Managing multiple cultures

When not in class, you can find Xinyu (Lokiy) Wang in the Commerce Society office. “It's my second home,” she says. “It's relaxing. All my friends are here.”

It wasn't always that way for Lokiy: “I was so shy in my first year, I had no friends.” She credits Linda MacDonald, assistant professor in the Rowe School of Business and Lokiy's first work term supervisor and now mentor, with changing her life. “She encouraged me to socialize, pushed me out of my comfort zone and guided me on course selection, choosing a major and career.”

Lokiy, originally from Jining City in China's Shandong Province, researched universities worldwide but in the end only applied to one. “I was interested in Canada because it's so diverse and safe, and chose Dal because of its reputation, commerce co-op program and location. Halifax is a small, safe city on the ocean and the people are so friendly.”

Lokiy pushed herself out of her comfort zone when she took a position with the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency in Moncton, N.B. Once again, she found herself in a new city. “I grew up a lot in four months.” During the work term she focused on international business development trends and created a “Doing Business in China” guidebook for government and individual companies partaking in trade missions.

As the VP external with the Commerce Society, she's worked to organize charity events including the Inside Ride-Halifax, which raised $26,000 for Camp Goodtime and the IWK Foundation-more than double the amount raised in 2013.

For all her achievements, Lokiy was recently awarded one of the university's Board of Governor Awards and a Certificate of Achievement for Student Leadership by the Rowe School of Business. Now, she's graduating with her Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing Management and is hoping to stay in Canada. “I'd like to work in the Yukon. I hear it's beautiful.”

This article is part of our series of profiles on the graduates of the Class of 2015. These profiles are also published in the Convocation Keepsake which is distributed at Convocation ceremonies. For more information (including live webcasts), visit the Convocation website.