PESI currently sponsors leadership development programs for select students at Tsinghua University, Fudan University and Renmin University.
Each year, at Tsinghua and Renmin, 30 student leaders with a track record of academic
excellence and commitment to service are chosen from the freshman class
of over 3,000. At Fudan, 45 graduate students are chosen. These students participate in summer programs designed to cultivate social concern for the disadvantaged and cross-cultural competence with a broad worldview:
- First summer – cultural exchange with American students and urban community service
- Second summer – community service and ethnographic research on poverty in rural China
- Third summer – study tour in Hong Kong to learn about the education, business,
government, and non-profit sectors of an international city
Special seminars during the school year also provide opportunities
for the students to meet accomplished alumni from their respective schools visiting from
overseas as well as senior executives from Beijing’s and Shanghai's international
community.
Many program alumni consider their leadership program experience a
most valuable and unique aspect of their education. PESI hopes to make similar programs available to other key universities in
China.
"We
learned a lot about Hong Kong - her political, economic, cultural and
social development... Through the many speakers, we also got to meet
people from a wide range of professions, each with his or her own
personality, life experience, and style of communication. We were
impressed by their commitment to their vocation, their earnestness and
passion, their sense of social responsibility and their compassion for
the needy. Their work ethic, their attitude towards life itself, the
determination and courage with which they overcome hardship, are all
very inspirational."
Wang Sheng, on Hong Kong Study Tour, Summer 2006
