Can we be a student for life?

        Last Sunday was the time for taking the graduation photo. Last Wednesday, Honors College held the First Undergraduate Honours Project Symposium. Seeing senior students took photo with every one at every corner of the campus activily and happliy, I suddenly felt that our time of being a university student will ultimately end some day in the future. On the other hand, when I listened to the Symposium, seeing students wearing business suit, confidently presenting their reseasrch project, I could feel that they are ready for leaving the university to be an adult fighting in the complicated society.

        I suddenly realize that the time of being a student is limited. Looking back to 19 years in my life, at least, I spent 13 years in the campus staying with teachers and classmates without a concern of how to live a life on my own. After entering the unversity, the problem that I used to escape finally comes in front of me forcing me to face it. I realize that I need to think about how to plan for my future. What kind of job and career do I want to take?  Lots of senior students have good results either in continuing academic study abroad or getting the offer from international firms with quite good salary. There must lots of efforts and tears hiding behind those shining smiles. In this world,  there is one golden rule. "No pains, No gains." In the long run, besides projects, assignments and exams, there are other activities in the campus or off-campus that are worhtwhile for our attention and participation. Be aware of the goal of the life and have a clear image for our own life are necessary for an university student.

         I really cherish the time of being with lovely professors. From primary school, middle school to high school, interaction with teachers are too easy. We could alwasy cry to our teacher because of low score or high burden and pressure on study. In the university, we go to different classes and listen to lectures. Some students don't even know the name of the lecturer while some professors are indifferent to their students. There is hardly no interaction between most of students. To some extent, this would give students freedom to learn on themselves and face their own difficulties. Unfortunately, on the other hand, the motivation for both parties is decreased. In the last lecturer, one of my professor told me that my exam was good in terms of the structure and language. This comment made my feel so happy. I felt more motived and confident in learning that course. In comparision, I did bad in the exam in another course. When I came to the professor of that course, I receive no suggestions and encouragement. Although I will also try hard to compensate for my own mistakes, the driving force to learn that course maybe a little bit less. Professors sometimes give the same lecturers for too many times so that they may feel boring. In that circumstances, their passion to teach more new things maybe inspired by students who actively respond to his or hers questions.

        The time of being a university student could be our last chance to hide behind the wings of our parents. Some people always say that unveristy is the ivory tower. Other people perceive Honors College as "cage". Who could help them to change those sterotype? It is us to change their attitude. For us, university is the period that we transmit to an adult. And in Honors College, we are not only adult, we are also the future leaders who carrys different missions for our future!

One Year Anniversay HC2014

    April 18th is the birthday of my mother while it is also the one year old anniversary for Honors College 2014. The classroom in J-building suddenly become the a place with our best memory here.
     At this last class, we have lunch gathering with pizzas and beverages. At this last class, we sit together enjoying the video we made for our lovely professor Dr.Udani. At this class, we have a small birthday celebration for classmates born in April.  Every moment of this class is special to every Honors College members. If learning could be a pleasant process, then everyone would be willing to participate because of inner motives instead of passive pressure from outside. However, most of our university courses seems to use scores to differentiate students and motive students to learn. I should say that every time I go to the classroom, I feel relax and happy. We could decide how we should sit to make us feel comfortable. We could raise our questions freely and speak out our own opinion. We could also enjoy snacks and candies brought by our classmates. We could also embrace surprises and performances out of our expectations. Although we have a textbook, we never use it. Surprisingly, we could understand well about the theory taught in the textbook. Because experience is the best teacher.

     In the picture, you could see everyone's shinning smile. In the video, you could see everyone show their sincere appreciation to our professor Dr.Udani. We appreciate him because he grants us with more autonomy to decide what we should do. We appreciate him becuase those values we should uplift in life. We appreciate him because he makes lots of effort to make us more united as a family instead of classmates.
     All good things come to an end. But don't worry, we still have a gathering in May after the final exam! Can't wait!

