Inspiring students to succeed through Junior Achievement

04/13

The more than 30 TI members of the Shanghai Junior Achievement (JA) volunteer team are passionate about education and sharing their experiences with the next generation.

Last July, these volunteers held a "Job Shadow Day" at the TI Research & Development (R&D) and Fortune Tower offices in Shanghai, China to provide a meaningful work-day experience for 40 high school students.

In cooperation with Junior Achievement, the world's largest nonprofit educational organization, this activity was aimed at inspiring and preparing young people in China to succeed in a global economy and in their future careers.

Before the students arrived at TI, the volunteer team conducted a survey that focused on each student's interests. This information allowed the volunteers to better prepare for the sharing and mentoring.

A day to remember

The 2012 "Job Shadow Day" began with a brief introduction of TI. TI leaders presented the company's history of innovation to students, showing them how technology and innovation can change lives.

After an office tour, each volunteer took one or two students to their work area and let them engage in real work. By sharing personal career experiences, volunteers emphasized the soft skills needed in working life and inspired the students to discover their own passion and interests.

Jiang Jiawei, a student leader from Shanghai 54th Middle School, said he found it to be a wonderful day. "My mentor showed me a busy, competitive, enlightening and exciting working environment in TI," Jiang said.

"What impressed me the most is TI's success in achieving the balance between hard work and friendship. It's really enlightening and will help me a lot to prepare for my future career. And I hope in the future, after starting my own career, I can also volunteer to job shadow and enlighten the next generation."

At the end of the day, each student delivered a brief presentation to demonstrate the knowledge and experience they had gained during the afternoon. The TI volunteers shared feedback about the presentation and helped the students understand the relevance between schoolwork and future success.

Supporting other JA programs

In addition to participating in "Job Shadowing Day," many TI employees in China support other JA programs as volunteers.

Last year, TI employees Yang Boon Quek (YBQ) participated in a lecture focused on career development that was held by JA in affiliation with Shanghai Jiaotong University. During the lecture, YBQ shared his career experiences with the 100 high school students in attendance.

"Our goal was to awaken the students' career awareness and encourage them to strive for their dream career," YBQ said. "I developed my speech from three main aspects, including how to choose majors and jobs, what is the core of life, and how to prepare for a future career as a high school student."

Several TI volunteers also supported the 2012 Summit on Future Entrepreneurship, which was jointly organized by JA, area universities and several corporations. During the 3-day event, about 160 high school students from 70 schools in 15 cities in China were given the opportunity to develop business proposals and run their own companies under the guidance of experienced business professionals.

Xie Bing, president of TI China and General Manager of Greater China, together with executives from other companies, participated in the Summit.

TI Shanghai Junior Achievement Volunteer Team
Shanghai Sales office and R&D office (pictured with students) Tracy Shen, Olivia Yang, Weil Cheng, Chris Meng, Darren Murray, Jeffrey Ding, Nathan Yao, Owen Pan, Payne Wang, Ryan Dai, Sean Chen, Steven Zhou, Stone Fu, Wilson Liu, Yang Boon Quek, Ben Waal, Ruochen Zhang, Rebecca Lao, Jovi He, Roy Zhou, Nicholas Wang, Frank Pan, Shangquan Liang, Kunming Cai, Wei Lu, Lei Zhang, Xianghao Meng, Chad Liu, Wilson Zuo, Mike Chee, Chin Leong Teoh, Andrew Pan, Ravi Gokhale