March 25th, 2023
Mr. Zhu is a graphic designer around 40 years old. He had a tough and uncertain journey.
At first, He was forced to leave Taiwan for US, where he had to redo college. with no income, he could not eat well every day, so he took part-time jobs at libraries and restaurants. After serving in the military, he continued his college there.
Later, he moved to the Beijing and has lived here for 20 years, though he says he still doesn’t fit in with people’s lifestyles or ways of thinking. it’s been really hard, and his ability to adapt to tough situations is pretty impressive.
April 28th, 2023
Mr. Wanjun had a tough start since young. At the age of 15, he barely got into high school due to his hometown’s low admission rate in high school. While studying, he had to do farm work, cut firewood, and even carried 200kg cement at construction sites for 5RMB a day to help his family to alleviate the financial pressure.
Later, He failed his first college exam but pass another one a year later. After graduation in 1992, he started a decoration company with his brother, learning carpentry, welding, etc. and did it for nearly 10 years.
Next, he switched to being a project planner in enterprises located at Beijing. With a well-known university professor’s guidance, he led a big project for China Unicom (a communication company) Lianyungang, using creative ideas like “mystery beach footprints” and charity activities to advertise for the company and double its user rate from 20% to over 40% in many areas of China. He thinks that having a good project planner allows companies to solves problems with the lowest costs.
May. 12th, 2023
Boris went to the US at 21 with no knowledge of English, eating instant noodles for weeks and using paper as chopsticks when he had no utensils, then he worked hard to learn English and made many friends in the states.
Later, he went back to Taiwan to start a business. Initially, it was really successful, it made him millions. However, this success did not last very long. His business unfortunately failed in 2009, losing millions of RMB. So he soon switched to selling squid soup at night markets and stamps during the day for tourists. Because he had the previous record of losing millions, most of the companies would not hire him.
Few months later, A friend then invited him to manage education institutions, where he rebuilt his confidence there, first working for others then starting his own company. Though hit hard by the pandemic, colleagues and parents supported him.
Now he works with students across many different countries. One lesson that he learns from his career is that always look forward to the future, and that being successful is only temporary state.
June 1st, 2023
Elsa is a Berkeley graduate with a almost perfect GPA. She chose Psychology as her primary major, which is the passion which she found since high school. She also added Economics as a second major; her only challenge so far was fatigue in studying.
In her sophomore year, she pursued her goal of learning ballet, starting online and later continuing in-person. This eased her academic stress by a lot and helped her make many friends. Moreover, her kind French teacher supported her.
Now Elsa is planning to attend law school. Elsa feels a bit low because seeing friends and former classmates get into Ivy League schools or MIT for grad programs makes her doubt if her time at Berkley were worth the effort.
July 24th, 2023
Jessie was an international schoolteacher, then she transitioned into an international school’s marketer. She is mainly in charge of solving coordination issues by communicating with leaders and reporting to superiors and overcame work frustrations through mindset adjustment.
She balances work and life by writing plans and limiting overtime. To build colleague bonds, she uses humor and learn new things constantly despite it might be her unfamiliar expertise.
August 18, 2023
Ms. Bing works as a counselor at a private school. Her job mainly involves communicating with parents whenever they have complaints about the school or teachers. She always steps in promptly to resolve the issues. She’s good at easing tensions between parents and the school, smoothing out misunderstandings between both sides. Up to now, Ms. Bing continues her work at this school, continuing to bridge the gap between parents and the school.
September 9th, 2023
Mr. Bai studied very diligently when he majored in Industrial Design. In addition to mastering his professional courses at school, he also took the initiative to read many professional books for self-study. He would always strive to delve into difficult knowledge repeatedly. During his studies, he was fortunate to meet a mentor who guided him throughout many difficulties. His mentor answered many of his questions in professional knowledge and guided him to participate in practical projects experiences. Finally, relying on his solid capabilities and the help of his mentor, Mr. Bai produced excellent design works upon graduation while also laid a solid foundation for his passion in the field of design.
September 25th, 2023
Principal Wu worked as a teacher and counselor at a local school. Her work focused on communicating with students and parents. She had a great relationship with colleague teachers, everyone supported each other, making the workplace warm and collaborative.
She also took the lead in managing and organizing the school’s promotional activities, it was a tiring task, but she tackled it wholeheartedly, standing in front of her designated booth to advertise for the school. she won students’ love with her dedication as a teacher, and through consistent hard work, she eventually took on the role of principal of school.
Oct 17. 2023
Ms. Xiaoqian studied and taught Japanese in Japan for 6 and a half years before returning to Nanjing to work in clothing aesthetics. As a Japanese teacher, she taught lessons to students, mostly highschoolers and employees, and found fulfillment in teaching, though faced work pressure with corporates. She still works at Japan now and continues to bring excellent content of teaching to students every week.
Director Cui studied film production at Communication University of China first. When he first went to the US to expand his skillset for film production, he saw award-winning films made by his classmates. This made him start focusing more on becoming a film director. He went back to China to become work in the film industry. But he witnessed some unhealthy trends in the film industry. One event that impacted him the most was a time when he got false blamed by others of not preparing the props in time. He was physically harmed by several crew member during that incident. Since then, he refused to work in the film industry back at his hometown and moved to Japan in seek for a healthier work environment.
Later, he applied to go to Japan to continue his career, but he struggled with presence of language barriers at first. So he taught himself Japanese through TV shows and books. Eventually, he shot many short films by himself that won him multiple awards, turning his shift to directing into a solid achievement.