The life of accounting student

     What is your impression of an accounting student? My parents persuade me to choose this major for my bachelor degree because it will bring me a stable job after I graduate. My classmates and friends dislike accounting courses since they need to recite lots of regulations. The most worst thing  is that those nuermous regulations seldom have a reason for making such regulations. Before this semester, it seems that accounting courses doesn't inspire my passion and interest to love it compared to other interesting courses like finance or Business Law. Fortunately, through my experience this semester, my perception of accounting as a boring course is generally fading away. Instead, a more interesting side of accounting is trying to jump out of the veil.
    This semester, I participated in two accounting competition and got quiet good results. The first one is ACCA job hunting competition HK region in which I was selected as the top 60 candidates entering into the Stage 2 compeition. The job hunting competition simulate the same process when accounting students are applying for a job in big four accounting firms. Starting from the online application, aptitude test, group interview, partner interview and finally the offer. It is such a pity I could go futher in this process mainly because I don't have much experience in doing the aptitude test. Aptitude test of the KPMG developing center gives you two test, one is numerical test while the other is the verbal test. For numerical test, you have 24 minutes to do 24 analytical problems. You have 30 minutes to judge the logical link of 30 statements in the verbal test with information provided. The company is trying to test your ablity of analyzing under pressure. Accuracy and speed are both required in this test. The second competition is much easier than the first one which is the accounting competition held by the accounting society with MUST and the IPM participating as well. Our team "Devil's Kettle" fortunately got the champion of this competition. Comparing two competition, job hunting aims at assessing applicants' capability of thinking and solving problems while the competition held by students focus more on the knowledge on books.
     Recently, one of my friend is now working for a CPA firm in Hong Kong while continuing her master degree in accounting. She posted on Facebook that she has countless work to do without knowing how to do them. People in accounting firms are all busy so that no one is able to take time to instruct and teach her those accounting works. After seeing her status, I suddenly recognized that there is a gap bewteen the textbook and the application of accounting knowledge in reality. Insufficient training and experience about the real working content make the current accounting students difficult to integrate well after they find their first job. When I was waiting in the building for the competition, the smell of fierce competition suddenly comes out in my mind. Everyone seems to be well prepared for the competition with their smart suit and the confident attitude.
     Until now it is still hard for me to learn things by heart such as remembering the journal entries. Fortunately, instead of passively driven by the exam and score, accounting starts to get my attention of analyzing. In the Enron Company case, accounting tricks could distorts the fact and deceive those innocent investors. There are lots of accounting scandals continously happening in recent years even for those well-known and trust worthy accounting firms. I still remember that when I was having the mock interview with Dr.Udani, one of the question is that what is most important characteristic for being a leader. Integrity is the word that I learnt for being a leader. In this industry, I felt that integrity should be the golden rule for every accountants. Too many distractions are trying to trap accountants into the dark side of the world. If all the financial statements of the listed company are found out to be fake, there would be no trust between the investors and the markets.
     As a second year accounting students, I am still exploring the world of how to become a outstanding accountants. I believe I will finally fall in love with this promising career! Let's see!

HC Talent Show----A show to remember

   

      Sitting in front of the computer, open my blog, I start to write my feelings about the Honors College Talent show. I see words appearing on the screen with the sound of typing. However, until now I am still not satisfied with the experssion that I used. I always think those words I chose are not suitable and can't let my readers involve in that night I descirbed. Honors College Talent Show encourage us to make a difference in our university. I want to appreciate three things that this show brings to me in my life. New identity, friendship and time management.

       Mar 28th of 2012 is a day that should be deposited into our memory bank account forever. I am still in the period of recovering for those exhausted days in preparing the performance mixing with intensive exams and reports. About talent show, lots of people have different feelings for this new born baby. From tired to happy, from argue to agreement, from relax to busy, from individual to group, this process is only known by those people who are involved and who experienced it.

    First, Talent show empowers me with everyone a new Identity. None of us are 100% confident about the result of their performance before the show. "How is it? Do you think our performance is good? " These questions are frequently asked during the period that we were preparing those performances. Diverse concerns and worries filled in our mind. Everything and every detail can't satisfy ourselves' standard and expectations. I have two performances in the talent show. One is the dancing Waltz with Esther while the other is playing the piano duet with Charlotte. Both performances brings me new challenges in my university life. In this university, I played lots of roles, as a debater, as a student, as research assistant, as organzier. This time, I was called as a pianist and a dancer. Talent show enables everyone to discover more than new role. When we are too comfortable with our traditional role as a student, this show indeed help us to make a difference.

     Second, Talent show brings us the new meaning of our friendship. Before, our conversations mainly happened during class time. In order to pratice, the talent show gives us more opportunities to stay with each other. During practices, we encouraged each other and helped each other with their steps. At the begining of preparing the dance, no one has any idea about how to practice and which piece should we dance. No one in Waltz group has the experience of dancing. Suprisingly, listening the music and imitateing the action in the video, we made it in our first time for tying. For the second and the third time of practicing, we only need to remember those gestures and add more smiles and emotions into our performances. For the piano practices, to me, it is a time of torture. We practiced everyday from 7am to 9am. Since I almost have mid term everyday in those two weeks, I need to review for the exam until 1 or 2am. Everday, I could only sleep for 5 hours. Piano duet is not easy since four hands have to cooperate well to play a beautiful piece for the audience to enjoy. Without practice, the song could be noise. Fortunately, we made it. Thanks for my friends accompanying me to finish those performances!

    Third, Talent Show inspires us to manage our time efficiently and effectively. When I had a interview for applying the East Asia College, the dean asked me that question: Could you please tell me how many times that you spend on your study and extracurricular activity? Talent show immediately comes out in my mind. I told the professor that the allocation of my time could be very flexible. It all depends on how you use your time. If everyone could efficiently use every minute in their life, every day could be a coloful day. Last semester, when we tried so hardly to find the secret of time management, we could not get a result. This time, the answer is right there.

     Honors college leaves us with too many memories. I could not spill it out all in this blog. But I am sure that this memory will never be written off.