Summer Intern

The PwC YouPlus Programme: accounting fundamentals, Power BI, and advanced Excel for business analysis.

The main project was a business plan for Buy42, a donation-based charity shop in Shanghai that employs people with disabilities. I ran market surveys with the owners and their customers, then presented the recommendations to PwC mentors.

I was sixteen, the youngest in the room, surrounded by people already holding college offers — and I'd taken exactly one economics course in my life. So I found a different job: I became the one who brought the coffee, asked the questions everyone else was too embarrassed to ask, and kept the room laughing. Inexperience makes decent armor if you wear it openly.

It was also a reality check. Nearly every clever idea we pitched, the owner had already tried or considered — rent, salaries, logistics, revenue all pulling at once. Running a business, especially a non-profit, is far harder than any classroom version of it.

I left half-convinced this is what schools should be teaching, instead of leaving it for a summer to reveal.