia-you, Former Director of the Institute of Dr. Sun Yat-sen Studies of Zhongshan University
Topic: Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s International Awareness and Its Key Implications (30 mins)

2. Prof. Takeshi Shizunaga, Graduate School of Humanities, Kyushu University
   Topic: Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s visit to Fukuoka and the history of China-Japan academic cooperation in Kyushu University (30 mins)
3. Prof. Nguyen Van Khanh, Former Rector of University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH) and Director of the Institute of Policy and Management (USSH)
   Topic: Dr. Sun Yat-sen and Vietnam Revolution (30 mins)

Coffee Break

Session 2: Moderator Prof. Akihiro Iwashita (Kyushu University and Hokkaido University)
4. Prof. Leo Suryadinata, S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological, University, Singapore
Topic: Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s international legacy and inspirations for the future: Some examples from Southeast Asia (30 mins)

5. Prof. Gordon Houlden, Director of China Institute, University of Alberta, Canada
   Topic: Dr. Sun Yat-sen and the West: A 21st Century Canadian Perspective. (30 mins)
6. Prof. Takeshi Onimaru, Graduate school of Integrated Science for Global Society, Kyushu University
   Topic: Dr. Sun Yat-sen and the Revolutionary Networks in East and Southeast Asia in the 1920s and 30s (30 mins)
7. Prof. Li Xin-chun, China Institute of Economic Transformation and Opening
   Topic: Guangdong Province: First mover and entrepreneurship -The birth place of Dr. Sun Yat-sen (30 mins)

Q&A session 10 mins

18:30 – 20:00 Reception at Inamori Hall

2. The Conference on Kyushu as a Frontier of Asia Pacific Cooperation

The Conference will be held at the Kyuden Mirai Hall in Fukuoka, Japan on the next day, 1 November 2016, to explore opportunities for cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region from the inspirations of Dr. Sun Yat-sen and his connections with Kyushu. The Conference is organized by the Kyushu Economic Forum, co-organised by Sunwah Foundation and the Japan Hong Kong Society – Kyushu and supported by Kyushu University for about 400 participants. Dr Jonathan Choi will deliver a keynote speech on Hong Kong’s partnership with Kyushu and the Asia Pacific Region at this Conference and there will be a panel discussion with speakers from various countries on Kyushu as the Frontier of Asia Pacific Cooperation.

On 17 August 2016, on the occasion of Mrs Carrie Lam, Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong SAR Government’s visit to Hanoi, the Asian Youth Orchestra had staged a concert at Vietnam National Academy of Music.  As a member of Sunwah Global Young Leaders Network, I had the honor to attend the concert and met with Mrs Carrie Lam. For me, it was not only an ordinary concert but I also learnt a valuable lesson in terms of international relations.

Being invited by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO), our Sunwah GYLN members arrived early for the pre-event meeting with Mrs Carrie Lam. In spite of her glamorous and powerful appearance, our feelings when talking to her was somehow like talking to a family member. She had such a gentle voice that we felt being respected, which encouraged us to develop ourselves as the young generation of the country and opened up to opportunities for youth development between Vietnam and Hong Kong.

Mrs Carrie Lam met with Sunwah GYLN Hanoi members before the Concert

After the meeting, we moved to the Grand Hall where the concert took place. The concert’s conductor – James Judd greeted the audience and they started with Symphony No.8 by Dvorak and Symphony No.6, Pathétique by Tchaikovsky. It was not the first time I went to a classical music concert but I still regarded it as a surprising fortune to be there. The audience gradually fell into the rhythm played by the youth from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Macau, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam.

After the performance, the conductor and the orchestra introduced themselves, which was the most interesting part of the night to me. Mr. Judd asked the only one member from Vietnam to stand up beside him as a translator to help him introduce other members.

The concert was over, everybody headed to the gate. I asked some Sunwah GYLN members to stay behind as I would like them to have a talk with the AYO member from Vietnam – Do Ngoc Thao My, whom I know personally. It was a long time since I last saw her, she had really grown up!

I think, apart from organizing events on our own, we also need to attend the events professionally organized by others to learn from them and help ours to be more successful. The Asian Youth Orchestra Tour 2016 is one of the lessons like that and we want to thank Sunwah Foundation for this precious opportunity.

