This article is part of the "Summer School" series, which presents students who spend their summer abroad.

The Bachelor students are back on campus from the summer break!

Many students took advantage of the time off to go on a Summer School. Sannya Amoikon, third year student in the program, shared her experience at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology:

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Sannya

Why did you decide to go on a summer School? : I chose to go on a summer school to discover another way of teaching and another country mainly.
 

Which university did you go to? : I went to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. I chose this destination first because of the diversity of courses proposed. Then, I realized I had never been anywhere close to China! Seeing how far it was from home, it was definitely an adventure calling me. I think we were about 100 to 200 people from all over the world. Some people were from Europe, Sweden, Denmark and such. Others came from the US (a lot of them), especially from the University of Michigan. There were also some people from NTU in Singapore.

How did your integration in the program go? : I did not benefit much from the integration activities because I came in late. However, we had a welcome dinner that was a very nice opportunity to meet a lot of different people. It was a good starting point to make friends apart from classes. Getting integrated is not hard as well if you do the field trips, cultural activities and just take the time to talk to your roommates and suitemates. The field trips and cultural workshops are great because they help you meet people and understand the cultural differences.
 

A few words about the classes? : I found the classes to be very different from École Polytechnique. Personally, I took an electrical engineering course on robotics that I loved, since we had to build a robot at the end! I also studied Chinese as a beginner and took an online computer science course offered by the school. The two first ones were my main courses and the most challenging ones coming in with a theoretical background and a knowledge of mainly Latin languages.
 

How was the campus life? : The campus was amazing. It was huge and had a lot of facilities like dance rooms that were open to be booked by students. I did, and they are amazing. There are also a lot of different sport facilities open quite late. Activity wise, the campus always has some kind of seminars going on that could be attended freely just by signing up.
 

What was your favorite memory? : I think my favorite memory was the welcome dinner. I met one of my very good friends there. They also made it very fun by initiation games and I can tell you that trying to lift a marble with chopsticks is bound to make you go crazy!
 

What was your least favorite memory? : Studying for midterms in the middle of the summer is definitely NOT fun.

Any cultural fun facts? : I don’t know if it’s fun but don’t get on green minibuses before anyone has told you how they work if you do not speak Cantonese. That is how I got lost on my second day!
 

What did this experience bring you? : On a personal level, I discovered so many things and it really built my mental strength. Being away without anyone teaches you how to pick yourself up and adapt to situations very quickly. Academically speaking, it helped me define my future career: I will go ahead and learn how to build things. When they finally work, it is the most rewarding feeling (here, you can see how much my robotic project traumatized me).
 

Anything to add? : I would definitely recommend going on summer schools: it teaches a whole lot and it looks nice on your CV!

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Sannya 2

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