Yang Sophie Chen, Biology

I chose to participate in the Leadership & Teamwork Certificate Program for 2 reasons: 1. Close to graduation, I was thinking of the career ahead. I plan to work in the life sciences and consulting industries, where soft skills such as teamwork and leadership are critical. The program provides systematic training on efficient teamwork, leadership, and project management skills to help me prepare for my future career. 2. The program not only teaches me the knowledge of management but also provides a platform for us to experience the skills learned in an actual project setting.

There are 3 stages in the program. In the 1st stage, I participated in interactive classes about the basics of teamwork and leadership skills. Our instructor digested the essence of successful teamwork and leadership. And in every class, we played small games to experience the topics we've learned. In the 2nd stage, I participated in a consulting project in a team and apply what we have learned to the actual project setting. In the 3rd stage, I've learned about the basics of project management and further practice it on a 3-week long project. Overall, the program helped me to understand the basics of these soft skills and gave me opportunities to practice them in an actual project. Besides the improvement in the skills, the program also encouraged me to be more confident in an intensive teamwork environment.

The most challenging part of the program is that I have to adapt myself to a teamwork environment very fast, which I haven't experienced a lot before in the lab. It was truly helpful to improve my teamwork and leadership skills.