Cindy CHEN

Student of Macquarie University, Australia
Exchange to Tsinghua University, China

Growth happens outside your comfort zone. My exchange semester at Tsinghua University in Beijing was one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences I have ever had.

While choosing among different countries, I could not decide where I wanted to apply for. Being an ABC (Australian born Chinese), my Chinese is far from fluent. The moment that I made up my mind to apply for China was when an old couple asked me for help with ordering food in Chinese and I could not help them. It was then I wanted to improve my Chinese and I thought the best way was to go on exchange in a Chinese speaking country. After doing some research, I applied for the Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Awards to go to Tsinghua University, Beijing, one of the most famous universities in China.

At Tsinghua University, I studied Enterprise Resource Planning, International Business, Technology and Strategy, Management Systems Simulation and Chinese Listening. The classes were interesting, but what I learned outside the classroom was also invaluable. Being lucky enough to live on campus, I immersed myself fully into the campus life I never experienced back at home.

I joined the Business Faculty's basketball team where I came to realise I was the only foreign student. After the first training session, I wanted to pull out of the team but the coach, with the help of google translator, convinced me to stay. It was very hard to communicate with the team, blank stares were exchanged most of the time. However, the amount of patience my coach and teammates for me was so abundant that I felt so lucky to be included in the team.

During weekends, I spent time with fellow exchange students travelling to Inner Mongolia, Tianjin, Guangzhou, and other places in China. One of my favorite experiences was having a picnic on top of The Great Wall with my best friend. My initial goal for exchange was to improve my Chinese, but what I gained finally was much more. My exchange semester would have never been possible without the support of the Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Awards and the Australian Government. I thank them heartily for giving me the opportunity to explore the beautiful China and interact with people from around the world.

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