BAID Summer Program Sharing Session: Unlocking a Different Path to Growth During the Vacation
On December 2, 2025, the B1 assembly hall in Yongding Building was packed to capacity as a sharing session focused on summer program applications and personal growth opened with warmth and inspiration. Four students who had returned from summer programs at top universities brought their firsthand experiences and rich takeaways, engaging the teachers and students present in an in-depth dialogue on academic exploration, growth planning, and future choices.
The session invited four students — Jiang Bohan (Engineering Summer Academy at Penn), Mao Yuan'ai (Berkeley Business Academy for Youth, B-BAY), Sun Yukun (Cornell SCE Precollege Studies), and Xu Haochen (Summer OxCam Research Programme) — to comprehensively break down the essential aspects of summer program applications and experiences, covering program type selection, application planning, and material preparation to personal growth. Their real-life stories illuminated the path forward for their peers.
During the session, all four students independently arrived at the same conclusion: a summer program is far more than a résumé booster — it is a vital journey of self-discovery and world exploration. Through cross-cultural study and daily life, they sharpened their intellectual perspectives, broadened their global outlook, and gained greater clarity on their future academic and career directions.
The sharing session opened a window for students, revealing another possibility for what a "vacation" could be — not idle downtime, but a strategically planned, challenge-filled period of substantial personal growth. The true value of a remarkable vacation lies not in whether it takes place at a top university, but in whether you use that time to make a bold stride toward a higher goal.
BAID has always encouraged students to explore themselves and grow within the real-world classroom. Moving forward, we will continue to build more platforms for sharing, exchange, and guidance, empowering every student to walk their path of exploration with greater confidence and resolve.
Student Reflections
Mao Yuan'ai
My original intention was simple — to open a small window for students choosing their next summer. I thought I was merely describing classrooms in a foreign land, late-night libraries, and faces of every shade, all furrowing their brows over the same questions. But when I laid those moments of anxiety, delight, and even slight awkwardness honestly before everyone, I gained something far more precious — growth.
This sharing session was, for me, a deep reflection on my own thinking. The process of putting my feelings into words was like a quiet conversation, allowing me to look again at those days of intense personal growth and salvage something more important than a transcript: the ability to rebuild daily order in complete unfamiliarity, the tolerance and persistence learned through the collision of perspectives, and the understanding of the weight behind the term "global citizen" — a weight of understanding and responsibility.
I believe that the vitality of a school lies precisely in this kind of spontaneous, sincere exchange. It is not found in grand narratives, but in those brief moments when each individual is willing to open their palms and reveal both their harvests and their scars. These small stories converge into a river, breaking down barriers of information, dissolving unnecessary fears, and making the word "dream" concrete, clear, and reachable.
I am grateful to the school for providing such a platform, where individual voices can be heard and personal experiences can flow into the collective stream. If my sharing brought even a glimmer of inspiration or a measure of courage, that would be my greatest honor. I look forward to hearing more stories from different places and different fields in the future. When we illuminate one another, no road is ever traveled alone.
In truth, we were not sharing "success" — we were passing on a flame: the curiosity about the world, the faith in growth, and the precious courage to step beyond one's comfort zone.
Xu Haochen
I am very grateful to the school for giving me this opportunity to share. To prepare for this talk, I revisited the photos and notes from my time at the Cambridge summer program. Those fragments of study and daily life made the experience especially vivid in my memory.
I realized that the most precious thing this period left me was a sense of inner "confirmation." In that pure, focused atmosphere, immersed daily in biomedical reading and discussion, I could clearly feel that my interest in this field was genuine and enduring, making me all the more resolute in the path I had chosen.
At the same time, listening to the other students' sharing benefited me greatly. Their vivid experiences and keen insights revealed the brilliance of different fields of study. This process of clarifying the self through exchange and broadening one's perspective through listening is precisely what made the sharing session so valuable.
Lin Boting
Attending this summer program experience-sharing session in person was enormously rewarding. The four senior students participated in signature academic programs at top global institutions: Jiang Bohan was admitted to the Engineering Summer Academy at the University of Pennsylvania; Mao Yuan'ai took part in the Berkeley Business Academy for Youth program at the University of California, Berkeley; Sun Yukun attended the Cornell SCE Precollege Studies; and Xu Haochen joined the joint research program at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. From Ivy League institutions in North America to top universities in the United Kingdom, their experiences reflected not only the heights of individual academic capability but also the breadth of international academic exploration.
During the sharing segment, the four seniors combined their personal experiences to carefully unpack the core logic and key preparation points of summer program applications. Jiang Bohan noted that the Penn Engineering Summer Academy focuses on STEM academic potential, so he highlighted his competition results in subjects such as mathematics and physics — including awards from academic competitions like the BPhO — along with a self-directed small-scale engineering project report in his application materials. These elements demonstrated both his academic foundation and his practical interest in engineering.
Mao Yuan'ai, addressing the "application-oriented" nature of the Berkeley Business Academy for Youth program, emphasized her full-process involvement in mock business competitions. She transformed her real-world competition experiences into the core material of her application essay, reflecting the program's emphasis on "business acumen and practical ability."
Sun Yukun, sharing her experience applying to the Cornell SCE Precollege Studies, mentioned that the program values students' willingness to explore academic disciplines. She therefore detailed in her materials the independent experiments she conducted outside of class — including the experimental design rationale, data organization process, and preliminary conclusions — aligning her "proactive exploration" trait with the program's educational philosophy.
Xu Haochen, whose joint Oxbridge research program demanded a high level of academic research capability, not only submitted an independently written research paper in his application but also presented a complete "academic process plus outcome" narrative, underscoring his research potential as a fit for the program. He also shared many photographs from his time at the summer program, recounting the memorable moments and daily life he experienced there.
The four seniors' sharing gave me a far more concrete understanding of summer program applications: the selection process is fundamentally about the alignment between personal qualities and program positioning. This session not only provided actionable application strategies but also demonstrated the value of international academic platforms through the four seniors' firsthand experiences. These summer programs are not merely vehicles for acquiring knowledge but bridges for expanding academic horizons and connecting with global resources. The sharing session both clarified the direction for summer program preparation and inspired me to look toward outstanding senior students as role models, motivating me to proactively explore higher academic stages.