I have been home for a while now and I have been postponing writing this final entry because it’ll mean Plus3 China is officially over. I am very happy to be home but I also miss being in China and the learning experience that I received. I cannot say this enough: I am very grateful for this opportunity and cannot wait for the future study abroad experiences that I will have.  In this final blog entry, I will touch on the topics of Ethical Issues in my Profession, Educational Breadth as Professional Development, Lifelong Learning, the Social Environment of Professional Life, and Functioning on Multi-Disciplinary Teams.

My goal is to obtain a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering with a Minor in Mathematics and move on to Graduate school for Cyber-Security.  I am very much interested in the software aspects of computers especially programming. Every profession comes with Ethical Issues and some of these might be similar across the board and others will be different. For software engineering and cyber-security in particular, I believe some ethical issues include: information leak of customers/clients and the company, privacy, copyright, usage of resources, customer/client safety and response, and so on. I made this list based on the information we received from the companies, plant, and port that we visited.

I have learned that learning does not only take place in the classroom. This study abroad experience is a perfect example of that. When I think of educational breadth, going to school is not the only thing that comes to mind. It is stepping out of your comfort zone to learn about the world and what it has to offer. This study abroad experience was a way for us to think about issues globally and become more open-minded. This will develop us professionally because we can use what we learn abroad to improve the cell phone industry in the U.S. My way of thinking about software and e-commerce has changed. Being global thinkers help with forming ideas to improve the state of the world.

There is too much to learn about the world for me to ever stop. There are too many places/countries to visit. They all offer different lessons and ideas to help develop me potentially therefore, I will never stop learning. This trip has taught me this. My goal is to study abroad every summer while I am in school and after I finish, I would also like to continue working overseas partially every year.

Every company and business differs in the social environment that it provides. For example, when we visited Cheetah Mobile, the environment seemed relaxed and fun. When we visited TE connectivity, it was more serious because of the work at hand and of course because it was an electronics plant. The idea social environment of professional life for me is something in between serious and relaxed. Of course, I like the idea of having a gym, entertainment room, and massage room in the company I work for but I also really want to wear professional clothes (like in Microsoft) and not get too distracted by the amount of fun I can have at work. Adding to my ideal work environment, I would very much like to function on multi-disciplinary teams. Since middle school, I have also been with students who want to be in the STEM field due to the classes I have taken and in college it is even more so. Engineering is very time-consuming and it is easier to surround yourself with other engineers so you can work together and help each other with the difficult courses. I have not really worked on technology related projects with people who are not in the field so this trip really opened my eyes. I got to work with business students on projects related to the cellphone industry and I realized how much I do not know. We have our expertise and they have their expertise and coming together gave all of us a greater appreciation of the major of the other.

Plus3 China is a study abroad program that I will very much recommend to any engineering or business major freshmen student. You learn about e-commerce in China and the cellphone industry, you make new friends, work with business majors, come up with a business plan (which was very fun and exciting), enter the culture of China and so much more. I am so glad that I went and I cannot wait for my future study abroad experiences.