On July and August of 2023, nearly one hundred Gengdan Institute students respectively attended one of the summer vacation overseas curricula of up to fourteen different topics. Students gained a lot while actively taking either offline courses from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Czech, Japan, Singapore and Hongkong & Macao regions, or online courses from the University of Pennsylvania in the United States and the United Nations. Not only did students broaden their international horizon, but they also improved their linguistic capacity and independent ability. The successful progression of the curricula was owing to the meticulous planning and organization by those overseas higher education institutions as well as to the Institute students’ invaluable state of mind in being eager to improve themselves.

The summer vacation courses from the University of Hongkong and the University of Macao emphasized the very combination of theory and practice, fully developing students’ creative thinking. The “One Country, Two Systems” summer vacation courses from the Macao University of Technology let students deeply feel the colorful chapter on the successful implementation of the “One Country, Two Systems” initiative; Hongkong IEP research focused on practical business skills, developing students’ practical operating ability and creative potential.

The courses from the University of Pennsylvania in the United States further improved students’ ability to articulate clearly, which is needed in business settings; the courses from the United Nations impelled students to think about global issues, developing their individual critical thinking and independent moral judgment ability.

Generally speaking, students taking the summer vacation courses claim that they gained a lot from these courses, not only having experienced various academic courses covering a range of academic subjects, having communicated and discussed with relevant professors, experts and advisors about knowledge, having deeply understood the theory, practice and cutting-ledge developments in professional areas, but also having made friends from the four corners of the world. Besides, face-to-face cross-cultural communication also made students understand and respect cultures from other countries and regions more, developing their international thought and global awareness. Students all express that taking the summer vacation courses not only made them feel more confident, but also laid a solid foundation for their future academic and professional developments, which might count as a large heaven-sent, valuable fortune on their path towards growing up.

                                                                                                Contributed by the Office for International Communication