When someone asks what they should do for the rest of their life, often they receive "do what you love" as an answer. Fourth-year student of International Business, Wing S. Lau just received a $3,000 scholarship for doing exactly that.
Leaving behind her parents and younger sister, Lau immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong in December 1996. She then went to Guatemala with the Credit Travel Study Program student exchange. Wanting to major in Latin American Studies, she took a Latin American course, a development study course in case studies and learned how to speak Spanish in Guatemala. Lau now knows four different languages: Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and Spanish. Also she once spoke Japanese, but has since forgotten how. Lau now
resides in Calgary with her grandparents.
"I see a very different perspective of the world," said Lau. "I still want to learn French, German, Italian and Russian. I love languages; that is why I must major in this."
The Export Development Corporation’s International Studies Scholarship was offered to college and university students across Canada in three different majors: International Business, International Relations, and Economics and Finance. This is the first year the EDC offered the International Studies Scholarships. When Lau applied for the EDC Scholarship, there were only supposed to be 16 recipients, but there were 18 lucky winners.
"I didn’t think I’d make it because there are a lot of students [throughout Canada]," Lau said. "I had a high GPA, participated a lot in class discussion. I am really happy. U of C represents Alberta, so I feel very proud."
Lau has many experiences in the area of trading firms. Her first job was in Hong Kong at Uninterrupt-ible Power Supply System Industry; she also worked at Tobacco Machinery and Spare Parts Trading Firm right before she came into Canada. Lau’s desire to explore the world drives her ambition to go on.
"My last job let me travel to Shanghai, Beijing, other cities in China, Germany, [the] United Kingdom and [the] United States," said Lau. "It gave me a chance to see more places in this world."
"I love travelling, I love meeting people, making friends around the world," continued Lau. "[You learn] different types of people, [different things] about life, love, society, art, and you can do business and make money with them."
Lau is a very determined woman. She sets lofty goals, whether they are a couple of months away or 10 years in the future.
"I could be in any part of this world [in 10 years], for sure by that time I’m rich," said Lau. "Probably, I’ll work in a multi-national corporation or enterprise. Hopefully, I could be a Vice-president of a department for merchandising."