Go Global, Be Boundless
By Liesl Leung
Class of 2022
BBA in Global Business & Information Systems
Having been stuck in Hong Kong for 2 years since COVID, finally going on exchange is the biggest blessing I could get from GBUS. I had the opportunity to spend my last semester at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland for seven months. It was such an eye-opening experience to learn about the rich mosaic of Western culture, meet people with inspiring life stories, and experience the relaxing Swiss lifestyle.
Having lived in a busy metropolis of Asia for my entire life, I started to experience a drastically different lifestyle the moment I set foot in St. Gallen. Everything seems to slow down when you are in a typical Swiss countryside town, comfortable and laid-back, with a panorama of hills reflecting onto the vast Lake Constance and the pride of the city being a Baroque-style Abbey dating back to the 9th century. In contrast to Hong Kong, where many corners of the city are vibrant till midnight, St. Gallen is established around its small town center, where shops close at 7 pm on weekdays and rest on Sundays. On weekends, people either go on a relaxing hike up the mountain or cycle by the lake. SG was the perfect environment to let me slow down my pace of life, have some rest from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, and learn to appreciate nature and life in its simple form.
People are another important element of my exchange experience. Known for its Master’s programs, HSG hosts a variety of undergraduate, postgraduate, and working students with different learning styles. Still, it was typical to see classmates eager to ask questions simply out of curiosity, even if they were beyond the exam scope. However, the most inspiring people were those I met outside of class – my flatmates and some new friends I made during my solo trips all had different life stories that taught me something. A 2nd-generation immigrant found his desire to learn more about his home Tibetan culture; a Swiss local took a gap year to travel to Sichuan because he was determined to learn Chinese and explore the possibility of working abroad; another 19-year-old local had such high awareness of global issues that she managed to initiate donation schemes for Ukraine within just 5 days of planning. These impressive stories, and many more, have inspired me to appreciate the variety of people and some differences in cultures and societies around the globe. Assimilating all these values and thoughts would certainly foster me as a more knowledgeable and considerate global citizen.
Lastly, a significant advantage of HSG is its convenient location in Central Europe, which gave me many opportunities to travel to remote and lesser-known places. I have left footprints across Iceland, Czech, Croatia, and Turkey with my fellow GBUS friends. Four years in GBUS gave me perspectives and like-minded companions that joined me in seeking the unknowns. In this big world, there are countless possibilities of landscape, culture, food, and people’s stories, as long as we spend time and effort exploring them, like how we engaged in many chats with people I met in different cities on different trains.
If you go out, the world is your stage!
