My name is Audrey (Qianqian) Wang ‘25 and I am a rising sophomore at Holy Cross, majoring in English and Visual Art History with a Certificate in Business Fundamentals. This summer I am an office intern at the Ciocca Center for Business, Ethics, and Society. Some of my responsibilities include digitizing the Center’s files, drafting promotional materials, and identifying statistics to support the College’s celebration of coeducation next academic year.
Earlier this summer I participated in the Fullbridge Professional Edge Program, a weeklong intensive, virtual program (online due to a COVID-19 surge) designated to pave the way for Holy Cross students to succeed in the demanding business world. Since its founding in 2011, the Fullbridge program has been uniquely positioned to help aspiring individuals at every level bridge the knowledge and skills gap with immersive, affordable training, reaching over 350,000 learners worldwide. Born into a business family in a metropolitan, fast-paced Chinese city and growing up in both Massachusetts and China, I felt the Fullbridge program has empowered me to step out of my comfort zone. I can now confidently analyze the discrepancies between Chinese and American business cultures.
The majority of my cohort were also first-year students exploring business. On the first day of the program, I was immediately fascinated by the face-paced yet highly interactive learning environment made possible by experienced coaches and passionate participants. We built relationships through daily virtual webinars, Zoom office hours, and breakout room discussions. Additionally, it was a great opportunity to make new friends on campus who share the same passion.
We developed skills like data analysis, business IQ, design thinking, emotional intelligence, real-world problem solving, idea flow, and situational awareness which all matter to organizational excellence, test decisions made under pressure, and correlate with outstanding performance.
One of my most rewarding experiences was a session after class, where the coaches talked to us about their real-life working experiences. For example, my coach worked for Disney and she was able to apply the techniques from the Disney weekly brainstorming session to our final project. We immediately were able to create fun stories. In each teaching session, the Fullbridge coaches skillfully engaged us in a cycle of self-knowledge-making to develop a competent skill set. Skills like data analysis, business IQ, design thinking, emotional intelligence, real-world problem solving, idea flow, and situational awareness all matter to organizational excellence, test decisions made under pressure, and correlate with outstanding performance. This learning of vital knowledge was also accompanied by a self-checking portal. Through collaborating with the Fullbridge coaches, I understood what strategic vision is meant to be in the professional world: building alignment and decision-making capacity to ready your company for future challenges. If examining the nature of business is what motivated me to apply for admission to the Fullbridge program, now, I am more committed to participating in more opportunities offered by the Ciocca Center.
What I enjoyed the most about the Fullbridge program was its emphasis on project-driven, detail-oriented teamwork. This is a necessary skill that all organizations demand and one that is at the core of every business role. Throughout the program, I collaborated with a small team to devise and implement an effective marketing strategy to grow Under Armor’s revenue and market share. This assignment demanded my capacity to identify a specific problem and perform data analysis and market analysis promptly. Fullbridge not only integrated knowledge from AP Economics but also a basic understanding of how corporations operate. After countless brainstorming sessions with my team carefully analyzing the data and website, and applying what we have learned to a “real-life” scenario was exhilarating. For the final outcome, our team decided to launch women’s Lifestyle Apparel to grow our revenue and market share to the max. Through this challenging experience, I confirmed my belief that a career in the business world is exactly the excitement that I have been looking for.
There is no such thing as too late for anyone with an interest in the business to broaden their exposure to the profession through the intensive, weeklong Fullbridge program. If you have any specific questions or just general inquiries, you are more than welcome to contact me directly by email at QWANG25<at>g.holycross.edu or by LinkedIn at Audrey_Qianqian_Wang.
Audrey (Qianqian) Wang ‘25 of Shenyang is an English and Visual Art History double major who has participated in a plethora of opportunities on campus. She is aspiring to get into early-career graduate programs in business before growing as an investor relations professional. In addition to English, Audrey speaks fluent Mandarin and basic Spanish.
