What We Had Done

AEC Summer Activities

Startup Mindset — Jing Xu

Writer: Yikun Xian

Editor: Emma Sun

At 5 P.M. PST on January 28, 2022, Jing Xu, founder of OnceInLife, held an impressive webinar titled “Adopting a Startup Mindset” for the AEC Leadership course. She shared her insights on key concepts associated with a startup mindset. “If you only remember one thing from this session, then please remember that to achieve any goal, know where you are going and then take actions to get there,” Jing said. Having a startup mindset and being action-oriented have allowed her to reach and exceed many goals in life and to achieve dreams that she once thought were impossible.

Beginning with a general introduction on her background and experiences, Jing proposes to us how a startup mindset had laid a solid foundation for her, which allowed her to take on more opportunities later in life. Although Jing was an excellent student in China, when she first came to the US at the age of ten, she struggled academically to catch up with rest of the class because she didn’t understand enough English. She only realized that she needed to take control when her parents were called to school at the end of the school year. To do so, she began with things that interested her – books. She drowned herself in the wonderful world of literature, and her English improved tremendously, and she started getting As and A+s in school. She delved even further into her interest in middle school, when she began writing novels in both English and Chinese and sharing them with a few friends. “Even if my story made one friend smile, laugh or that it made their day, I felt incredibly fulfilled.”

The next challenge to Jing was to pay off her student loans when she graduated from her five-year BA/MA program at Brandeis University in 2012. With over 35K in debt when she graduated, she had an ambitious goal of paying everything off within one year. Luckily, her language and cultural skills helped her land a job at an international education company. After focusing on this goal and working hard to save most of her salary that year, she was able to achieve it within 10 months!

After studying Spanish in middle school, high school and college, Jing decided to study abroad in ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain for a semester during her graduate school. To challenge herself, she took 4 out of 7 of her classes in Spanish, which built a strong foundation for her Spanish skills. Eventually, she served as a simultaneous and consecutive interpreter in English, Chinese and Spanish at a week-long event held at United Nations, interpreting for former presidents from developing nations.

In the process of fulfilling goals in life set by society in her first 25 years, she had little time for herself. In 2014, she took the time to build herself, taking part in a beauty contest to boost her confidence and public speaking skills. Prior to this experience, Jing had never worn high heels or makeup, however, this did not deter her from the weekly rigorous training of standing and walking on 6-inch heels and being always camera- ready to interview community leaders and report community events. “As public figures, we had to hold ourselves to a higher standard and cannot show our feelings to the public for instance, even if we were in pain, we had to keep smiling.”

This experience also helped her build her confidence on stage tremendously. “I was so ready and prepared on the day of the grand final that I breezed through everything – I gave 3 speeches, answered a tough Q&A question and did a magic performance! I won 2 nd place!” This experience made Jing want to bring this opportunity to more young Asian women, so she went ahead and did it the following year. She worked with local organizations to give young Asian women opportunities to speak in front of hundreds of people at multiple events. “When I first started, I only had myself and no outside funding. Within the first ten days, I gained a team of 4. Then we got our first contestant, second, third… At the same time, I visited dozens of businesses each week, and sponsorship money started coming in. At the grand final, we had over 40 volunteers and almost 1000 audiences show up!”

This would have been a perfect ending if success is determined as one point in time. Jing found it incredibly difficult to work with sponsors and organizations who had different values. “If you are going in different directions and have different values and vision for the future, it will be hard to continue to collaborate, no matter how much funding you can get from them.” The following year, she decided to pivot and worked with sustainable fashion designers to put together an outdoor event, even if this meant that she had to dig into her own savings to run this event.

Jing’s pursuit of fashion never ceased, and she is currently restarting her sustainable fashion project with her team at UW-Madison. Using the startup mindset, she encourages participants to set their smart goal that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Jing’s effort and hard work always land her somewhere incredible, and she will continue thriving as an individual.

A Journey in Leadership

2021. 1.7

Written by Liyan Jiang

On January 7th, AEC invited Oliver to a special leadership seminar to share his story of his journey in leadership. Oliver is a rising 2L at Harvard Law School. He is irrationally attached to UC Berkeley, where he went to college, and enjoys writing, water polo, watching soccer, and rooting for progressive governments worldwide in his spare time. He is also the founder of Asian Youth Liberty League.

In the seminar, Oliver told three inspiring stories to help him lead: a story of self discovery, a story of growth, and a story of team. After the story telling, Oliver answered the most wanted questions from our audience, including his leadership skills, the challenges he met, the problem solving skills, his sight about stereotype, his life in Harvard, and so on.

The seminar was proposed, organized, and hosted by students.

Let’s hear what Wency tells us.

2021. 12.30

Written by Liyan Jiang

It all begins with an idea.

Due to the pandemic, an increased amount of masks have been used. Many people are not responsible when it comes to disposing of their masks. Masks are left on grounds, which are then carried by the wind, or washed down by the rainwater. They will all eventually end up in the ocean. Incorrect disposal of face masks will be a safety hazard, as they can spread infections, and will also add on to the pre-existing plastics in the ocean.

Wency, the 2021 president of RUP club, led the team to do research, design, find a factory to produce, and promote and sell the recyclable, 100% cotton made masks. All the earnings was donated to a nonprofit organization which helps to reduce the marine pollution.

In the video, she is sharing the story of RUP club and encouraging more students to join AEC RUP club.