Global Career Seminar provides opportunity to solve real-life challenges

King’s continues to offer its students the chance to take part in experiential learning opportunities. As an example of such opportunities, five students from King’s School of Management, Economics, and Mathematics (MEM) were selected to take part in the Cross- Cultural College (CCC) Global Career Seminar.

The five students were Jack Pemberton, Isaiah Collins, Xiyuan Zheng, Junbo Huang, and Chenrong Zhu. 

The one-week seminar took place on the campus of the University of Toronto. The program is jointly managed by Kwansai Gakuin University (Japan) and its four Canadian partners, the University of Toronto, Queens University, Mount Allison University and King’s. There was extensive online preparation before the seminar, which saw student teams work on complex real-life problems submitted by participating Canadian partner companies and agencies including Air Canada, Kubota, Ontario Tourism Education Corporation (OTEC), Engaged Community of Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park, Toyota Canada, and Ernst & Young.

“This was an amazing experiential learning experience for the Japanese and Canadian students – including international students in Canada – from various programs and majors to work on real-life problems,” says Dr. Grigori Erenburg, Associate Professor in the School of MEM.

Collins, a fourth-year BMOS student with an honours specialization in Organizational & Human Resources and Psychology, was part of a team working with Ernst & Young on creating a presentation. There was also an online component, with video assignments before they met in person.

Collins became interested in the CCC Global Career Seminar because he wanted to improve his cross-cultural ability. As part of the project, he learned the value of cultural differences in the context of creative solutions and the challenges of completing cross-cultural communication.

“One of the big reasons I went to King's was for the diverse cultural experiences that are offered. I always feel as if I am learning much more than just the curriculum. I have learned so many amazing lessons at King's, and it means a lot that cross-cultural experiences are central to my university experiences,” he says.

Pemberton, a second-year Accounting and Economics student, was part of the team tasked to create a marketing plan to help Kubota Canada to increase sales of one specific model of tractor.

Pemberton says he learned a lot about the power of experiential learning. “Getting to work on a project like this with students from the other side of the world was an incredible opportunity. I only have good things to say about the program, and I still miss it! I am so glad that King's is part of this program, and I would highly recommend CCC to anyone considering it. It was undoubtedly one of the best experiences of my life, no exaggeration,” he says.

Pemberton enjoyed the social aspect of the experience as well. “This program allowed me to make such amazing friends over the week. Within my group alone, we all knew at least two languages, so on lunch breaks we would give each other lessons in Japanese, English, Chinese, French, Portuguese, and Spanish,” he says.

Read about previous King’s stories about the Cross-Cultural College program:

“Take advantage of an international opportunity”

“Putting studies into practice”

Learn more about Cross-Cultural College.