Over the past few years, Vietnam and Hong Kong have achieved much progress in trade and diplomatic relations. On the occasion of Mrs Carrie Lam’s visit aimed at boosting trade and investment between the two sides, members of HCM Chapter had an interesting conversation with her at Sunwah Galleria on 16th August 2016.

During the meeting, we talked about Vietnam and Hong Kong’s young generation, our differences, challenges and opportunities. Through a short conversation, her profound story and leadership style have inspired us and left a deep impression in our hearts. Spending time to understand the establishment of HCM Chapter and the background of GYLN members, Mrs Carrie Lam also shared the vision of youth development in Hong Kong. Mrs Lam expressed the promising outlook to connect and open up opportunities for youth development between Vietnam and Hong Kong. Dr Choi also shared the reasons why he founded the Sunwah Foundation Global Young Leaders Network (GYLN) as well as his commitment to provide a ready platform for the youths from various countries to develop their international outlook, leadership skills, and commitment to public and social services.

Mrs Carrie Lam received Sunwah GYLN Hong Kong Chapter T-shirt from Dr Choi and a 3D handmade painting from Sunwah GYLN HCMC Chapter members

At the end of the meeting, GYLN HCM Chapter members presented a 3D handmade painting by a local artist to Mrs Carrie Lam as a memorial gift of her visit and expressed their deepest appreciation to her for her willingness to support youth development.

We hope that Mrs Carrie Lam’s visit will enhance the relationship, trade and investment between Vietnam and Hong Kong, and the young generation of the two sides will inherit and continue to develop this legacy.

 

 

After the completion of the annual recruitment program of Sunwah Global Young Leaders Network in Hanoi, the newbies headed for the first training and got in touch with brothers and sisters of Sunwah GYLN family in a cozy and loving atmosphere at Dong Mo, Son Tay. The ice-breaking training does more than a normal training –a chance for us to become more united and connected. All the games were physically demanding but that could not stop us from having our ultimate fun in the sun.

At half past 7 in the morning, all members gathered at the ULIS – Jonathan KS Choi Cultural Center to take a bus and get to the training place – a camping site at Dong Mo with fresh air and beautiful greenery. When the whole team arrived, we were divided into 2 teams to start the games. All members were eager to name our teams and choose a slogan to show spirit of the team. The first game required all members to walk together on special wooden boards to reach the goal as fast as possible. Everyone has to focus and trust each other in every step in this game. After the game, GYLN members were all thrilled and excited to join the next.

The next challenge was more exciting and quite unusual – it was like table tennis with the use of band rolls to pass the ball over the net. Everyone at first doubted that they could not play this game well but after some trials, we all got the hang of it and had a lot of fun playing. The competition was very fierce; two teams took turns by leading each other point by point and got better after each turn of play.

The third team game was very much demanding and difficult. Everybody needed to overcome their own fear of heights while remaining balanced on the specially designed terrains and obstacles. Nevertheless, nobody is alone in the fight; we all supported one another in these obstacles and had a success in the end. Everyone was quite exhausted but the most important thing was that nobody gave up – we all tried our best to contribute to the success of the teams.

Finally came the last challenge and also the hardest one. Whether it was walking on cables, running on old car tires, keeping balance on strings or small wooden boards, hanging on to ropes above our heads, everyone needed to learn the techniques fast and applied carefully with the support of the whole team. It was almost like intensive gymnastics exercises. The most memorable obstacle is the one when we had to swing like Tarzan to reach a giant spider net and finish the whole chain of tasks. That last moment of victory would definitely stay in our hearts and minds for long after the training ended.

Lunch break followed with a BBQ feast when everyone finally charged with new energy and connection to be a strong team for the next year. All members learned more about each other’s personal stories and experience when applying to GYLN and their expectations. There were also great suggestions for future work of the network. We held our hopes high for Sunwah GYLN as a place where great minds meet and we implement projects that will have lasting and sustainable impacts on society. We discussed about the vulnerable, disadvantaged groups and planned out some activities or events to help them develop their own potentials. But all great mission needs to start with solidarity within the team itself, this first training for the new generation of members served as a stepping stone for bigger and better moves for Hanoi Chapter of Sunwah Global Young Leaders Network.

