In my two previous blog posts, I shared about what we did during our 10-day trip to Boston and New York. In this blog, I would like to share how this experience enhanced my student academic life and career decisions. Throughout the trip there were various instances where we were able to put into practice and further understand what we learnt in class.

One of the interesting lessons from the trip was from the visit to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), a private research university in Massachusetts. The motto of the university was “Lehr and Kunst” which translates to “Theory and Practice”. This was often repeated by the staff throughout our tour of the university and during the talks presented by the staff members.

This is a concept that is repeated in Entrepreneurship 101 classes where it is given utmost priority especially during the reflection essay pieces as well as assignments. We were encouraged to connect the theory we learnt in classes to the practical examples delivered by guest speakers and field trips to businesses.

Besides that, during the talks we were given more insights into crowd funding such as ‘Kick Starter’ and ‘Indiegogo’ especially the talk given by a professor in Boston University regarding the startup ecosystem in the Massachusetts Bay. Besides that, one of the professors on game development in WPI, Jennifer deWinter also shared about how one of the students in WPI created a successful business in game development using crowd funding.

This is directly related to the theme of the class in Week 16 where we learnt about alternative source of funding in startups.

We were also given valuable career advice during the trip. During our visit to Dyn, we received advice from the head of recruitment herself regarding importance of tailoring our CV’s with the values of the companies were are applying to and the importance of passion and enthusiasm for the job we are applying to. Besides that, Kyle York who was the Chief Marketing Officer of Dyn shared the importance of planning your career from the start. This was very helpful to us first years in addition to career advice that we were given during the workshop by Kat Price Edwards, Lancaster University Management School’s (LUMS) career advisor. We were also able to apply what she taught us about having an elevator pitch during the various networking sessions part of the Lancaster alumni events. Furthermore, we have also been told to open a LinkedIn account by various guest speakers in class. Robert Leggett from Omni especially stressed the importance of LinkedIn and encouraged us all to open an account. This was constant throughout the trip when every speaker from companies that we visited asked us to connect with them on LinkedIn afterwards.

This trip was also an eye opener in terms of career pathways. Coming from a business background, I did not consider a career in technology. After visiting various companies in this field such as Dyn and Acquia, I am more interested in this field and will be applying for a summer vacation scheme in this field as well!

This trip was even more memorable because of the friendship and connection I made with new friends from all the over the world! Besides networking with a group of like-minded people, the diversity in the group of students was wonderful! We were fortunate to learn about China, Norway, and Nigeria without travelling to any of these countries.

To sum up, my global exploration to USA was truly an enriching learning experience and I would recommend everyone to experience a LUSU global exploration!