Engaging University of Chicago students through online internships
A mini game, ‘What Type of Chinese Ceramics are You?’, developed by a UChicago student will soon go live on the website of the Art Museum.
While travelling has been much restricted by the pandemic, it has not stopped CUHK from continuing to engage with the rest of the world. Prof. Luxi Shen from the Department of Marketing and Prof. Josh Yiu from the Arts Museum, both of whom are alumni of the University of Chicago (UChicago), played host to UChicago students for online internships in the past year, allowing them to gain hands-on working experience without travelling. At the same time, the collaboration has contributed to the partnership development between the two universities.
Prof. Shen hosted five UChicago students remotely in her lab to work on behavioral studies related to psychology, behavioral economics and marketing during the first term. ‘The students worked as research assistants to support research studies and data collection. In one of the projects, they conducted interviews with online customer service representatives in Hong Kong and mainland China to investigate how sales strategies may vary by products. Online supervision is not easy, but I am happy to serve as a bridge between CUHK and UChicago.’ Prof. Shen will co-chair a marketing conference with UChicago’s Booth School of Business in September to discuss issues facing marketing researchers and executives in Asia.
The Art Museum, which received the Outstanding UChicago Partner Award last year, offered online internships to two UChicago students during June 2020–February 2021. The students were engaged in different kinds of museum work, ranging from editing exhibition catalogues, writing a book review, to preparing educational materials such as a minigame and a video for an exhibition. Prof. Yiu, Director of the Art Museum, was impressed with the performance of these students, ‘They were responsible, independent and efficient, and made significant contribution to our team.’ Apart from hosting interns, the Art Museum organised a seminar on ‘Hong Kong Impressions: Re-imagine Our City through Art and Stories’ with UChicago in October last year. ‘It was a rewarding session, serving as a starting point for us to delve deeper into the urban history as well as sustainable development of Hong Kong.’ Prof. Yiu looks forward to deepening the partnership with UChicago on museum work in the future.
The Summer Undergraduate Research Programme, offered by the Office of Academic Links, will take place during 28 June–20 August virtually this year. CUHK faculty members who are enthusiastic to host overseas students are welcome to contact Ms. Olivia Kwok.