This series highlights Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors who achieved the Gold milestone and have recently graduated from university. Each blog features a different student and highlights their accomplishments, their experience with the Student Ambassadors community, and what they’re up to now.
Today we’d like to introduce Chang Li who is from China and graduated recently from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Responses have been edited for clarity and length.
When you became a Student Ambassador in December of 2016, did you have any specific goals you wanted to reach, like attain a skill or work on a particular quality? What were they, and did being a Student Ambassador help you achieve them?
At the very beginning, it was not that specific a goal. I just wanted to gain more knowledge and then help others to know the technology and let them know the power and potential of it, but after a few years in this community, I was affected by the contestants of the Imagine Cup and other Student Ambassadors, and my goal transferred to a more specific one: to utilize the technology that I know to help people who have suffered because they have some kind of disease or just help the poor to live a easier life in some parts of the world. I think I’m on my way because I was inspired by various activities that the Student Ambassadors program held, and I got many ideas from that, and I am going to work with a group of people to make something new to help reach the target.
I will never forget that day I became one of the members of this big family because it took a long time for me to prepare for the interview, and I had a hard time waiting for the result after the interview. When I received the offer to join, I shared the information with all of my friends and family. I was so happy that I could learn more about technology through Microsoft and that I would have the chance to meet developers all around the world.
What was one of the accomplishments that you're proudest of?
I held many workshops, seminars and hackathons through the Student Ambassador program at my university. I can’t even remember the specific number of times that I held events--it’s like every month me and my friends together we would hold a small one like a discussion about a new trend of coding, and every season we would hold something bigger. What makes me so proud is not just the sheer number of events that I held, it’s more like the atmosphere that we created together. We share views on new things, and we give comments to each other so we can all learn something new and keep making progress by the help of those events.
And I also was the volunteer reporter of the Imagine Cup China for 3 years. I helped with the publicity and dinner ceremony planning and even got a chance to be the host of the finals.
All of this gave me a feeling of self-improvement and an increase in self-worth.
What do you have planned now that you’ve graduated? What’s next for you after the university?
I’ll go to a company like Microsoft to keep fulfilling my goal, which is utilizing the technology to help the people who are suffering. Of course, if I could get a job in Microsoft, that would be the best thing ever!
If you could redo your time in the Student Ambassadors community, is there anything you would do differently?
I have spent a lot of time mostly talking to the people close to me; it restricted the mindset a little bit. I think I’d spend more time on communicating with the Students Ambassadors from other countries. I’d want to know about how they think about a specific kind of technology and listen to their ideas about some hot issues.
If you were to describe the Student Ambassadors community to a student who is considering joining, what would you say to convince them to join?
You will find all the things that you could imagine about developing and computing here in the Student Ambassadors program, and the people here are really nice, so you can gain knowledge, friends, and belief.
And what advice would you give to new Student Ambassadors?
Always remember to review the activities that you hold. You will learn more from regularly reviewing. And don’t forget to adjust it the next time.
Be positive. The platform is really huge. Show yourself and don’t be shy.
Do you have a motto in life, a guiding principle that drives you?
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone” is a guiding principle that drives me.
You have to keep moving forward so that you can learn the thing that others don’t understand and view the beautiful scenery that others won’t see.
Lastly, on a lighter note, can you share one random fun fact about you that not many people know?
I used to be a vegetarian. After reading some nutrition books, I decided to give up meat and was a vegetarian for four years. It wasn’t eating meat I was against, but rather industrial farming and the chemicals/antibiotics in the meat that I didn’t like. I also enjoyed the feeling of always being refreshed when only eating vegetables. I gave up vegetarianism when I started to go to the gym, because I need to get more protein from the meat.
Thank you, Chang, and good luck to you in all your future endeavors!
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