What are the talents that the world’s top universities and the future are looking for? How can society produce such future talents? Answers to these two questions were offered at the 2021 OPEN.ed Open Education Forum hosted by School at Avenues World Holdings LLC on September 10 as three education experts exchanged their views and thoughts on the topic.

Wang Yi, executive director for University Programs of Harvard Center Shanghai and Carol Li Rafferty, managing director of Yale Center Beijing unraveled top universities’ requirements for talents.

“Harvard University is looking for students who can inspire their peers during and after college,” Wang stated, adding that Harvard values four qualities in students: personal growth and potential, interests and motivation, personalities and character as well as contributions to the community.

Wang said, “We focus on students’ potential for growth. We do not expect our students to reach the peak of their lives in high school; instead, we hope that they can absorb what they learn in the university, from which they will benefit for a long time to come,” Wang said. Wang also listed several key words that Harvard has for describing student traits, such as maturity of thought, character, leadership, sense of humor, passion, concern for others, ability to cope with stress and so on.

Wang’s points of view were echoed by Rafferty who shared her perspectives as a former admission officer of Yale University. “Competitive applicants are not only those who got high academic scores,” she claimed. Rafferty cited several examples of Chinese undergraduates at Yale who were born this century, one of whom is obsessed with language learning and Classical Studies, another a golf talent, an idealistic literature lover who can read Old English and write rap lyrics, and a math genius who likes to push the limits and is good at both arts and science. “Top universities are looking for students or future alumni who are brilliant people who are able to keep regenerating themselves after their early successes,” Rafferty concluded.

Ted Faunce, head of the School at Avenues World Holdings LLC, expressed his views on the topic of self regeneration, or self improvement. Faunce shared a story of how a first grader drew a beautiful butterfly on six separate occasions based on the suggestions from other students. Faunce said only in such education which allows multiple failures until success can students truly realize self improvement. “Students will only try if they feel safe, and if failure brings them fear, they won’t want to keep trying,” Faunce noted.

The experts believed that education does not only come from school, but also from home. According to Ted Faunce, it is an important task for parents and teachers to let children face the future with a positive and hopeful attitude.

As a mother of three, Rafferty believed that allowing children to face frustrations sometimes is the only way for them to recognize room for improvement, which will make them more internally motivated.

(Yang Mei)