RRU student’s Malaysia exchange expanded her sustainability horizons

Learn more about the Master of Arts in Environment and Management.

For Royal Roads Master of Arts in Environment and Management student, Shuwen Tian, travelling to learn is something she’s used to.

Tian, who is from Ordos in northern China and lived in Edmonton for over a decade, completed a four-month exchange program at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) under the sponsorship and funding of the Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarships.

She says taking the Climate Science and Prediction course at UKM was part of a semester that was “an eye-opening experience.” The exchange also included events hosted by the university and other organizations to help students learn both about Malaysian culture and the cultures of exchange students from around the globe.

Real-life learning during exchange

Tian also benefited from hands-on learning opportunities to connect her classroom lessons with on-the-ground experiences. For instance, a tour to view some of Malaysia’s extensive mangrove forests provided a first-hand look at their crucial role in protecting coastal communities from erosion.

“It was an opportunity for me to see more of the theories and concepts that I have learned in class, to see what they’re like in real life,” Tian says.

She also credits the exchange with helping her expand her network and her idea of what her future career might look like.

“Networking with [sustainability and  regenerative-focused] businesses or companies really inspired me to explore different opportunities within the sustainability fields,” she says. “It encouraged me to innovate more about where I can go and what I can do. I used to think I could only work in an office but now I don’t think that’s the case anymore. It’s quite inspiring.”

Longtime interest in environment and sustainability

Tian’s interest in sustainability is longstanding — she volunteered for a number of environmental organizations in Alberta — and was a key decision factor to attend Royal Roads’ MAEM program.

“I wanted to use this program to broaden my vision or my view within the sustainability landscape,” she says. “What exactly is in this area? What are people talking about?”

Indeed, Tian says talking about the environment and sustainability with classmates has been enriching, and she credits her MAEM cohort for a positive school experience, noting, “The group made me absolutely fall in love with learning. I genuinely enjoyed the exchanging of ideas with people in class. I really enjoyed the group work, the collaboration work.”

With her exchange completed, she is turning her focus back to her master’s thesis, studying how the Chinese community in the city of Vancouver engages with food waste reduction and prevention outreach strategies.     

But she’s still buzzing from the exchange experience, saying, “Seeing the world definitely enriches a student’s life tremendously — the people you meet, the conversations you have, it’s very rare… If people have the time and capacity to do something like this, I would say 100 per cent, do it.”

The Queen Elizabeth Scholarships

The Queen Elizabeth Scholarships aim to mobilize a dynamic community of young global leaders to create lasting impacts both at home and abroad through inter-cultural exchanges encompassing international education, discovery and inquiry, and professional experiences. More than 2,600 scholarships have been awarded to date, and 55 Canadian universities, including RRU, and colleges have successfully competed for QES project funding.

Learn more about the Master of Arts in Environment and Management.