From left to right: Casey Li, Adam Jackson, Megan Lawther, Iris Cao, Jin Yan, Justin Lu
Executive Board 2015-2016
Program Advisor: Megan Lawther
VP of Public Relations: Iris Cao
VP of Communications: Casey Li
VP of Project Leads: Adam Jackson
VP of Project Leads: Jin Yan
VP of Marketing: Justin Lu
Name: Iris (Mengya) Cao, VP of Public Relations
Year: Senior
Majors: Marketing and Logistics Management
Minor: Organizational Communication
Hometown: Xuzhou, China
Interests/Hobbies/Any fun facts:
I really enjoy collecting thoughts and inspirations in life. Traveling, aerobics and learning through books and practices also spark my interest.
Why is internationalization at Ohio State important to you?
The world is getting more connected. Being able to interact with people of different background in college means stepping closer everyday to better understand the world around us.
How does GLI prepare you to become a future leader in our global community?
GLI aims to provide a comprehensive experience for members to improve leadership abilities within a cultural context. It is crucial for me personally to keep the knowledge and skills in use to inspire and empower more people.
How would other students benefit from programs like GLI?
The great thing about GLI is that by having an experience with a diverse cohort, members will be able to develop professional leadership skills and intercultural awareness and most importantly grow to become better communicators to the world who are capable of understanding cultural differences and adapting to different environments.
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming year with GLI?
I am more than excited to grow along with the cohort this year. I definitely want our members to get the most out of our program by achieving their goals envisioned, and making GLI one of their most valuable and memorable experiences in college.
Name: Adam Jackson, VP of Project Leads
Year: Senior
Major: Marketing Minor: Public Health
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Interests/Hobbies/Any fun facts: photography, travel, philosophy, basketball, soccer, meditation. Fun fact: I’m half Filipino, half Caucasian.
Why is internationalization at Ohio State important to you?
Internationalization at Ohio State is important to me because I believe a crucial part of the college experience should focus on opening students minds to new ideas and cultures. What better way to foster that experience than by promoting global citizenship on campus. With current students coming from all around the world and alumni making an impact globally, internationalization is more important today than ever before.
How does GLI prepare you to become a future leader in our global community?
With GLI being comprised of half international and half domestic students, it provides a unique cross-cultural atmosphere for learning and collaboration. As a cohort, we are forced to break down cultural barriers to achieve a greater goal. It’s this type of collaboration that really differentiates a leader from a global leader.
How would other students benefit from programs like GLI?
From the start, students would benefit from building close friendships with other students from around the globe. Additionally, students get the opportunity to develop their leadership, communication, and networking skills; lastly, students will have the chance to use those skills to achieve a greater goal as a team.
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming year with GLI?
I’m looking forward to applying the leadership skills we developed as a cohort to initiate change on campus.
Name: Jin Yan, VP of Project Leads
Year: Senior
Major: Accounting Minor: Economics
Hometown: Shanghai, China
Interests: Jogging; Traveling; Music; Photography
Why is internationalization at Ohio State important to you?
Each year, there are over 1,600 international students and scholars come to the Ohio State. As I see, “Internationalization” is already an essential part of the university. Our international students make our campus and the community more diverse. Both of our domestics students and international students have a lot of opportunities to work together through class projects, student organizations, social events, etc., and they can learn from people with different culture background without leaving Columbus! Besides school, having a global/international mindset is also very important to our future career. More and more companies are going global, so there will be a great chance for us to work with people from different backgrounds. If we already have such experience in college, we will do a better job when we start our career.
How does GLI prepare you to become a future leader in our global community?
GLI is designed to prepare OSU undergraduate student to “foster global citizenship awareness, enhance their strengths in various cultural contexts in order to become successful leaders in the global community”. Through our weekly meetings and monthly dinners , I have a lot of opportunities to meet people having global working experience, and I get to know their personal and professional experience. Moreover, GLI also has group cultural presentations in the second half program which not only help me learn various topics under different culture background, such as “family and relationships”, “Food and dinning etiquette”, etc, but also practice team work and public speaking skills.
How would other students benefit from programs like GLI?
GLI members will have a lot of opportunities to network with people having global experience, and really get to foster a global mindset. During the whole program, members will build life-long friendship with others through different events and meetings.
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming year with GLI?
I want to put every effort on making GLI a better program–a program that really benefits all of our members and makes them aware of the importance of having a global mindset. I also want to get to each of our GLI new members and build lifelong friendship with them!
Name: Yiqun (Casey) Li, VP of Communications
Year: Junior
Major: Accounting; Minor: Economics
Hometown: Taiyuan, China
Interests/Hobbies/Any fun facts: I love painting and photography. I really enjoy looking up the sky and finding different clouds and color of sky every day. Also, I love cooking!
Why is internationalization at Ohio State important to you?
As an international student, I really expect to feel the diversity and inclusion on campus in the United States. I hope we could get more chance to engage, learn and grow.
How does GLI prepare you to become a future leader in our global community?
GLI workshops give me a chance to know my strengths and weaknesses much better, which helps me find my potential leadership types. Also, I feel like the first step to be a leader is to be a follower, to actively listen to others and then raise questions. This is what GLI gives to me.
How would other students benefit from programs like GLI?
For international students, we get to know American culture and society much better and could help others step out of their comfort zone and make friends with Americans. For domestic students, they can get in touch with different cultures in the world and then be diverse and multicultural.
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming year with GLI?
I am looking forward to making friends with other GLIers. GLI can be a cohort or program, but it can also feel like a family!
Name: Justin Lu, VP of Marketing
Year: Senior
Major: Marketing and Logistics Management; Minor: Chinese
Hometown: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Interests/Hobbies/Any fun facts: I love all things Taiwan related, traveling, basketball, photography, and entrepreneurship. Also, I was in a viral video on YouTube that has 700k+ views in counting and it made it to CCTV4 in China!
Why is internationalization at Ohio State important to you?
Internationalization at Ohio State is important to me because it is critical to bridge the gap between domestic and international students on campus. There are too much knowledge and experiences to share between the two groups, and it would be unfortunate for anyone to miss out on that. Furthermore, students are always seeking ways to find international experience throughout their years in college, and the most accessible and easiest to start is by talking to people from around the world! Did I mention Ohio State is one of the leading universities in the nation at providing students with that opportunity?
How does GLI prepare you to become a future leader in our global community?
The world is now more connected than it ever was before. Schools, companies, and many organizations are now seeking ways to go overseas into other countries. Globalization is happening right now. I know if I want to be a future leader in our global community, then it is crucial for me to develop a global mindset. GLI gives me the perfect and unique opportunity to do just that by taking my strengths and further develop them in a cultural context with students from different parts of the world. The end result is a cohort of future leaders taking that initiative in making an impact in our global community.
How would other students benefit from programs like GLI?
I firmly believe that if students take the time to gain a global perspective by interacting with other global citizens, it would create extraordinary value for them in the long run. A program like GLI will give you that exact opportunity by connecting you with a diverse cohort, hearing from distinguished guests whom are global leaders themselves, and integrating global aspects into hands-on projects.
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming year with GLI?
Being on the Executive Board, I am looking forward to seeing the entire cohort develop and grow as a group! I am incredibly excited to get to know everyone, and to see the impact that each member will make on our campus and beyond.