Programs

What does it feel like to be old? Maybe for those vigorous young people it's hard to imagine. In order to enhance empathy for the elder people through a live experience, MF17 students visited Lohas Elder Experience Center and wore the simulation suit to experience the daily life of an 80-year-old person. Let's take a look at how they felt: Where do I begin explaining what a refreshing and an eye-opening experience it was to 'live as if I was 80' for an hour? It was not something I could ever imagine feeling like, that is for certain. I will start from the very first moment I entered the office where I transformed into an elderly man for an hour. It was early in the morning and I was the first person to enter the room among my classmates. Going there, I had very few expectations as to what I would be doing or how it would be realistic. I was proven wrong the instant I was dressed in a way to live like an 80-year-old, but I will get to that in a second. The whole activity took place in a medium-sized office compartmentalized into different sections representing separate daily activities any one would be undertaking multiple times a day. Being the first one to arrive and having time on my hands before any other classmates came, I had the chance to look around. There were three 'exercises' that caught my eye immediately: the dinner table, the medicine table, and the bedroom/bathroom. Since I was there early, and there was still time to 'get in to character' I tried the activities without any of the difficulties an elderly person might have. That, I think, was a crucial aspect of my experience since I had a reference point to compare to after the activity. I began with the dinner table. The table was set for four people. Each plate had on it four different types of food: rice, other circular flakes, beans, and lentils.. The center of the table had four bowls that were filled with one of the items on the plate. Immediately you realize the goal is to take the food from the plate using the chop sticks and put them in their respective bowls. Without being dressed as an 80-year-old, I did it with ease. There was nothing difficult. Simply take the food with the chopsticks and place them into the bowl. Simple. Then I moved to the medicine table. Here you had to sort the pills you would need to take according to a daily pill regiment. The pills were colored differently, and this too was easy for a 24-year-old. After that, I moved to the bedroom/bathroom. Here you had a bed, a hospital bed, where the 80-year-old would sleep and the bathroom they would use. There were bars all over the area and you could understand that they were there to help the elderly stand up, walk etc. It seemed redundant for me since I needed no such support. Then, my friends arrived, and everything changed rapidly. They dressed us up in clothing that would give us the difficulties an old person would have. We were strapped with weights on our ankles, wrists, arms and on our torso. We were given gloves that made gripping objects difficult. We were given yellow glasses that made seeing extremely hard, and we were given ear plugs. Immediately after dressing up, I could no longer hear, I could not see properly, and moving around was much more difficult. So, we began the same three exercises I did before my friends came. What I did with extreme ease and comfort, I could no longer do. Separating the food wasn't the problem, although not being able to see made it harder. What was difficult was grabbing the food with the chopsticks now that I had gloves on and couldn't close my hands properly. The medicine table was a disaster for me. I spent at least 15 minutes filling in the boxes for ONLY two days: Thursday and Friday. There were maybe 20 pills in total I had to put in the boxes. After spending that much time and effort, the exercise left my back hurting because of the extra weight. Finally I took off the glasses to see how I did. I got most of them wrong. I couldn't see colors, so I placed the wrong pills in the wrong section. Last was the bedroom/bathroom. After an hour of activities and walking around with weights on my body, the assistance that seemed redundant at first was now necessary and helpful. The bars would be crucial for me to navigate the bathroom, especially if the floor was wet. All in all, I had a very informative experience. I learned of the hardships old people must live with every single day of their lives, and I learned that I wouldn't make a great old person. I wouldn't be able to eat because I could no longer use chopsticks. I would probably either have major complications or even die fast, because I would take the wrong medicine at the wrong time, or not even take the pill in the first place. It was only an hour but was a lesson that will last a life time. ——MF17 Student, Mehmet Eyup Erdogan

The last volunteer event of the semester was held on December 27th. Students came to Aijiabei (爱加倍) Welfare Community again to teach pupils. This time we had an international teacher, Dumisani Mmoloki Gwakuba, from Botswana. Dumisani Mmoloki Gwakuba and Zi’an Zhang organized an English Corner for students who had already finished their homework. The students tried to raise some questions for their teachers, and Zi’an helped them form whole English sentences. Since the students’ workload was not that heavy, many of the volunteers took some time to play and talk with the students after helping them finish their homework. Connecting with the students is an important way for the volunteers to show their care and support. The activity was full of joy, and one volunteer expressed his feelings by saying “My heart is overjoyed”.

