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NYU Shanghai Student Spotlight - Rewant Prakash 我们的学生 - Rewant Prakash

My name is Rewant and I come from India. I grew up in Lucknow which was once the capital of Mughal Empire, and most famous for its food and culture. Since childhood, I have been exposed to a lot of customs and traditions which played an important role in defining who I am today, but I’m far from a person who is bound by these customs and traditions. I also prefer to keep myself occupied with a lot of extracurricular activities, both on-campus and off-campus, which is the reason why I have always been involved in a lot of clubs and different school activities.
我的名字叫Rewant,来自印度。我在勒克瑙长大,那里曾是莫卧儿帝国的首都,而最为出名的是那里的美食和文化。从童年起我就接触到了很多不同的习俗和传统,我的成长受其影响很大,但我并不会被这些习俗和传统束缚。我喜欢参加许多课外活动,包括校内和校外,这也是我总是参与很多社团和校际活动的原因。
I am especially interested in theatre and performing arts. Before I began my freshman year at NYU Shanghai, I contacted all the theatre companies in Shanghai asking them if they had any work or volunteer opportunities available for college students. After waiting for months, an amateur theatre company got back to me and asked if I could get involved in their next production.
我对戏剧和表演艺术尤其感兴趣。在我开始上海纽约大学的大一学年之前,我联系了上海所有的戏剧公司,询问有没有提供给大学生的工作或志愿者机会。等待数月之后,一个业余戏剧公司回复了我,问我能不能参与他们的下一部话剧。
I am majoring in Interactive Media Arts (IMA) at NYU Shanghai. Before choosing the IMA track as my major, I was also following the Business and Finance track, and Neuroscience track that involved following the Foundation of Science (FOS) curriculum. While I enjoyed taking both Business and Science classes, my creative intellect wasn’t being challenged. I decided to take a few IMA classes and fell in love with what I was doing in that major.
我在上海纽约大学主修互动媒体艺术(IMA)专业。选择这个专业之前,我学习过商业与金融,还尝试过包括科学基础课程的神经科学专业。虽然我很享受学习商业和科学课程,但我觉得我的创造性思维并未受到挑战。我决定上一些IMA的课程,结果就爱上了我在这个专业中所做的事情。
IMA gave me a platform to further cultivate my creative intellect and interest in wearable technology and projection mapping. I have especially been intrigued by wearable technology and the potential it holds in near future. For the final project of one of my IMA class, I created a glove that measures pulse-rate and body temperature of a person in less than 10 seconds, and shows the data on a small screen attached on top of the glove. This was the first time I had created wearable technology myself, but is definitely not the last time. What I really appreciate about the IMA Department at NYU Shanghai is that they always encourage students to be innovative and motivate them to use their creative intellect.
IMA进一步培养了我的创造性思维能力,并为我在可穿戴科技及其项目设计方面的兴趣提供了一个平台。可穿戴科技和它即将体现出的潜能尤其吸引我。在IMA其中一门课程的期末项目中,我制作了一个可在10秒内测量一个人脉搏和体温的手套,那些数据还可以显示在连接在手套顶端的一个小屏幕上。这是我第一次自己制作可穿戴科技产品,但这一定不是最后一次。上海纽约大学IMA专业尤为让我赞赏的正是它始终鼓励学生们创新,并激励我们积极运用创造性思维的精神。
For most part of my high school education, I had never considered studying outside India as an option after graduating high school. The whole concept of studying abroad was strange and new to me as no one in our high school had done that in the past decade. I, along with two other ambitious friends in a class of 300 students, decided to apply to a few colleges outside India and break the mainstream custom of only applying to Indian colleges.
在我高中生涯的大部分时间里,我从来没有考虑过毕业之后要到印度之外的地方去学习。海外求学的概念对我来说既陌生又新奇,因为在过去的十年里,我的高中没有出过一个这样的人。在我毕业那一届的300余名学生中,我和另两个雄心勃勃的学生决定申请国外的一些大学,打破只申请印度国内大学的主流风气。
When I first received my acceptance email from NYU Shanghai, I was not as excited as I thought I would be. I was a little skeptical about attending a newly established college in China. While I was waiting to hear back from other colleges, NYU Shanghai invited me to attend the Admitted Students Weekend in Shanghai to discuss NYU Shanghai and meet other students who would comprise the inaugural class. I decided to attend the admitted students weekend and get to know more about NYU’s newly established institute. During my short stay in Shanghai, I was left completely mesmerized by the city and the amazing people I had met from all around the world. NYU Shanghai was giving students an opportunity to receive world-class education in a city like Shanghai, full of energy and potential. After returning back home I knew where I would be spending my next 4 years of college and immediately enrolled into NYU Shanghai without any second thoughts.