31st July of 2016.

Reporter: Binh Minh

Date: 7^th May 2016 – 8^th May 2016
Venue: 2^nd floor – ULIS – Jonathan KS Choi Culture Center, 144 Xuan Thuy, Cau Giay, Hanoi

In order to raise the awareness and responsibilities of students who will soon be the masters of the future to understand about the United Nations (UN) in general as well as to get acquainted with the ways and means this Organization is willing to solve the current problems of the world, Sunwah GYLN Hanoi Chapter organized the Sunwah-VNU Model United Nations (MUN) 2016 on the second floor of ULIS-Jonathan KS Choi Cultural Centre within two days on 7^th and 8^th May 2016 with the participation of more than 60 students from a wide range of universities in Hanoi.

To well prepare for the two-day meeting, an experience sharing session was held for potential delegates to understand more about rules of the program and to get inspired by distinguished guests, that were, Madame Nguyen Thi Nha – Ambassador of Vietnam, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, presently Honorary Consultant of Sunwah Foundation in Vietnam; and Mr Ngo Quang Xuan – a Member of the National Assembly and Ambassador to the Permanent Mission of Vietnam to the UN Office in Geneve and New York. Attending the sharing session were all potential delegates and observers. They raised various interesting and critical questions to both the organizers and the guest speakers. Importantly, after the event, they said that they got much more in-depth knowledge about the MUN, including diplomatic terminology to be used in and the rules of UN conference.

The sharing session led by Madame Nguyen Thi Nha, Ambassador of Vietnam, presently Honorary Consultant of Sunwah Foundation in Vietnam

A week later, the Sunwah-VNU Model United Nations officially took place at the ULIS – Jonathan KS Choi Cultural Centre. The simulation of UN conferences was divided into three meetings of sub-Committee United Nations Security Council, Economic and Financial Committee, and WHO Organization, held in three different meeting rooms.

The opening ceremony of the grand plenary session

At the United Nations Security Council forum, the delegates discussed and made decisions on prevalent issues the world had been facing such as Immigration & Migration, Military Intervention for Humanitarian Aids, etc. Chairing this council were Mr. Le Thanh Trung and Mr. Nguyen Quoc Anh.

United Nations Security Council

During the meeting of the Economic and Financial Committee, 20 delegates representing 20 nations jointly discussed about ‘Equal, Socially Cohesive, and Sustainable Urbanization’ and ‘Youth employment and entrepreneurship for sustainable development’. This council, chaired by Ms. To Minh Ngoc and Ms. Soya Bui, was nominated to be the best of Sunwah-VNU MUN since all delegates showed their efforts and close relationships with all others. In particular, some of Sunwah GYLN Hanoi Chapter members joined as delegates in this Council and competed and gained recognition for their performance.

Economic and Financial Committee

The last council was World Health Organization whose topic was about ‘Control and prevention of Non-communicable diseases’ and ‘Access to Universal Health Coverage’. WHO Organization was the only committee whose medium language of discussion and statements was Vietnamese. Because this council hosted the largest number of delegates in comparison with the other two, all topics and ideas were impressively and energetically brought to the table with good solutions. The delegates of this council still stayed in touch after the event through gatherings and various meaningful activities together.

World Health Organization

Many journalists from different online newspapers such as Zing.vn and VTV broadcasting came to the event to gather information for news entries. The GYLN itself reported this program to the Media Department of VNU and got publicity in the official website of VNU. Generally, this program succeeded far beyond expectation of the organizers for a networking event and a platform for students to practice leadership, public speaking and debating skills.

For the organizers, this program has been a strong drive for Sunwah GYLN Hanoi Chapter to continue its efforts and missions to build and uphold students’ leadership skills. We truly hope that under the support and sponsorship of Sunwah Foundation as well as Sunwah Group, we will be able to continue to conduct similar programs in the future.

[Hanoi Chapter]

 

Dear fellow GYLN Hong Kong Chapter members,

Last week, three members from the Hong Kong chapter, Jacky, Jocelyn and I, we participated in the Hanoi International Gathering trip 2015. We met a diverse and enthusiastic team of members from Japan, Korea, Canada, Beijing, Macau, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. I would like to share with you some highlights of our trip in Hanoi.

