Visiting Rutgers Business School: The importance of ethics

11 June 2018

MSc Finance student Jinghao Cheng shares her experiences of a recent trip to Rutgers Business School, New Jersey, to take part in their custom-made ‘Ethical Leadership Program’.

Jinghao Cheng

I’m Jinghao Cheng, an MSc Finance student, and my friends call me Anita. I was born in a small village where very few people talk about finance, but after the financial crisis, I developed a strong interest in finance and was successfully accepted by Shanghai University of Finance and Economics for my Undergraduate degree. Following this, out of curiosity for finance abroad and the reputation of the School, I chose to study at WBS.

When I heard about the US study trip to Rutgers, I was more than excited to not only get to know the USA, the biggest financial market, but also learn more about finance ethics under a different mode of education.

Ethical Leadership to Blockchain

We studied at Rutgers for three days of the trip, and were divided into small groups and taught about Ethical Leadership, Blockchain, Socially Responsible Investing, and CFA Ethics. The classes were engaging and interesting, consisting of case studies and small group presentations. The final day of the trip was quite thrilling, as we went to Wall Street, visited Deutsche Bank in the morning, and took a tour around New York City in the afternoon.

The most thought-provoking session, for me, was held by Joanne who taught us Ethical Leadership. There were many discussions on short stories, dilemma scenarios, cultural enlightening, and case studies. I believe all of us enjoyed it and had deep reflection on those stories. We didn’t stop discussing, even after the class was finished!

One of the sessions at Rutgers Business School

The importance of ethics

Every class was really beneficial to me. I learned the importance of ethics in leadership and found out that ethics is even more complicated than I thought in this high-speed world. We need to always keep ethics in mind and never stop pondering about it in our working life.

I also got to know more about Blockchain and started to think about the potential problems underneath. Besides this, the Socially Responsible Investing class was interesting, as each group of us presented our planned fund product to investors (other students) which triggered lots of discussions. Further to this, the CFA Ethics class well prepared us for the coming CFA tests. Last but not least, we benefited a lot through the share session with Deutsche Bank, which enlightened us on career paths and the finance sector, as well as recruitment preferences.

MSc Finance students outside Deutsche Bank

Stand out moments

Outside of the programme Rutgers put together for us, we went to Manhattan nearly every night as it was quite close to where we were staying. We went shopping and had the chance to experience Manhattan life.

My favourite part was the class at Rutgers though. I really enjoyed it and I loved the way of teaching, through case study and story discussion, which was really engaging and provided us with the opportunity to think about it deeply. Sometimes the discussion actually exceeded the scope of the question proposed, making it even more profound.

I would definitely recommend this sort of trip to future students, as it’s really a rare chance to have such a valuable experience! 

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