Successfully got a chance for summer school in Switzerland—Thank you YPARD!

I would like to share my good news to all YPARD members, and also show my great gratitude to YPARD.

I had got the chance for summer school "Sustainable Agriculture and the World Food System" held by World Food System Center, ETH Zurich, August 11th - 25th 2013, in Rheinau, Switzerland.

I noticed this summer school application call on www.YPARD.net in April, the theme of the summer school nicely meet with my research, so I submitted my CV and motivation letter to World Food System Center, ETH Zurich. Fortunately, they offered me the chance to participate this summer school. This will be my first time abroad! I can’t wait to see the outside world, and learn from the experts and participants from other countries.

YPARD China held a promotion conference on June 3^rd, 2013. I was honored to give a presentation on YPARD China’s structure, objectives, activities, and future plan. In addition, I also share my “summer school” case to CAAS (Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences) students to let them notice that chance for going abroad for further study is not far from us Chinese students, and YPARD could offer information of various kinds of opportunities.

I shared the response of the conference with Mr. Bastian Flury, Project Manager of World Food System Center, ETH Zurich. He is kind and welcomed me to share YPARD China’s experience during the summer school. I also showed my willing to him to promote other chances given by World Food System Center, ETH Zurich to more Chinese students. Of course, when I come back from Switzerland, I will share my gain and experience to YPARD members and CAAS students.

For most of the Chinese students, going abroad for study is like a dream. It is beautiful but hard to realize because of the expensive tuition fee and living expenses. On my opinion, there are other 2 barrels for Chinese students engaged in agricultural research to participate into international communication and cooperation. One is language obstacle, the other is limited information source. YPARD offer a great help to overcome the second barrel, all we need to do is just bravely move a step forward and have a try! 

Picture: Some members of YPARD China teams and participants at the conference of June 3, 2013 in CAAS