当我第一次收到来自上海纽约大学的录取邮件时,我并没有想象中那么激动。对于进入一所中国新成立的大学我还抱有一丝怀疑。当我在等待其他大学的回复时,上海纽约大学邀请我参加在上海举行的国际学生校园日,共同聊一聊上海纽约大学,并和第一届的学生们见面。我决定参加这个活动,以便了解更多有关这个纽约大学新在上海新建的学校的情况。在上海停留的短短几天里,我深深地为这个城市和这群来自世界各地、令人惊叹的人们所着迷。上海纽约大学在上海这座充满能量和潜力的城市,为学生们提供了一个接受世界级教育的机会,回家之后我便知道我该去哪里度过四年的大学生活,于是我毫不犹豫地立刻加入了上海纽约大学。
I have had many rewarding experiences at NYU Shanghai so far, but the one which had the most impact on me was working for an amateur theatre company. Ever since the first semester of Freshman year, I’ve been involved with them in one way or other. I’ve done lights for them, backstage, and even acted in one of their plays. The first show that got me interested was “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. There was no turning back after that. The one I enjoyed doing the most with them was “The Cabaret” musical show where I was on stage as an actor for the first time. I had multiple minor roles in that production such as a taxi driver, kit-kat dancer, German soldier, etc. It was absolutely thrilling to work with a group of amazing cast and crew members. I plan to work with them in one more production before I return back to India for the summer break.
至今为止我在上海纽约获得了许多受益匪浅的体验,其中为一家业余戏剧公司工作对我的影响最大。从大一第一学期开始,我就在各个方面与他们合作。我为他们做过灯光、后台,甚至在其中一个戏剧中出演。自“The Rocky Horror Picture Show”引起我的兴趣之后,对戏剧的热爱便与日俱增。我最享受的一次是“The Cabaret”音乐剧,那是我的第一次参演经历。我在作品中演过一些小角色,比如出租车司机、踢踏舞者、德国士兵等等。和一群绝好的演员和工作人员合作无疑是令人兴奋的。我计划在暑假回印度前再和他们合作一部作品。
One of the advantages of attending NYU Shanghai is the ability to spend up to three semesters at any of NYU’s 11 study away sites located all around the globe. I want to take this opportunity to circumnavigate the globe and experience different cultures and traditions. I am spending a semester in Berlin this fall, and in the United States next spring before I come back to Shanghai for my senior year. I want to accumulate as much experience as possible during my college so that when I go back to India after I graduate, I have something valuable to add to the cultural diversity in my country. While it might be too early to narrow down on a city to call my future home, my top pick would either be Shanghai or Mumbai in India.
在上海纽约上学的一大优势就是能在纽约大学分布全球的11个海外教学点度过最多三个学期。我打算借此机会做环球旅行,体验不同的文化传统。这个秋季我会在柏林度过一个学期,明年春天去纽约,大四回到上海。我希望在大学时期积累尽可能多的经验,以便毕业后回到印度,能为文化多样性添加一些宝贵的东西。虽然现在要选择一个城市作为未来居所可能太早,但我的第一选择一定会是上海或者孟买。
All in all, I am glad to have chosen NYU Shanghai for the enriching experience I have had here so far. Everyday in Shanghai is an adventure and this city never ceases to amaze you. The people here add to a more memorable experience as everyone is humble and helpful. I am also excited about studying-away in junior year of college, and try fulfilling my childhood dream of circumnavigating the globe.
总而言之,我很高兴选择了上海纽约大学,因为我在这里获得了许多充实自我的人生体验。在上海的每一天都是一场历险,而这座城市也在不断令我惊喜。这里的每个人都是谦逊而热心的,他们让我的经历更加难忘。我对大三的海外学习感到非常兴奋,也将努力实现我环球旅行的童年梦想。
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A Conversation with Chen Yuxin - Vice Dean of Business 对话商学部副主任,陈宇新
Could you please go over your background and why you decided to come to NYU Shanghai?
能请您说说您的经历,以及您来上海纽约大学的初衷吗?
Yes. Actually I grew up in Shanghai, so Shanghai is my hometown. My mom is a Shanghainese, and I also went to college in Shanghai, Fudan University, then I went to the US and studied marketing. After I got my PhDs my first job was at NYU stern, so I stayed at Stern for ten years. I got tenure there, and I left New York for the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Now I’ve returned to China, because I really like it here, and it’s my hometown. I came back in 2012 when I was on leave from Kellogg and visiting CEIBS – China Europe International Business School. So therefore I spent one year there, and by the end of my visit I learned that NYU was going to set up NYU Shanghai, and I thought it was a really wonderful opportunity. The Stern people contacted me, and basically for me it was like twofold homecoming – returning to NYU and returning to Shanghai.
