POLISH STUDENT LEADS THE BELGIAN TEAM IN CHINA

FACULTY WORLDWIDE

Fifteen Belgian students in engineering were selected to participate in the 2016 edition of the ‘Seeds for the Future’ programme of the Chinese high-tech giant Huawei in Shenzhen. Among them Wiktoria Serek, an international student at the Faculty of Engineering Technology in Leuven. She was proclaimed leader of the Belgian team.

Wiktoria’s home town is Poznan in Poland. After high school she dreamed of broadening her horizon and studying abroad. “When examining the rankings of the best universities, I discovered that KU Leuven belongs to the top 100 in the Qs World Ranking. And – even better – at number 40 in the Times Higher Education Ranking”, Wiktoria explains. “As Belgium is in the heart of Europe and the Faculty of Engineering Technology is the only place in Belgium where the entire engineering programmes are organised in English, choosing to pursue higher education in Leuven was an obvious decision.”

Extraordinary learning experience

In Leuven Wiktoria found exactly what she was looking for. “A stimulating cosmopolitan atmosphere, many practical sessions, interdis ciplinary projects, team - work, room for initiative, an excellent support from the International Of fice and – last but not least – t he opportunity to apply for an internship in China.”

“A motivation letter, a short video and a 15 minutes interview. That was enough to bring me in China for an extraordinary learning experience”, Wiktoria says. “And to be declared leader of the Belgian- Luxemburg team of students.”

Huawei’s ‘Seeds for the Future’ programme is organised in 67 countries all over the world. It aims at promoting knowledge transfer and familiarising future engineers with the Chinese language and culture Over the past seven years more than 1 700 students from 150 universities passed the selectionprocedure. They were offered a 2 weeks internship.

First Beijing, then Shenzhen

“During the first week we followed classes in Mandarin Chinese at the Beijing Language and Cultural University”, Wiktoria continues. “And we got the opportunity to visit Beijing’s major cultural spots such as the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall, etc.”

“The second week we spent at the Huawei plant in Shenzhen in Southern China. Shenzhen is a gigantic city. You cannot imagine that 20 years ago it was an unknown village. Nowadays it has transformed into a modern metropole with more than 50 million inhabitants.”

“Huawei’s plant is a city within the city with more than 50 000 employees. It has its own campus for employees and students participating in the ‘Seeds for the future’ programme. Huawei considers itself a big family. Many employees are co-owners, proud to contribute to the success of the company.”

Culture shock

Looking back at her internship in China, Wiktoria confirms: “I did indeed end up in another world. Completely different culture, language, habits, distances and dimensions. But I also discovered an unequalled drive and belief in progress.

During the internship I learned to push boundaries, to think and act on the practical level, to collaborate with students and engineers from all over the world and – last but not least – to work hard.”

Yves Persoons