SGH Students’ American Dream – cooperation with Santander Bank Polska
A grant-funded holiday trip to the USA may sound as a rather unreal dream. But not for SGH students.
This summer, thanks to Santander Bank Polska, four of our students went to New York, Georgetown and Silicon Valley to take part in international development programmes. The students had an opportunity to meet people from all over the world, as well as to acquire valuable knowledge and experience.
So, what kind of people did they return from the USA? Was it worthwhile? What did they learn? Enthusiastic stories of Magda, Karolina, Emilian and Krzysztof are full of adventures, experience, new friendships and precepts for future which hopefully will help them to achieve success and happiness.
More self-assured!
One might think that creating innovations is reserved for geniuses, and managing a company for entrepreneurs by nature. Due to participation in such projects as Trep Camp or workshops in Georgetown, the students could find out for themselves that passion and deep involvement, are key success factors.
The time spent in New York made me more self-assured. I realised that to be an entrepreneur one has to have passion and be involved in what one is doing since there will always be ups and downs. This trip has taught me that the world is full of amazing opportunities, says Magdalena Żylicz.
Capable of solving problems faster
The huge amount of knowledge obtained while studying is not all. The crucial element of becoming successful is the ability to use that knowledge to solve a problem. High speed of work, significant demands and short time available for making things done are just realities of an everyday professional life. The students confronted all those adversities, developing projects which may perhaps make the world better.
To describe my experience in the Silicon Valley in short, I would call it a business hackathon, except for that it continued for the entire month. Nowhere at the University, or during any of the classes, did I have such a chance to integrate with my peers, such a frequency of working together, developing leader skills and acquiring knowledge from team members as during the TrepCamp Entrepreneurial Simulator in the Silicon Valley, explains Emilian Łyga.
More tolerant towards other cultures
Only companies which respect diversities can achieve global success. The developed solutions which are meant to change the world have to satisfy needs of people originating from various cultures. Such a work environment is diversified; many companies work globally and their teams are multicultural. Therefore, the students worked in multidisciplinary teams composed of people from various parts of the world, for example from Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Poland, etc.
„The TrepCamp programme outgrew my expectations in many ways. First of all, I did not expect that within 3 weeks I would be able to enter into so many international contacts. Some of them I perceive as my future business partners. Some of them are my new friends who I am in touch with. It is due to the people I met and their unique perspective that I have developed as an entrepreneur and a team member,” says Karolina Szweda.
Thinking of what I have learned, I find classes depicting the problems of development of South America most valuable for me. I had an opportunity to learn more about the region and to see that the Polish way following democratic reforms proved truly successful. Our idea was to find a tool enabling self-saving through Internet banking (due to the raging inflation, the milennials’ growing expanses and low level of financial knowledge in the region). The idea was simple: an amount to be saved would be entered together with the term, and the application would suggest strategies of self-saving or financing the credit, explains Krzysztof Piestrak.
PATRYCJA DUTKIEWICZ, Manager for Business Relations, SGH Centre for Corporate Relations.
AGATA MIKUCKA, Business Development Specialist, Retail Banking Division, Santander Universidades Office.