好的。其实我生在上海,所以上海是我的故乡。我母亲是上海人,我曾求学于复旦大学,之后去了美国学习营销。获得博士学位之后,我的第一份工作就在纽约大学斯特恩商学院。我在那里工作了十年,取得了终身职位,又离开纽约来到了西北大学Kellogg管理学院。现在我回到了中国,因为我实在喜欢这里,而且它是我的故乡。那是2012年,我从Kellogg休假,去中欧国际工商学院访问。一年后访问即将结束的时候我得知了纽约大学将设立上海纽约大学的消息,我想这会是一个绝佳的机会。斯特恩的伙伴联系了我,对我而言这也是两种意义上的“回家”——回到纽约大学,回到上海。 Shanghai must have changed a lot since you left. 您走之后上海一定变化很大。
I grew up in the Puxi area, but now I’m living in Pudong. I think Shanghai has been preserved quite well. If you go to Puxi you can still see a lot of places with historical elements.
我在浦西长大,但现在我住在浦东。我认为上海的历史还是保留得很好的,如果你去浦西,还能看到很多有历史气息的地方。 I was looking at your background, and found that you originally majored in physics. How did you decide to make that transition? 您的本科专业是物理系的。为什么后来又转专业了呢? For me it wasn’t really a very difficult transition. My undergraduate was in physics and then I went to graduate school majored in Computer Science. I didn’t finish my graduate school in China before I went to the US. During my graduate studies, I focused on computer science. The transition wasn’t so difficult because nowadays there are many business areas like finance, marketing, and operations, which are pretty much data-driven; they require a lot of quantitative skills. At the time, I wanted to do some applied work after I studied physics. I went into computer science, but I also wanted to do something more related to China’s development. I knew I would have a lot more opportunities if I studied business, so I went to the US in the mid-90s and applied for business school. To my surprise, it wasn’t difficult to get into a business school PHD program because they really liked my quantitative background. My background in physics and computer science really helped me. Even now I think my background in physics and computer science has helped me a lot in my research.
对我来说,这样转专业并不难。大学本科我学的是物理,研究生时候我学了计算机科学;去美国前我并没有完成研究生的课程。研究生阶段我一直致力于计算机科学。要转专业没那么难,因为商学的很多领域例如金融、营销、运营,都是数据驱动的,需要很多定量研究的技术。那时候我学了物理,就想做一些实用性的工作;我学了计算机,但还想做一些和中国的发展有关的事情。我知道如果我学商学会有更多机会,所以我在90年代中期去了美国,申请了商学院。商学院的博士项目出人意料地并不难进入,因为他们很看重我定量研究的背景。我在物理和计算机领域的学习背景真的给了我很大帮助。现在我依然觉得当初在物理和计算机方面的学习对我的研究帮助很大。
What area of research are you interested in? 您对什么领域比较感兴趣?
I’m doing quantitative marketing, or to put it other way I’m working with data-driven marketing applications. It involves using data to understand consumer behavior, using data to understand marketing decisions, and optimizing decisions with data, and also touching on subjects like e-commerce, internet marketing, and social network. 我在做计量经济学,换句话说,就是和数据驱动的营销应用打交道。它包括用数据理解消费者的行为,用数据理解营销决策,根据数据做出最优决策。它跟电子商务、网络营销和社交网络这些方面也有所关联。
Has your research shown differences in marketing strategies in China versus the US? 你在研究中有发现什么中美营销策略的不同吗?
Not much actually. If you look at the marketing, especially in the most advanced areas of practical marketing, the gap between China and the US is actually very small, or even non-existent. The famous Chinese companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and so on, which rely heavily on e-commerce and Internet or “internet plus” business, are actually very sophisticated. As I see it, new technology is easy to catch up to. You don’t need to go through the whole process of developing a new framework, you just add new technology to the existing framework.
实际上不多。如果你关注营销,尤其是实战营销中最前沿的方面,你会发现中美间的差距非常小,甚至不存在。中国的著名企业比如阿里巴巴、腾讯等很大程度上依赖于电子商务、网络和互联网业务,而且非常成熟。在我看来,最新的科技总是容易赶上,因为你不需要重新构建一个新框架,而只需要把新技术加入现有的框架中就可以了。 So what areas do you find China is perhaps lagging behind in? 那有什么方面中国是比较落后的吗?
