The BI-Fudan MBA program is striving to make the program an international platform for all of the students, the international students and alumni from different classes. They could get to know each other to build up a strong network and share information.

Wednesday, 3rd of June 2009, the BI-Fudan MBA program opened their 12th MBA class at School of Management, Fudan University, Shanghai. Distinguished guests from both BI and Fudan, and several student representatives from different classes attended the ceremony to welcome their new fellow students to join in the program and importantly announce the launching of the International Student Branch under Join & Share - BI-Fudan MBA student union. When planning to set up the new branch, Jaana, Elena, Marc Chen, Cheston dong, Cherry Yan and some other students from MBA class 6, 9, 10, 11 etc really gave their great support, and has made tremendous efforts and contributions to make this happen.

During the ceremony, Jaana made a brilliant speech, representing as the main coordinator of the International Student Branch. She is an alumni from MBA class 6. She mentioned: ‘BI-Fudan MBA is an international program. We met classmates not only from China, but Norway, Germany, Finland, Singapore, India, Italy, Australia … International is not just for foreigners, Chinese as well. Learning from each other and making friends is very important part in our MBA study lives.’ And then she threw some great ideas to the audience: Though everybody is working and most of you have family, how about do some outdoor sports to relax and have fun together; the next idea is to organize some international company visits and practices. At last, she encouraged everybody to open minds to give new ideas about how they could make the International Student Branch more successful.

Ms Gong Yu from BI-Fudan MBA Program Office mentioned that there are almost 64 international students from class 1 to class 12, and the number of citizenships represented is 24 (Hong Kong, and Taiwan included). The establishment of this International Student Branch will link all the international students and also Chinese students together, help them to share different cultures, and enable them to communicate on a cross-class platform. So they could integrate into the BI-Fudan family more easily.

Cherry Yan from MBA9 is in charge of the Charity Club in Join & Share, and she also participated in the event. In her mind, Interests of foreign students may have some differences from local students, but they also need a sense of belonging. International Student Branch will help them communicate with each other more actively.

Marc Chen is a British student from class 11. As an international student, he thinks that it is a great idea to build the International Student Branch. He said: ‘we are introduced to each other, and could learn more information about the program and the class. It is like a big family. We could have so many contacts in the university, and I very much appreciate it. And I think we will have a lot of fun. I am sure to attend it.’ Also, as an English teacher, he’d like to do some training class for his classmates, to help them improve the language skills when doing business.