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!

New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made
 of. There’s nothing you can’t do, now you’re in New York.

As our coach driver announced that we are in New York, Alicia Keys and Jay Z’s ‘Empire State of Mind’ was on replay in my head! We were finally in New York City after a 4 hour-long coach journey. Our hotel was right in the middle of Midtown opposite Madison Square Garden. Soon after checking in our rooms, we headed out for a stroll down Times Square. The brightly adorned billboards and skyscrapers felt like dejavu for the countless times these streets were featured in blockbuster movies.

The first day in New York was a free day and we had a lot planned out! We explored the whole of New York City with the Big Bus Tour. It was a hop on hop off tour; therefore we could stop over at any points of interests. We started our adventure by stopping at a river cruise to see the famous symbol representing the United States, the statuesque Lady Liberty herself! The river cruise included a magnificent view of the Brooklyn Bridge and magnificent Manhattan skylines. Central Park was our next stop. It was indeed a breath of fresh air in the hustle and bustle of New York City! The calm blue lake by the Strawberry Fields was my personal favorite spot of the day.

On day 2, we visited one of our own Lancaster alumni, Gian Fulgoni – the founder of ComScore, a digital marketing company. He shared about how ComScore was founded and one of the interesting takeaways from his message was for us to understand the importance of leveraging technology and constantly think of how to leverage it regardless of which field we are pursuing. Besides that, he talked about the importance of bias for action for entrepreneurs. We were indeed proud of his achievements and were inspired by Gian’s startup story.

Later that evening, we were invited to a Lancaster alumni event at the New York Times Building. We were thrilled to be at the 43^rd floor overlooking the stunning view of New York’s famous buildings. We had the opportunity to interact with Lancaster alumni from around New York. Being an accounting student, I was thrilled to meet a Lancaster University Business Economics alumnus who is currently working in assurance at PwC. She was generous to share insights and advice about the world of accounting and the Big 4’s.

Day 3 was another exciting day visiting Kaneka, a leading technology oriented Japanese manufacturing company involved in chemicals, functional plastics, synthetic fibers etc. We were given insights into the company culture besides an overview of what they manufacture. It was interesting to hear about the corporate culture of a Japanese company based in New York.

Later on, we visited the 9/11 Museum and Memorial, which was emotionally overwhelming especially witnessing the personal stories of friends and families of victims as well as the personal belonging of victims such as the dusty shoes from the day of the event. One of the quotes on the wall of the memorial that struck a chord with me was Virgil’s ‘No day shall erase you from the memory of time’. Later that afternoon, we visited Santander who was the main sponsor of our trip. A representative from Santander Universities shared with us the inspiring work they do with Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Day 4 was my personal favorite! A trip to the United Nations including a tour and a guest speaker sharing insights into working in the United Nations. Working for UNICEF has always been one of my dreams and this visit particularly strengthened that aspiration. We were also able to stamp our passports with a United Nations stamp, which we were all very excited about.

On the last day, we spent our time shopping and exploring some more of New York City! It was truly an incredible experience and Lancaster University Student’s Union (LUSU) ‘Your Global Exploration’ made it happen! Part 3 of this blog series will share my personal favorite moments and the lessons learnt from this trip.

A bundle of mixed emotions engulfed me as I made my way to the train station en-route to Manchester airport for our flight to Heathrow. I was nervous, as I did not know anyone travelling on this trip except for a few familiar faces. As soon as I reached the train station, there were already a few fellow travellers. As we began chatting, the nervousness slowly turned into excitement as I realized all of them were in the same boat as me! It was a relieving to find out that most of them were very friendly!

After a good long 12 hours, we landed in Boston and were greeted by a very chilly evening. Another hour long journey until we reached 40 Berkeley- home for the next 5 days! We were all really tired and it was not until the next morning it hit me that we are finally here!!

Having always wanting to visit this country, I was grateful for this opportunity. This trip was a bonus as not only it is a chance to visit America but also learn about entrepreneurship in the most innovative country in the world!

The first day of our trip was a visit to Boston University, a large private university in the heart of the city. In the United States, education system is different from the United Kingdom where most universities are private. We were given a special tour around the university during which the staff shared more about Boston University. We were told that about half of the student population in Boston University engages in study abroad programs, which was impressive! It was fascinating to observe the diversity of old and new buildings around the campus. After the university tour, we had the opportunity to have lunch at the student cafeteria. There was an array of dishes from Asian cuisine to Mexican dishes served there and we were left free to indulge our taste buds!

Later in the day, we were invited to a Lancaster alumni event, which was held at the Boston University Castle. We heard an engaging talk by a professor in Boston University on the startup ecosystem as well as venture capitalists. He highlighted the recent technological ventures around the area and some of the technological developments he finds interesting such as educational technology. It was such an honor meeting Lancaster alumni who were so generous in sharing their experiences with us!

Day 2 was another university visit to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Before visiting the actual campus itself, we visited an outstanding innovation space, Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives (MBI). MBI provides affordable office and lab spaces, support and potential for commercialization for innovators. WPI is one of the pioneers in project-based learning and it also offered the first robotics-engineering program in the United States being the epicenter of robotics in the nation! It was truly a thrilling experience in WPI to witness the intersection between entrepreneurship with biomedical sciences and robotics! We also had the opportunity to interact with the President and the Vice President of the Entrepreneurship Society at WPI over lunch where they shared more about how student life is in the US and entrepreneurship events at WPI.

Our trip continued on day 3 with a visit to two outstanding businesses in this area; Dyn and Acquia. New Hampshire is an area with rich entrepreneurial history and one of the most successful being McDonalds that was founded here by Richard and Maurice McDonald! Both these visits provided us with massive insights into the technological companies Massachusetts is renowned for. Dyn focuses on traffic management as well as works on creating an optimal user experience on the internet. Their impressive client list includes the likes of Twitter, Spotify and LinkedIn. We also were fortunate to receive career advice from the recruitment leader as well as the chief marketing officer of Dyn over lunch. Acquia, another successful business is a company that provides support for open source web content management platform, Drupal. This essentially means they allow large operation launch websites such as Olympics, Al-Jazeera, Grammy’s and even Lady Gaga’s website! We were also given an in depth talk on how Acquia started from the initial phase market research to pricing criteria – a real example of how a software company develops and expands.

Day 4 was a fun-filled free day to explore the city of Boston!

A trip to Boston would not be complete without walking down the Freedom trail, which was a 4.0 km path through Boston that passes by 16 significant historical locations. We had so much fun being our own tour guides walking down the Freedom trail and taking turns to read about the historical significance of each location along the way.

We later had lunch Faneuil Hall that was part of the Freedom Trail which now operates as an indoor/outdoor mall and food eatery. The wide array of selection was a delight that includes dishes from every part of the world!

Day 5 was a relaxing day for us where we started with some shopping at Newbury Street- a street lined with historic 19^th century brownstones with hundreds of shops and restaurants! We later visited one of the most famous universities in the world- Harvard University! The picturesque view of the buildings along the Harvard Yard was a magnificent sight and we later stopped by at the famous Harvard Bookstore.

All in all, the 5 days in Boston was truly an exciting learning adventure filled with picturesque views, valuable business insights and certainly great fun! Our USA trip continues with Part 2: Adventure in the City that Never Sleeps!