I think the area where China is a bit behind in is something related to “soft power”, which basically revolves around how to build a brand image, how to enhance the consumer’s experience with a product. Soft areas such as these.
我认为中国在和“软实力”有关的方面稍显逊色,主要是如何建立品牌形象以及如何提升产品的顾客体验这些。 Is this an area you suggest your students look into for their careers? 您会建议你的学生日后从事研究“软实力”这个方面吗?
Yes, it’s a very important area to investigate. When a country develops middle income and high income demographics from a low income population, usually the consumers will look for utilitarian benefits from products; they don’t care about brand, it’s all about price and function. But eventually they gain more experience and want more utility from the emotional aspects of a product. The branding becomes more and more important when income grows and economy develops. Now we’re in a stage where branding and these soft aspects of marketing are becoming more and more important in China. I think our students may have a distinctive advantage working in this area, because this type of thing requires a lot of innovative thinking, and for people to be very open-minded, creative, and possessing global perspectives. Those are the traits which I think can be very useful in this area. A liberal arts education really helps here.
是的,这在研究上是一个非常重要的领域。当一个国家从低收入人群中发展到中等收入和高收入人群时,消费者会更关注产品的实用价值而非品牌,价格和功能成为主要考量。但最后,随着这群消费者的经验越加丰富,他们会更加追求产品的情感价值。所以收入增加、经济发展的时候品牌宣传也会变得越来越重要。而现在,我们正处在品牌宣传和其他营销软性方面在中国日趋重要的一个阶段。我认为我们的学生在这方面有着显著的优势,因为这些工作需要很强的创新思维,需要非常开明、有创造力和全球视野的人才。这样的人文素质至关重要,而通识教育对此帮助很大。 So what do you think of our students and what are the unique aspects of their generation? How do NYU Shanghai students compare to students in China or other students you’ve taught? 您认为我们的学生怎么样?这一代有什么特点?上海纽约的学生和中国及其他您教过的学生相比又怎么样?
Honestly speaking, before I came back to China and started at NYU Shanghai, I only taught MBA students and doctoral students. Since I have no reference to compare undergraduate students of the same generation between China and the US, I will speak on how the students of today compare to my generation. I feel like they’re more creative, and take more initiative than students during my college years. They’re especially good at seeking out interesting opportunities – startup competitions, and business plan competitions for example. They’re very active in seeking outside opportunities and finding out about interesting ideas. It’s a very positive trait.
其实在我回到中国,并在上海纽约大学工作之前,只教过MBA和博士生。因为我没有参考资料可以用来比较同一代的中美大学生,我就比较一下现在的学生和我这一代吧。比起我上学的时候,我感觉现在的学生们更有创意,也更加主动。他们特别善于发现一些特别的机会,例如创业大赛、商业企划大赛,也很积极地去寻找一些校外的机会,发掘一些有趣的想法。这都是很积极的一面。
What do you think much marketing teaches you about people in general? 总的来说,营销教给你了什么重要的知识?
The most important lesson I’ve learned from marketing is that you should always try to put yourself in other peoples’ shoes. You should not just form a perception of others based on a preconceptions. In marketing, we always think about and talk about listening to the consumers – what they will think of the product you’re selling or making, but this also applies to other situations in the real life. We should not form beliefs based solely on our own experiences. People are very different, so you should try to think from their perspective, their likes and dislikes. That’s the key of marketing, taking in the consumer’s perspective.
我从营销中学到的最重要的一课就是要永远站在别人的角度思考。你不能根据一点成见就对他人形成某种观念。在营销中,我们始终要考虑消费者,要倾听他们——他们会怎么看你销售的或者生产的产品,但这条原则在现实生活中的其他方面也一样适用。我们不能仅凭自己的经验就形成某种观点。人和人之间的区别很大,所以你应该努力地从他们的角度思考他们的好恶。这是营销的关键:从顾客的角度思考。 What are other foundational principles of marketing you teach to NYU Shanghai students? 除此之外,您还向上纽的学生们教授了什么基本的营销准则? I’m teaching Introduction to Marketing, and I taught a similar course to MBA students in the past. The major difference is, MBA students tend to have rich working experience to draw upon. That’s why the course I taught them was basically oriented towards case studies, and every session would include a case discussion. Here, however, the challenge for the instructor with regards to the students I the lack of work experience. This makes discussion of case studies more difficult, and makes it difficult to draw upon examples. I also think teaching here is uniquely challenging because we have an equal number of Chinese and international students, which is very different from the US and China. I’ve taught in both American and Chinese international business schools. In the US, the international students are the minority, and international students in the US tend to actively make an effort to absorb American culture. They’ll watch sitcoms and read the news. When you teach in the US, you use examples based in the US that everyone knows about. The opposite applies in China, if you’re teaching mostly Chinese students, you talk about Chinese case studies like Wanglaoji. Here, I face a new challenge. Half the class has no idea about the culture in the US, but our textbook is written in the US, it talks about US companies, and give examples based on American case studies. A lot of Chinese students have no context for these case studies, because they have no work experience, have not worked in the US. Then if you give Chinese examples, the other half of the class has no idea what I’m talking about. This is the challenge, and it’s also why I tend to focus my case studies on very well-known brands like Apple, Coca-cola, and McDonald’s. I think this is a marketing specific challenge. It’s easier for other business professors, because marketing is really context-dependent. It’s about branding and consumer behavior, shopping habits, etc. Those things are very culture and context dependent.