On Dec.20th，Prof. Tianxiao Zheng and Prof. Yexiao Xu spent a few hours with the MF17 students sharing their stories, which ranged from academic advice to their personal experience and career paths. Prof. Zheng with MF17 students Prof. Zheng shared her personal experience when asked why she chose to finish her PhD after working as an intern at a consultant firm for half a year. During her internship, she realized that the job didn’t fit her, so she decided to continue her studies. Prof. Zheng also compared the advantages of earning a degree in China with earning one abroad. She observed that it can be easier for students who major in Accounting or Marketing to get a job and a green card, while it can be more difficult for those who major in Finance, since this field is highly competitive. Dezhuang Huang (MF17 Student) asked Prof. Zheng why she chose to take the college entrance exam when she was only in her second year of high school. Professor Zheng replied that it was mainly because of her excellent grades in high school, and when she was admitted by the School of Economics at Renmin University of China, she was confused about whether she should go to college early or stay and finish her studies. Jiaxin Zhang (MF17 Student) asked, ‘What kind of mentor should I seek for help if I ‘d like to pursue a PhD?’ Prof. Zheng recommended finding and following an outstanding professor in the field from a well-known university. Some students questioned how they should make personal plans, while others enquired about finding spouses. Prof. Zheng advised them ‘to search for the direction of your life, to consider where you want to be in ten years and work hard towards it.’ What’s more, Prof. Zheng shared her own love story with her husband, who is studying mathematics in the same field she is. Prof. Xu with MF17 students When a student asked Prof. Xu why he chose to pursue his PhD, Prof. Xu shared his experience with them. At first, he wanted to work for another two years and then begin a PhD. However, the words of his mentor made him change his mind. He recalled that his mentor told him, ‘Once you start to work, there is only a 10% chance that you will be willing to complete a PhD later.’ Then, Prof. Xu shared his studying experience. He studied at a domestic university, Shanghai University of Technology, majoring in automatic control. In 1983, due to the urgent need for foreign trade professionals in China, various universities began to offer degrees in business and management. Prof. Xu spotted the trend of the times and took this opportunity to change his major from engineering to business. During his time abroad, he studied at Brigham Young University in 1989 in America. At this time in China, BYU was more famous than Harvard. At Brigham Young University, he learned asset pricing theory and how to measure risk. His best known research is in the pricing of risk. Prof. Xu has studied the risk of individual stocks in pricing assets, as opposed to CAPM which says that system risk has a pricing effect. Prof. Xu established his reputation in academia based on this research of individual stocks. Zian Zhang (MF17 Student) asked Prof. Xu if there was any interaction with the industry in the research process. Prof. Xu replied that as a result of his research he had done some industry consulting work. Once the results of a study come out, there will be people from the industry to consult, which shows that the financial industry is very concerned about the results of academic studies. Wall Street is very interested in the models made by academics and considers how to integrate these advancements into their own models. Prof. Xu also spoke about his teaching career, which has ranged from teaching doctoral measurement, theoretical asset pricing, and empirical asset pricing, to master's courses on investment and financial management.

On the afternoon of December 9th, SAIF volunteers of MF 17 joined the Oasis Food Bank. This was the first time that MF 17 has joined in the activity of collecting food. They worked hard to raise food for 200 families in need as their New Year’s Gift. The volunteers were divided into a few groups. They held signs showing how people could donate, And They tried their best to persuade passers-by to support the cause. To their surprise, they received more kindness and support than they had expected. Warm hearted people usually said ”yes” quite quickly and generously, and they could feel that their effort made a contribution to their community. They not only worked hard, they also worked smart: the volunteers found that middle-aged people, young couples, and international friends were more open to their proposition of donating, so they allocated more time to communicating with these target groups. From this activity, the volunteers also learned not to get discouraged if they were turned down, and to always be confidant in talking to strangers. Based on the final count, volunteers have raised more than 1200 kg of food at the Carrefour supermarket. Among which, 1/6 was contributed by the MF 17 volunteers’ effort, which exceeded 200 kg. It was a fruitful journey for the volunteers and the families in need.