On 20 Dec, the members from Hong Kong and Canadian Chapter successfully collaborated on a dancing performance in the opening ceremony of the Celebration of 45th Anniversary of Sunwah Group – Sunwah Project 45. The ceremony also kicked off the Sunwah VNU Social Services Day, involving street-cleaning and wall-painting by 500 local students. We contributed in the event through painting colorful murals on walls. Not only did we brighten up the exterior of the school, but also built up connections and friendships with the local students. This shows that community projects can be powerful vehicles for making positive changes in the city.

In the afternoon, we attended a session on leadership with Dr. Jonathan Choi, two professors from the University of Alberta, Canada and the University of Melbourne, Australia, and the Dean of Kyushu University. In the session, Dr. Choi addressed the importance of cross-cultural understanding and international cooperation to promote mankind’s peace and development. Members from each chapter also shared their commitment towards community building in their home countries and personal views on leadership. The session had been illuminating. As global young leaders, we must grapple with the challenges arise from cultural diversities to create a more integrated and open world. On 21 Dec, we had a GYLN meeting with members across chapters and discussed three main topics: the insights on leadership gained from the two videos (featuring Dominic Shellard, Vice Chancellor of De Montfort University, and Prof. C. N. Yang, Nobel Prize Winner in Physics), the management of each chapter, and the establishment of the GYLN website. In particular, there are some ideas about the management of each chapter and the GYLN website I find worth-sharing with you as follows:

About Chapter Management:

• To draft and implement a constitution that best suits each chapter with regard to their distinctive characteristics;
• To share the management strategies used in Sunwah Group;
• To organize workshops and training for members in leading an organization;
• To increase information-sharing and transparency across chapters;
• To devise recruitment strategies that attract talented students across disciplines;
• To improve alumni retention.

About GYLN Website:

1. To build an external website which includes the newest updates and information of the project.
2. To set up an internal portal for all members:

• To facilitate better Communication (Forum+Chat room);
• To facilitate Project Management (Virtual office, e.g Slack);
• To provide Internal Training (Workshop videos of different places);
• To showcase voluntary/ internship opportunities in different chapters.

At night, we were privileged to have a dinner with a successful Vietnamese woman leader Ms. Le Hoang Uyen Vy, who has been elected as one of the successful people under 30 by Forbes Vietnam. She founded Chon.vn, a leading fashion e-commence company in the country, and Aiya Limited Company, a restaurant chain which serves Vietnamese street food in a fine-dining atmosphere. Throughout the dinner, she shared with us her experience and gave us valuable advice. I greatly admired her confidence, foresight and undaunted pursuit of excellence as one of the pioneering female leaders in the business sector of Vietnam.

GYLN has served as an international platform for distinguished individuals to conduct multi-cultural perspective and meaningful dialogues.The Hanoi International Gathering trip 2015 was an extremely rewarding and interesting experience for me to engage with so many talented leaders. Wendy, a fellow member from Ho Chi Minh City chapter, has produced a video which captures some of our best moments in Hanoi.

I look forward to meeting all of you in January to share with you my fruitful exchange and work on our project “Hidden Gems in Hong Kong”.

 

Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year!

 

With warm Regards,

 

Sharon Ho

 

 

From 19^th to 22^nd December, we received the credibility to take part in a global summit for Sunwah GYLN’s members from 8 chapters: China, Canada, UK, Macau, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. This was a precious opportunity for young future leaders to assemble and discuss the development of the Network.

In the trip, we gained a lot of practical experience that we would like to share for all of you.

Through our 4 full-day trip, we all felt really excited. In the opening ceremony of the Celebration of Sunwah Group’s 45th Anniversary in Viet Nam and Award Presentation to winners of the Photo Contest “Sunwah Project 45 – The Hidden Beauty of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City”, we got deeper information about Sunwah Group, Sunwah Foundation and its development throughout 45 years in Vietnam and the practical, precious values that Sunwah brought about to the community.