我现在教的课是Introduction to Marketing,之前也给MBA 的学生上过类似的课。主要区别就是MBA 的学生有丰富的工作经验可供借鉴,所以我给他们上的课基本都是针对案例研究,每小节都会包括一个案例讨论。但在这里,作为教师最大的挑战就是学生们缺乏工作经验,这让案例研究时的讨论和举例都更加困难。我认为在这里授课特别有挑战性,还在于我们有相同数量的中国学生和国际学生,这跟在中国和美国都不同。我在中国和美国的国际商学院都教过课。在美国,国际学生是少数,他们会积极主动地去融入美国文化,比如看情景喜剧和新闻。当你在美国上课的时候就用大家都知道的美国案列。反过来在中国也一样,如果你教的大多数是中国学生就做中国的案例研究,比如王老吉。然而在这里,我面对的是一项新的挑战。班上一半的同学对美国文化毫不熟悉,但我们的课本是在美国编写的,讲的是美国的公司,根据美国的案例研究举例。很多中国学生不知道这些案例的背景,因为他们没有工作经验,也没在美国工作过。如果你举中国的例子呢,另一半学生又不知道我在说什么。这就是挑战所在了,也是我之所以把案例研究聚焦在非常著名的品牌比如苹果、可口可乐和麦当劳的原因。我想这应该是营销学独有的挑战,其他商学教授上课应该会容易一些,因为营销学实在太依赖于背景知识了。它和品牌推广、消费者行为、消费习惯等等有关,而这些都与文化背景紧密相连。 Why do you enjoy teaching marketing? 您享受教营销学吗?
I enjoy it because marketing itself is kind of fun. Also, teaching helps keep me up to date. If you teach marketing, you have to follow the latest developments in the fields. In business schools in the US and China, you have to keep reading, talking to people, talking to companies. It’s fun, and it’s social.
我很享受,因为营销学本身比较有趣,而且上课让我一直紧跟时代潮流。如果你教营销学,你必须紧随这个领域中的最新发展。在中国和美国的商学院里,你必须一直阅读,同人交流,同企业交流。这很有趣,也是一种交际。 If your students want to pursue career in marketing, what kind of advice would you give them? 如果您的学生想从事营销工作,你会给他们什么建议?
Marketing nowadays is both a science and an art. If they want to pursue this field, they have to be aware of three things. The first, is that nowadays, and even more so in the future, marketing is becoming more and more quantitative, more data-driven. They need to learn about business statistics and big data. These things will become very useful. The second thing to remember is that despite its data-driven characteristics, marketing is and always will be an art. So they should have some knowledge in the humanities, and areas like anthropology, history, culture. These will come in very useful. If you really want to understand consumers and branding, that kind of training is essential. Finally, I think if you really want to be good at marketing, you have to be very humble, because at the end of the day, your opinion comes secondary to the consumer’s. So it’s very important. In marketing, the consumer is never right or wrong, when they make a choice, you follow them.
现今的营销学既是科学,又是艺术。如果他们想致力于这个领域,必须牢记三件事情:第一,营销学正变得越来越量化,越来越由数据驱动,现在是这样,将来会更加如此。他们需要学习商业统计和大数据,这些会很有用;第二,即使有数据驱动这一特点,营销学始终还是一门艺术,所以需要了解人文学科,包括人类学、历史和文化等方面的知识。如果你真的想要理解顾客和品牌,这种训练是必要的。最后,如果你真的想要擅长营销,就必须懂得谦虚,因为最终顾客的想法才是第一位的,这点很重要。在营销中,顾客永远没有对错,当他们作出决定时,你就要听从他们。
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