Sun Zihan: From an Educatee to an “Educator”, Studying Business Based on Business Thinking

Major: Accounting (International Accounting)

Graduate School: Cornell University (USA)

Place of Birth: Shandong

For Sun Zihan from Shandong Province, her four years in university have been fulfilling and wonderful: obtaining an average GPA of 3.95, winning the Zhejiang Provincial Government Scholarship and the Dean Scholarship for three consecutive years, using the business knowledge learned during school to help the intangible cultural heritage, helping girls in poverty-stricken areas, etc. Now, she has obtained letters of admission from five top universities, including Cornell University and the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor. A promising future is ahead of her.

In 2018, Sun joined the Ling Chuang (Enacus) Team of Wenzhou-Kean University (WKU) in the “Jinxiu Qiancheng” project, trying to boost the promotion of the Wenzhou Intangible Heritage Project Ou Embroidery with business thinking. To support the development of Ou Embroidery, the team decided to independently develop cultural tourism routes incorporating Ou Embroidery elements based on the rich tourism resources of the Nanxi River.

At the same time, she led the team to complete the road safety publicity activities of Michelin, in which the “3D Zebra Crossing” flash event became the only project nominated across Zhejiang Province; To care for the growth of girls in underdeveloped areas, we completed the teaching plan of the “Come On, Girls” project of Standard Chartered Bank, which laid a foundation for the cooperation with the Second Primary School in Li’ao Town, Ouhai District, Wenzhou City.

“Compared with the conventional public welfare activities, these sustainable development projects have transformed the students at WKU from an educatee to an “educator”. We have constantly proposed solutions to social problems based on the school’s academic characteristics and our own strengths. As Mr. Cai Yuanpei said, on the one hand, we students should pursue better education, but on the other hand, we should serve the society and feed the society back, truly combining intellectual education with moral education,” said Sun.

During the summer vacation of her sophomore year, Sun went to the United States to participate in large-scale events and activities such as the Harvard Social Venture Competition and a charity dinner for the UN Refugee Agency. In just 14 days, she not only gained friendship from the team, but also explored the real business world.

At the Harvard Social Venture Competition, Sun’s team decided to focus on the long-standing dietary health problems in American society. They customized recipes online and send pre-processed cooking packages to customers regularly offline. To collect the views of Americans on their own diet, they wandered about the streets every day, dealing with people from different countries in a completely unfamiliar environment.

For many people, accounting is tied to “boring”. But Sun believes that it is an indispensable cornerstone in the business world. “Accounting teaches us the most basic business knowledge. Business theory is something sophisticated, it is hard to imagine one can walk further without a solid foundation.” With this point in mind, in her junior year, with excellent academic performance, she worked as an intern in two highly influential accounting firms, BDO and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

As for the future, Sun chose Cornell University to continue study Management-Accounting Specialization (Management—Accounting Branch). She sets a goal for herself: to obtain a CPA certificate in the United States while studying abroad and make a breakthrough in the risk management industry.

Alisa LAI(LAI Qiuhong)、Overseas Department(SMDC)