We were involved in the Sunwah – VNU Social Services Day 2015 with many exciting activities. In the afternoon, we focused on the “Leadership skills” and listened to Dr. Jonathan Choi’s sharing remarks. He mentioned the importance of language in the integration process. In terms of leadership, he stressed on communication and motivation. According to him, a good leader should be very influential and visionary. And we ourselves can become leaders and planners in the future.

On the next day, we participated in a discussion for expanding the network as well as how to develop and implement projects in the country-based networks. At dinner, we were so lucky to meet and exchange information with Ms. Le Hoang Uyen Vy, Founders of Chon.vn (now is Adayroi.com), one of the most successful women under 30 years old in Vietnam (by Forbes magazine).

According to Ms. Uyen Vy, the core value was not experience, but visionary and hard working. Her simple and practical message made all of us more motivated to dedicate.

Time flies away callously, while all the memories are still there. Besides the meetings, conferences and events, we also had time together for chatting, talking about the future, career and tasting delicious dishes. For those memories, we will keep them in our heart for a remarkable youth, a beautiful moment and part of our present.

 

 

 

—— De Montfort University Sunwah GYLN Recruitment Process

Various Student Societies

DSU (known as De Montfort University Student Union) has nearly 100 societies and you can join as many of these as you want. Those societies range from Academic study (law society, science society for example) to variously weird ones such as Harry Potter and Quidditch society.

This year, a new society member named Sunwah Foundation Global Young Leaders Network, DMU Chapter has joined the society list, aims at connecting world-wide young leaders to a mutual commitment in serving our communities and developing leadership skills through various social services activities.

Beijing inspired Sunwah GYLN DMU Chapter to initiate

At the end of May 2015, which just the year flipped away from the calendar, a group of 4 students from De Montfort University (short for DMU) flew to Beijing international airport, joined a one-week amazing Beijing international gathering trip with other Sunwah GYLN members from Japan, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam.

The other three fellow students are head-to-toe British, notwithstanding, they have been overwhelmingly thrilled by Beijing this international city but with abundant cultural heritage metropolitan atmosphere. After a whole week cultural exploration and mixture, every single of them showed a 100% positive feedback to me. “On the day we got to know we are chosen to go to China, I called Nathan very early in the morning and he was awakened by my phonecalls. I told him the news we would be going to China! And the better thing is are sponsored by Sunwah for this whole trip which is truly a surprise. But now after these 6 days, I know this is a lot lot lot better than we ever imagined before”, said Keira, the only British girl here in the group.

After back to Leicester, we met up at a café, and three of them came out setting up a Sunwah GYLN Chapter in DMU. Daniel generously offered he could help to register Sunwah GYLN DMU Chapter as a student society in student union. “Developing university new students’ leadership skills with those inspiring international trips, and achieved precious overseas friendships, that is definitely a catch to everyone”, said Daniel.

Conventional Society Day

As a campus convention, each academy year, the first Friday after international week would be Society Day. All of registered society from DSU are free to advertise from 9am to 4pm in the campus, and Sunwah GYLN is one of them as well.

On that day, nearly one hundred student societies—major chairmen/women set up their booths inside the DSU building, or locate the recruitment booth alongside the campus path, each by each, trying to squeeze themselves to anywhere nice and easier to grab attentions from new comers.

We organised a prominent and cosy booth next to the entrance gate to promote our unique concept of Sunwah GYLN DMU Chapter, with just a roll-up banner exhibiting Beijing International Gathering Trip pictures, flyers placed on the table to introduce ourselves to fresh university. Two student ambassadors from my side helped to show students around, told them more about our organisation and programme we have.

Gradually, time tick-tacked on the clock turned a very early morning to a sunset afternoon, I picked blank student sign-up sheet again and again (not just twice) from student union operating desk, and prudently saved every fully signing-up sheet on the table of GYLN DMU Chapter. Freshmen, senior pupils, local ones, students from Arabic regions, France, Far-east Japan, Korea, US, India, are all coming to ask what programme we are doing, and what the criteria are, after loads of delightful and causal talk, also plenty of brand promotion I subtly did to new students, predicting and analysing the next economic centre will be in Asia for next several years.

