Nexstep Insights
12 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 5 years ago -NEXSTEP Conversations is the beginning of a new set of shows hosted and produced by Michael Waitze, the founder and host behind the Asia Tech Podcast and Michael Waitze Presents. NEXSTEP Alumni whom have participated in NEXSTEP’ advanced experiential learning programs share their unique experiences in a podcast called Future Leaders. They contextualise every alumni’s excitement, stress and growth as they tell their stories in Asia. They give insight on how they persevered, adapted and matures through their experience they encountered in environments that are foreign to them in many ways than one.
Every conversation is an inspirational account told by those that went through the experience themselves.
The GlobeChan(g)e show showcases High School Students students who have left home to study overseas.
These conversations are vital for students, corporations, educators, business people and anyone that is concerned about the continuous evolvement of global employability
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Episodes
Future Leader: Episode 12 - Robert Charlton – It Inspired Me A Lot
December 29, 2018 14:00 - 20 minutes - 9.42 MBRobert Charlton has very good insights. When you listen to him speak, you can tell that he thinks a lot. He told me that the study tour he did with Next Step Connections, “…inspired me a lot.” I could tell from our conversation that he meant it. He discussed in detail the relevant differences between a startup live Hive Up and a multinational corporation he visited. He pointed out that the startups seemed more open with information while MNCs seemed more protective. Another core diffe...
Future Leader: Episode 11 - Nabila Khokhar – I’m Done Second Guessing
December 28, 2018 17:00 - 22 minutes - 10.1 MBFor the 30 minutes or so that I was talking to Nabila Khokhar, I kept forgetting that she was still a student. Her maturity and self-confidence belied her age and she continuously surprised me with her well considered answers to my questions. Math is a passion of hers, which is always refreshing for me to hear. She also impressed me with her desire to get a diploma in Financial Planning that is separate from her degree. Instead of taking the easy way, she wanted to accomplish more. Tha...
Future Leader: Episode 10 - Paola Jimenez – Persist and You’ll Be a Champion
December 28, 2018 14:00 - 23 minutes - 10.8 MBAudio Player “My roommate’s cat broke them…” was the answer I got to the first question I asked Paola Jimenez, so I knew this was going to be a great conversation….Paola did not disappoint. Paola was encouraged to do an internship by her university, but had not considered going abroad to do it until she spoke to one of her friends and then the bug hit. She was inspired to enhance her personal and professional life by participating in Next Step Connection‘s program Bangkok, Thailand for...
Future Leader: Episode 9 - Benjamin Max Gottlieb – Yes, I’m In
December 27, 2018 05:07 - 32 minutes - 14.6 MBBenjamin Max Gottlieb is an Emmy-award winning reporter, producer and host based in Los Angeles, California. He is also a 2011 participant in a Next Step Connections internship program in Hong Kong, while he was a graduate student in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Southern California. Benjamin was paired with a Chinese student during the program, living in a small apartment in Mong Kok on the Kowloon Side of Hong Kong and working at CNN International. Although Benjamin was an...
Future Leader: Episode 8 - Fadi Madanat – It’s In the Name
December 27, 2018 04:51 - 24 minutes - 11.2 MBFadi Madanat is a student at Western Sydney University and is also an intern at its School of Business International Programs. He is also very interested in technology and the role it plays in our everyday lives. While he has traveled to Jordan to visit family and friends (Jordan…I really want to go!), he had not been to Southeast Asia, until he participated in Next Step Connection’s ‘Tech Innovation Discovery‘ program in Singapore. Meeting startups, visiting Google’s office, going to N...
Future Leader: Episode 7 - Jessica Joseph – A Magical Experience
December 23, 2018 14:00 - 24 minutes - 11.4 MBJessica Joseph was born in Chicago, though her family hails from India. Traveling overseas was not a new experience for her. She had been back to India to visit her extended family in the past…but she had never traveled that far away from home on her own. Her family was initially concerned about her safety while she was abroad, but that soon dissipated as she settled into her experience in Thailand. Jessica Joseph was bound to do a study abroad program. It was not about if…it was about...
Future Leader: Episode 6 - Wenet Wu – From Fashion to the Supply Chain
December 22, 2018 14:00 - 27 minutes - 12.5 MBWenet Wu was very insightful. Early in our conversation she used the word ‘strategic’ when introducing the idea of her internship to me. After listening to her speak, she does seem like someone that has a strategy. She had graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering from Texas A & M, yet was interested in fashion. Searching on the net, she found Next Step Connections’ internship program and they organized an experience for her in Hong Kong with Tory Burch. Even with family history in ...
Future Leader: Episode 5 - Jason Grant – Dreaming High in Shanghai
December 21, 2018 17:00 - 24 minutes - 11.1 MBJason Grant was attending the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, when he decided to participate in the Next Step Connections internship program in Shanghai. Living in Shanghai had been a dream of Jason’s and he was able to live his dream while also gain some valuable work experience in the dynamic market of Shanghai real estate. That was back in 2014…and now almost four years later, I spoke to Jason about the impact that experience had on his life, how it helped shape his post gr...
Future Leader: Episode 4 - Sara Gonzalez – Escape the Ordinary
December 20, 2018 06:32 - 24 minutes - 11.1 MBSara Gonzalez was in-between her junior and senior years at the University of Texas at Austin when she decided to join the Next Step Connections internship program and head to Bangkok during the summer of 2017. Her family thought she was completely insane…she had traveled extensively prior to this, but not so far away and not to a place as different as Thailand. Excitement led to trepidation, even on the plane in Houston, Sara noticed that most of the other passengers were Japanese…and sh...
Future Leader: Episode 3 - Louis Grayson – Sparked the Fire
December 20, 2018 06:19 - 26 minutes - 12.1 MBLouis Grayson is the owner of the Ramen Lab Eatery, which is in Boca Raton, Florida. His family is also in the restaurant business, but this one was his idea and his execution. Louis also was a participant in an internship program provided by Next Step Connections in Shanghai. It was kind of a last minute thing for Louis…one of his friends was going and he said, “I will go with you!”, applied to the program and off he was to China. This ‘Sparked the Fire’ in him to build off of the Sha...
Future Leader: Episode 2 – Coming Home – Alex Hum – It Felt Cathartic To Me
December 13, 2018 08:43 - 31 minutes - 14.6 MBAlex Hum was born in Vancouver, Canada…but moved to Hong Kong when he was still a baby. Alex and I had an open and honest conversation about what it really means to be a citizen of the world and a third culture child. We covered a lot of ground in our conversation. Alex has had a very interesting set of experiences. To his peers in Hong Kong, Alex seemed different than they were…maybe a bit too Western. Yet to his friends in Canada, he was clearly Chinese…and they were probably both co...
Future leaders: Episode 1– Coming Home – Yong Wang – I Am a Texan Too
December 13, 2018 08:19 - 23 minutes - 10.6 MBYong Wang was born and raised in Shanghai. While he was an undergraduate student at Donghua University, Yong interned at Next Step Connections in Shanghai and helped the firm with all manner of responsibilities. It was great exposure for him to foreign students and the types of issues they encountered living and working in a foreign country. It was also a useful introduction to a non-Chinese work environment…all of this came in handy when Yong decided to get his Master of Science at Sout...