This is the voice of Ms. Ruonan Zhang, an outstanding GYLAer from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. She participated in the first edition of eGYLA in 2020. She is now studying her master program in United Kingdom. After a few months' pondering on what she have benefited from GYLA, she shares with us her thoughts about 7Q with that GYLA endeavors to empower youth as great leaders in the future.
The past five years have witnessed GYLA’s growth. Every winter and summer, more and more GYLAers participate in this significant program with vigor and vitality. I believe that GYLA can help youth hone the seven noble characters and core competencies of leadership, and empower youth to succeed in the future.
In the courses, Dr. Liangrong Zu emphasized that those who want to be successful must start with moral character. As a Chinese proverb goes: “Hold fast to your good character and good fortune will come". Future young leaders should put morality first and prioritize spiritual development before flourishing intellectually and financially.
Dr. Zu pointed out that the current VUCA era is marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. In the face of the changing world, GYLA helps the youth to perceive the trend of the time, change the cognitive pattern, forge systems thinking, and transform into insightful game-changers in the new era.
GYLA not only imparts encyclopedic knowledge to young people, but also equips them with interpersonal communication skills. As Dr. Zu highlighted in the course, EQ and executive presence play a pivotal role in leadership, which requires confidence, composure, empathy, and personal charisma. High EQ, together with virtue, can help a person attract people with the same ambitions and aspirations.
As the GYLA faculty, Mr. Nat Clegg stressed that "We are similar, but not the same", there is a vibrant exchange of cultures between the East and the West. GYLAers need to build a bridge for cross-cultural communication, persist in openness and tolerance, seek common grounds while shelving differences, and embrace diversified cultures.
Mr. Vic Van Vuuren, the Director of the ILO Enterprises Management Team, encouraged GYLAers to be bold to face their fears and challenge themselves. Future leaders need to nurture courage, decisiveness, and farsightedness in an age of constant change.
Dr. Rene Schmidpeter, an internationally renowned strategic expert on corporate social responsibility(CSR), mentioned three elements of corporate social responsibility in management: Strategy, innovation, and value creation. GYLA encourages students to become social innovators instead of conformists, who are expected to infuse it with vitality.
Senior expert of entrepreneurship Mr. Deng Baoshan stressed that both new green enterprises and traditional enterprises need to create social value, undertake corporate social responsibility, and focus on the sustainable development of the economy, society, and environment. GYLA encourages young people to shoulder responsibility and have a sense of mission to break the shackles of "interest first" and uphold the principle of "business for good".
Under the leadership of Dr. Zu and many preeminent mentors, GYLA empowers young people to dream more and big, cultivates talents for the country and leaders for a better world. GYLAers are expected to take an active part in international talent development for youth to engage in global governance and make a greater contribution to the realization of the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
GYLAers, let’s brave the wind and the waves, and embark on a voyage to dreams!
