Nurturing Women Leaders for the Future

Financial Women’s Association – NTU Mentorship Program

By: Alejandra Mejia, Colombian, Nanyang MBA participant, Intake 2010

Recently, the Finance Women Association of Singapore or FWA , together with NTU, established  a mentorship program to women currently studying in NTU, to help shape and start their careers in the financial industry, specially taking into account the time requirements and demands of having a very successful job, while  looking after their family and children. FWA provides a valuable platform to network with other experienced women professionals in the financial industry in Singapore and  the opportunity to listen and meet some of the admirable women in the finance industry, who are balancing the demands of their work and family time.

NTU-FWA, in collaboration of FWA, Nanyang Business School (NBS) Undergraduate Program and the Banking and Finance Club of The NANYANG MBA, launched its mentorship program in September at a coffee dessert bar located in Orchard area where the bustling shopping district of Singapore is located. Nearly 50 students from the Nanyang Business School’s undergraduate and MBA students had the chance to meet with members of FWA from companies like Walton International, HSBC and Standard Chartered.

Being a woman is already a great challenge – juggling our roles as students, mothers, wives and career women and striving to make a difference in the lives of the people who matter most. From the talk cum networking session, I realized that, “regardless of who we are and where we come from – women from foreign countries or women wanting to change careers or start anew, we all face a great incertitude when the end of our studies arrives. We are overwhelmed about all the things we are told to do to start our careers, but the truth is, a more certain success is guaranteed when we fix ourselves a target. Somehow,  we need a counselor from the industry to help us fix this target.” This was how the mentorship program was conceived — to help women like us, who are in school and looking into the future of building our respective careers, to trace our path, coherent with our interest, strengths and possibilities.

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Start of my MBA journey – reflections on The NANYANG MBA Orientation Week

By: Zhou Dan, Chinese, Nanyang MBA Participant, Intake 2011

Arriving a month early in Nanyang prior to the MBA course for my intensive English class, I met for the first time  some of my future MBA classmates –they come from all over the world – from Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Thailand, Taiwan Vietnam and from my own country, China. Then during our MBA orientation, the week before our actual classes started, I met more people coming from more countries like Bulgaria, Germany, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Switzerland and the USA. Imagine – to be among this very diverse talented and passionate group of individuals of 18 nationalities (and looking forward to meeting more peers from other parts of world from the previous batch, which at some point we will meet in school), I was pretty excited to start my MBA program. It will be a 16-month journey of life-long learning which I am sure I will certainly be grateful of. Orientation week was just the start of this journey.

Our weeklong orientation was held mostly in school and it was divided into several parts which were about enhancing our skills and preparing us for the MBA program – Workshops included networking, case analysis, presentation skills, speed reading, learning style, and so on, which are essential in our MBA studies. It was the first time for most of us to really feel what MBA life is like through lectures, discussions and group work activities. Every day, from morning until early evening, we had intensive but enlightening and fun days. For me, this one week gave me a peek into a what is in store for me – a demanding yet exciting and fulfilling MBA life.

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