Week 0️⃣: Reflecting on "Why China?"
As you're reading this, I am moving to a zero-COVID China for at least 1 year. "Why?" Good question! Let me bring you along my journey to this point.
✋ Before getting into the post ✋
If you didn’t see my first post, check it out here! It provides a summary (1) on what’s bringing me to China and (2) what I plan to post in the future.
Otherwise, enjoy my journey regarding “Why China?” 😊
“Why China?” [Reasons I’m going]
Unfortunately, I remember little about my college education in mechanical engineering. It was probably the long-term sleep deprivation. Or simply because I was too busy focusing on Ultimate frisbee, especially once I got my job offer to Bain & Company at the start of my 3rd year.
However, there is one Engineering lecture that will stick with me forever. I was sitting right next to my close friend and fellow frisbee teammate, Kirtan Patel (aka Q), and we were both glued to my laptop screen, not processing a single word from our lecturer.
Rather than paying attention to the lecture, we were both in awe of Steve Schwarzman’s newly created Schwarzman Scholarship. Created with a $700M endowment, its aim was to promote global leadership and collaboration among our future leaders, especially between the China and the rest of the world.
It intended to accomplish its mission by attracting young leaders (~21 to 29 years old) from around the world to Tsinghua University (China’s #1 university) in Beijing for a 1-year, fully paid master’s degree and cultural immersion.
I was inspired by Schwarzman’s vision to equip humanity’s next generation of leaders with the knowledge, lived experience, and connections needed to bring about collaboration, rather than animosity and war, between the world’s most consequential countries.
I was also curious to see the kinds of scholars they accepted. So Kirtan and I started reading the biographies of the ~100 students in that inaugural cohort. After the first couple of bios, our jaws were the ground (read here for yourself). The students had been successful start-up founders, high ranking government officials, impactful educators, and more. And some of these people were as young as 22…seeing this really made us think “wtf are we doing with our lives??”
My History with Chinese-speaking countries
I was lucky that I got a personal glimpse into China nearly a year before that memorable (albeit unproductive) Engineering lecture I mentioned above. During the summer of 2016, I went on a short 2-week study abroad to China. During this trip, I came away with two important realizations:
Holy shit, Chinese society is insane in its scale, grandeur, and organization (especially when compared to my parent’s home country of India, which is incredibly more chaotic and disorganized).
I actually enjoyed learning Mandarin! And there seemed to be a chance I was somewhat good at it?
Unfortunately, it took me a three whole years after my initial China trip in 2016 to act on my nascent interest in Chinese society and Mandarin.
Fortunately, I spent that 2019 summer studying Mandarin via a language program in Taiwan (TUSA, if you’re interested). And those two months ended up being the most exciting months I had ever lived.
My time in Taiwan was magical for many reasons. Of course, I really enjoyed getting to learn Mandarin full-time. But otherwise, I pushed myself and grew in so many ways otherwise (I say this, despite risking sounding like the typical person who studies abroad and comes back a “different person”).
In Taiwan, I met soon-to-be life-long friends, and we bonded through our loves of the outdoors and adventure. And given that Taiwan has a bunch of nature and adventure to explore, we were doing stuff every weekend, including surfing, wakeboarding, snorkeling, cliff jumping, and more. So I quickly had to get over my fear of water, fear of heights, and especially the combination of the two.
I was also able to pursue my interest in hip hop dance! I had followed the space on YouTube for years but had never taken classes before, so it was the perfect opportunity….except that the studio I went to only taught in Mandarin. So that was interesting 😆 but I was able to make native Taiwanese friends and practice my language skills organically.
So through all of this, my Taiwan experience instilled within me one thing: I need to get the next version of this kind of experience.
And I knew it was going to be the Schwarzman Scholarship.
How my Schwarzman journey helped me find another passion
In Sept 2019, I returned to the US from Taiwan.
In Oct 2019, I start working at Bain & Company.
In Sept 2020, nearly a year later (~6 months into the pandemic), I submitted my first real application to the Schwarzman Scholarship.
Not really a shocker - this application is tough and forces you to bare your soul (from an intellectual, academic, career, and leadership perspective). It asks hard-hitting questions like “What particular global issue is the current focus of your motivation?” and “Describe one distinct example that illustrates who you are as a leader.”
If you want to have a real shot at answering these questions, you have to be targeted about what you care about.
The problem was: at the beginning of that 2020 application, I didn’t have that specific thing I cared about.
But through consistent introspection and iterations over 5 months (and help from very close friends of mine: Matthew Salm and Ryleigh Navert to name a few; full list here), I ended up submitting an application focused on a field I was developing a new passionate for: 🌱alternative proteins🥩!
Long story short, I didn’t get accepted during that 2020 application cycle.
But I knew two things:
I wanted to further investigate this alternative protein interest.
I was going to apply to Schwarzman the very next year.
Fast-forward a year to Sept 2021, and I’m gearing up to submit another Scholarship application.
And long story short, I get the positive news! 🎉🎉
Pursuing that passion
And so, that’s how we got here…to me finishing this post during a 10-day quarantine in Shanghai while in a zero-COVID China.
But there’s another life update I wanted to highlight:
In August 2021 (just before submitting my final app), I received an offer from a young cultured meat start-up in Sydney, Australia that I was really excited about. It’s called Vow (our website is super cool, check it out!), and our goal is make cultured meat: meat grown from animal cells. All with the goal of creating the best (most tasty, most exotic, most nutritious) meat in the world that just so happens to be sustainable for the environment, ethical for animals, and more.
And so, in October 2021, I finally left my consulting job to work in this alternative protein space I had writing about in my application for 2 years now. All to see if this industry was one I could actually see myself working in longer term.
Needless to say, I absolute loved my time at Vow (cannot stress this enough). And even went to work in-person in Sydney twice between February and June of 2022, before pausing my work to enjoy some free time before Schwarzman geared up.
So now, my interests in China, which were initially Mandarin-acquisition and adventure + growth chasing, have new company alongside exploring China’s nascent, but high potential, cultured meat space (newsletter regarding that coming soon 👀).
And I will have an entire year to explore them all 🤩
If you’ve made it this far, thank you! This post is likely the longest I’ll send because I wanted to fit in the necessary context so you can fully appreciate my future posts.
Of course, if you have any advice or feedback on this post, let me know!!
Otherwise, see you in the next update.
Love,
Neel
love it
love it