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Student Spotlight: Jun Xie

Translations available in English | Cantonese | Mandarin

Leaving her family in China to study at Fordham University took courage and a leap of faith for Nijun “Jun” Xie, GABELLI ’19. Looking back, the global business major and economics minor says that her experience as a business student has been like no other and has prepared her solidly for the future. It also transformed her into a savvy New Yorker.

In the first few weeks as a Fordham student, Xie had concerns about overcoming the language barrier. Without speaking fluent English, she worried about making friends, but her dormitory resident advisor, fellow students and professors helped her navigate the first few weeks of living in a different country. She quickly realized that she fit easily in to the University’s diverse culture as well as the diverse community of New York City.

“The Gabelli School is composed of students from different backgrounds,” she said. “By getting to know and work with these people, I learned valuable lessons about diversity and cooperation.”

In fact, it was Fordham’s location that led Xie to select the University over others in the Northeast. She also valued the courses, small class sizes and people she met along the way. “I could meet and take lessons with the same group of people every day, and I made many close friends,” she said. “My professors, especially Jennifer O’Neill and Timothy Malefyt, also gave me a lot of encouragement regarding my career.”

One of her favorite courses was Design Thinking, in which students worked in teams on two research projects. “It taught me the most about leadership,” she said. “My teammates valued my ideas and I became more confident, and I was able to help them, too. To me, leadership is not only about leading, it’s about understanding and sharing.

Xie’s advisors helped throughout her years at the Gabelli School, assisting with everything from preparing her resume, LinkedIn page and cover letters—all of which landed her internships, one as a marketing intern at a financial services company and another at Hilton in New York City. She also spent a summer in California interning at SF Motors Inc. “That was my favorite internship experience,” she said. “It was amazing because it made me realize my passion is in the automobile industry.”

The summer before her West Coast internship, Xie traveled to Tanzania and Rwanda where she volunteered at Operation Groundswell, a nonprofit focused on animal and land conservation, and stayed with a local family. “I realized that even small acts can make a difference,” Xie said, adding that she and her teammates planted more than 1,000 trees.

Xie thinks she will stay in the city that she has called home for the past four years, and she plans to pursue a master’s degree. “Day by day, it becomes harder and harder for me to say goodbye to New York City.”

Translations available in English | Cantonese | Mandarin

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