If you don't know my whole story (why is Mark even interested in China? How did he get his start? What else has Mark done over the past few years?), so here it is:
July 2005, I was hired at mosa Asian Bistro in Memphis,TN as a waiter. That August, upon the recommendation of my good friend Adam, I followed my interests in cooking and entertaining by declaring myself a Hospitality Management-Culinary Arts major, so I would specialize in restaurant management. I had the idea that Spanish would be a good language to teach myself given my career choice, so I bought a cd set called Learn in Your Car. I took to it so well that my Chinese coworker Xing suggested I try Chinese. Turns out to be the most life-changing experience of my life (sorry Adam). Because I followed through with it, and picked it up fairly well, I decided to use it to the most valuable end: in September 2006, I set my sights on University of Memphis's International MBA program. Given my choice of academia, I was no longer able to work 60 hours/week at mosa, so I left and applied at Papa John's, where I stayed for 3.5 years.
During my remaining year at Southwest TN Community College, I took prerequisites for the International MBA and continued studying Chinese on my own. I graduated from there with 3.5 GPA, so when I transferred back to U of M(emphis), they offered me the Community College Transfer Scholarship, which I gladly accepted. I planned on majoring in Hospitality Management again, and would still be in that major now, except the first day of the fall semester 2007 I discovered an advertisement for Dr. Hsiang-Te Kung's major ASIT (Asian Studies & International Trade), which was an undergraduate version of the IMBA program. When I explored it, I discovered that it better prepared me for the IMBA and in a much shorter time. I changed majors and set my sights on graduating May of 2009.
Following a successful first semester at U of M, my Chinese language teacher Dr. Zhang Lan suggested some fellow students and I establish a Chinese club. At the first meeting, we had an election to determine officers and I won the Presidency; along with Jade Powell (Vice President), Marie Dennan (Press Ambassador), Daniel Graubman (Treasurer), and Kristina Thomas (Creative Director), we operated for 3 semesters as the Student Consortium for Chinese Awareness. We had a great time, several successful events, and got the club off to a good start before handing leadership over to Silu Wang and Julian Poon.
In order to graduate May 2009, I still needed 2 more semesters of Chinese language study. The opportunity to earn those in China presented itself, so I came to study from June through August of 2008. I returned in August 2008, had a very successful senior year with such extracurricular activities as the Chinese club, Hillel of Memphis (Jewish student union), and MILE business leadership club, all while working weekends at Papa John's.
I was eventually accepted into the IMBA program, graduated May 2009 (per my goal), and began the IMBA program fall of 2009. That semester was very challenging for me. First, my mother died on September 29th. Despite that, 5 graduate classes, working at Papa John's, and volunteering at the Confucius Institute all still required my attention. Then in October, a unique opportunity was presented to me: represent the United States, Tennessee, Memphis, the University of Memphis, and the International MBA program at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo! I was eventually accepted to work for the USA Pavilion, but then a problem arose: how to convince the director of my program, Dr. Benwari Kedia, that this was a valuable business internship and that he should allow me to leave Memphis 4 weeks earlier than the end of the semester? After doing some research, I discovered that Deloitte and Touche was the official accounting firm for the USA Pavilion, and through the hard work and selfless efforts of Hans, Mark, and Jacob, I was awarded THE internship that a business student who studies Chinese could never dream of in a million years!
After receiving approval from Dr. Kedia, I continued to work my tail off and finished 4/6 classes early. Unfortunately, I have to complete the final 2 from China.
Well, that completes my story thus far! I just arrived in China on the 15th, and I'm ready to post more info about that!
谢谢！(Chinese for Thank You!)
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