Another year and another class of graduating students will say goodbye to their alma mater and start a new journey. The four years spent at UIC is some of the best years of their life. How many stories and sceneries have been treasured along the way? How much hard work has paid off? The following is the story of Year 4 Accounting graduate Liu Tiantong.
Whether to continue postgraduate studies after graduation or to start working, this is a question that many undergraduate students will think about. For the Shanxi native, Liu Tiantong, she decided to apply for a job after thorough consideration and as a result, she was offered an opportunity by the quantitative hedge fund company, Wizard Quant. She is ready to challenge herself in the job market and accumulate experience while looking for a specific field to pursue further studies.
Liu Tiantong
Liu Tiantong is a Year 4 graduate from Accounting major. She is also the member of the UIC swimming team, an emcee, a Green Ambassador, and has been the recipient of a few scholarships, which include the First Class Award, Second Class Award and the Mr Fung Sun Kwan Scholarship. Out of the many rewards she received from college, she believes the most important thing is that she has become braver.
Planning the path ahead
In the job search process, Liu Tiantong believes that only hard-working people deserve to be ‘lucky’, therefore she made sufficient preparations before the interviews, and treated each interview sincerely. After four rounds of interviews, she successfully got the offer. After that, Liu Tiantong did not sit back and relax but chose to do an internship at Wizard Quant, in which she could keep learning while becoming familiar with the job. The position is very challenging, explained Liu Tiantong. It requires a high professional level of financial knowledge and personal communication skills, and this motivates Liu Tiantong to push herself.
Liu Tiantong at Wizard Quant
Enjoying herself on stage and in the swimming pool
At UIC, every student has numerous opportunities to practice oral skills through presentations. In the Chinese language class during Year 1, Liu Tiantong and her peers prepared for a week together and delivered the first presentation on stage, which was recognised by the teacher.
Throughout the exercises when preparing for presentations, Liu Tiantong realised that she enjoys presenting as well as hosting events. During her second year at UIC, she hosted a Chinese Creative Culture Competition at UIC. Since then, she could be found on the stages of many campus events, and she has become more confident after practices.
Liu Tiantong and a noted artist of Beijing Opera, Sun Ping at UIC’s 13th Annual Chinese Creative Culture Competition
Swimming is a hobby of Liu Tiantong ever since she first dipped her toe in a pool during her childhood. She started the UIC swimming team with Gu Yuer, a Cinema and Television major, during their sophomore year. They also participated in the swimming championship for college students with teammates.
The swimming pool has become Liu Tiantong’s favourite place after a day of stressful studies. Swimming can help her to relax and switching her off from the intense learning mode. Liu Tiantong said she feels sad to leave her teammates who she spent a lot of time training with, and she cherishes the memories she has with this big family.
Liu Tiantong (second from right in the second row) and teammates at the swimming championship for college students
Gaining environmental awareness under Whole Person Education
Liu Tiantong said that due to UIC’s Liberal Arts Education and Whole Person Education (WPE), she can access knowledge from several fields, and she particularly liked learning more about environmental protection. In a WPE course about environmental protection, she was deeply influenced by the teacher’s efforts and perseverance in environmental protection and became a UIC Green Ambassador after the course finished.
Liu Tiantong participating in a beach cleaning activity on Qi'ao Island
In the second semester of her sophomore year, Liu Tiantong participated in a project of waste sorting and recycling, helping teachers and students raise their awareness. During the epidemic this year, Liu Tiantong and her teammates found a lot of movies on the theme of protecting wild animals and shared them on WeChat public accounts so students can watch them at home.
Liu Tiantong (third from left in the front row) with the Green Ambassador team
Liu Tiantong is glad that she can still make a positive impact on environmental protection, and she is grateful that UIC has been the place that opens windows for her. As a young graduate, she is not afraid to step out of her comfort zone, as she focuses on the process more than the results. She has decided to expand her limits while trying, no matter how many times she falls.
From MPRO
Reporter: Covee Wang
Editor: Samuel Burgess
