New culture, new discoveries

Two years ago, Ge (Sophy) Wang came to Dalhousie from Shandong University of Finance and Economics through a collaborative program between the two schools. Today, the native of Jinan, in the Shandong province of China, has no regrets.

“It was an awesome opportunity to learn about a new culture. As a young person I wanted a new experience and to broaden my perspective,” says Ms. Wang.

She took full advantage of the services offered at Dalhousie to help her in her studies and adjustment to Canadian life. “As a new student you have to go and ask for help for your success. If you don’t, they won’t know if you need help.”

“While researching topics I looked up ‘environment and economics’ and found a map used by NASA, produced by Dal professors (Randall Martin and PhD grad Aaron van Donkelaar),” she says. “After seeing the amount of pollution in the air I was shocked. I thought, ‘I need to do something.’”

Ms. Wang says she cares more about our health and environment than money. “The environment is the gift we leave for our children. We should be responsible for that.”

She enjoys travelling, playing piano and reading, and received the 2012 SDUFE-DAL Joint Program Scholarship and the 2012 Prof. W. Russell Maxwell Memorial Scholarship granted by the Department of Economics. She is involved in many activities, serving as VP finance and administration of Dal Green, a mentor advisor in Economics, is a volunteer for the Canadian Cancer Society and a choir member.

“Volunteering helps me become familiar with Canadian culture and pursue my interests, like being part of the choir,” she says. “It’s a win-win situation for me – I love to sing and it relieves stress for my studies.”

Following graduation, she’s continuing her studies at the University of Toronto, studying environmental economics at the graduate level.

“Environmental economics is what I want to do in the future,” says Ms. Wang. “I would like to work for the World Bank one day because their purpose is to promote economic development and sustainability in the developing world.”