Surprising Outcome after Recruitment

Later at the end of this both exhausted and joyful recruitment day, I came back to my office and started to input information onto the computer, surprisingly found out we now were 216 applicants willing to join our GYLN DMU Chapter after just few hours.

Really feel blessed that we can make it today. Hereby, the next step for DMU Chapter is screening and interviewing all applicant students, still wait for good results for it.

 

— Keira Rounsley, DMU Chapter (UK)

This was the first time I had visited China and it’s fair to say it was a life changing cultural experience that has broadened my perspective. It was a great opportunity that I was blessed with. Meeting the other students was really fun, we had a lot to talk about including how different our cultures were and what we did for fun.

On our first day we attended the ceremony of the signing of the Jonathan KS Choi Cultural Centre and Business School at De Montfort University (DMU) between Sunwah and DMU at The 3eInternational School founded by Sunwah Foundation in Beijing. The 3e School also celebrated its 10^th Anniversary on the event day. 3e School is incredible, the talent of speaking two different languages at such a young age was extremely impressive. It was then time to try Korean food for lunch. I really enjoyed the Korean food, it was very different from the food we have back home in England, however I did struggle with using chop-sticks, nevertheless, by the end of my trip I had managed to use them.

Afterwards we were lucky enough to go to the Beijing Olympic Park which was amazing! We visited the stadium, the swimming arena and had a walk around the park with an ice-cream in hand. Later that evening we went to dinner, the Mongolian food was just incredible and it was a great opportunity to try new things. Not only was the food good, the entertainment was brilliant and got us clapping along to the music.

 

We got to see many of the other cultural sights such as the Summer Palace and The Forbidden City. The colours and detail that had gone into the buildings was beautiful. Not only did we get to see these beautiful sights but we got to visit Peking University. This was such a good experience as we got the chance to see how different it was compared to our University back in England. The first thing I noticed that was different was the size, the University was huge. We also got the opportunity to go to the famous Wangfujing Street in the centre of Bejing, this is where Dan and Nathan both tried Scorpion and Cockroach, I was too scared to try it, though Dan and Nathan said that the Scorpion wasn’t too bad. It was after that we went down to Bar Street where we all relaxed with a cocktail and got to know each other that little bit better.

 

Working with other students from different countries in the Global Young Leaders Network Workshop really broadened our knowledge and stretched our creativity. It was an amazing opportunity and I would like to say a big thank you to The Sunwah Foundation for having us. We created memories that we will never forget and connections we hope to keep forever.

 

 

–Guo Chuning, China Chapter

It was a great honor to participate in “Sunwah and Friends Social Services and Creativity Day 2015” and visited Sunwah’s coffee factory in Vietnam, which was a new experience for me.

“Social Services and Creativity Day” had several activities, and our team mainly took part in “Creativity Marketing Competition for Promoting Sunwah Coffee”.The whole activity was fantastic, I couldn’t imagine that I had team mates from Hong Kong, Macao and Japan. We worked together to design our marketing strategies, coffee cups and a booth even before going to Vietnam. It was a little difficult for us to contact with each other in the beginning, but later we exchanged our ideas through WhatsApp and found it quite effective. After discussing for several days, we finally got the idea of serving different coffee for male and female coffee consumers, and we designed “coffee for him” and “coffee for her”, which was the key concept of our team.

HCMC university students’ top five marketing plans and booths were presented at the main event on that day. They were very good and competitive, the most interesting and creative thing happened to us just on the eve of the “Social Service and Creativity Day”. We came up with the idea of putting on a play in our presentation, which was really imaginative. I also acted in the play and I was happy to see our presentation and play go on well, and the people there liked it. It was a great success for us. We all understand that creating a unique and memorable experience for our customers is so important.

As to the coffee factory, I was really amazed that there were only 30 workers in that big factory, and every process had a specific machine, which made the factory become the most advanced in Vietnam. I also saw Robusta coffee beans, and learnt how to distinguish the good beans from the bad ones. That really helped me know the coffee industry better and motivate me to learn more about the coffee culture.

This trip is quite memorable and gave me memories. I met many friends from different parts of the world, learnt how to work well in a team and got an opportunity to develop our creativity and innovation. I am so grateful to take part in this activity, and I do want to say thanks to all people I met in HCMC.