ESSEC Diaries: Inter-campus Experience from Singapore to Cergy with Asad Mohamed

Asad, a student at ESSEC, discusses his upcoming inter-campus adventure in France. He explains that ESSEC has campuses in Morocco, France, and Singapore, and students have the opportunity to visit the other campuses. Asad chose to visit the Sergium, France campus for one semester. He talks about the preparations he has made, such as researching the city, arranging housing, and considering travel requirements and climate differences. Asad also discusses the emotions he is experiencing, including excitement and homesickness, and how he plans to stay connected with his family. He mentions the challenges of living alone and the need for independence. Asad advises traveling with classmates to make the journey easier. He also mentions the challenge of planning his own timetable for his third year and recommends researching courses in advance. Welcome back to ESSEC Diaries Student Journeys in Singapore. I'm your host, Joe Escobedo. And on today's episode, we'll be talking about inter-campus adventures. We have Asad on this episode. Asad, thanks so much for joining. Hi, Joe. Thank you so much for inviting me onto the show. I am 24 this year. I just finished my second year with ESSEC BBA program, and I am due to go to the Surgeon Campus. Now, can you describe a little bit about the inter-campus mobility program offered at ESSEC, and what are you looking forward to? So I believe this is a very unique program because it's not being done in conjunction with an external university. ESSEC has three campuses. They have one in Rabat, Morocco. They have one in Sergey, France, and one in Singapore. Currently, I'm in the Singapore campus, and I have the ability or the opportunity to actually visit one of either other campuses, which means that I can either visit the Moroccan campus or the French campus, and I've chosen to visit the Sergey, France campus. So this lets us basically experience living in a different country while still under the safety net of ESSEC, and we do the same kind of classes, the same structure as I'm used to over in Singapore, but just in another country while getting to experience the culture and the differences of staying in another country. And may I ask how long will you be living and studying in Sergey? I have opted to go for one semester, so it is about three to four months, which will be September to December. And why did you choose Sergey? It was a very hard choice to make, I'm not gonna lie, but at the end of the day, Sergey campus is the main campus where they have the maximum number of courses available. And to someone like me, who's currently trying to just build up his knowledge base and his career choices, I believe that Sergey will be the best option for me right now, but I'm definitely considering Morocco for one of my other semesters. Awesome, great to hear that. Now, I'm curious, what does that preparation look like so far? So there's a lot of research involved, especially for someone like me, I have not really stepped out of Asia before. So this is gonna be my first time stepping out and living by myself. The first thing that I did was look up the Sergey environment so that the city of Sergey itself, I had a look at what's going on over there, where exactly is the campus located? Very important is the housing. So ESSEC does provide a student housing in Sergey. And I looked up details about that, made my bookings. After that, you also have to think about travel requirements. So your plane tickets, your visa, and then you look at the climate because in Singapore, we have a hot and humid climate. But when you go over to France, they have different seasons and you have to pack accordingly. So I have to take all these into consideration. And then I also have to consider the fact that now I'm gonna be living by myself. So here I live with my family and things are a lot easier when you live with your family. But when you're staying by yourself, you suddenly have to handle everything by yourself. And I believe that is something I take into consideration and mentally prepare myself for as well. Okay, so excited, exhilarating, nervous, all the above, I'm guessing. It's a very big ball of emotions. And how are your parents feeling? They are a little bit apprehensive, but at the same time, they're very excited for me. My father, especially, he thinks it's a very good move. He thinks that this opportunity is being offered is great because it's gonna teach me a lot about independence and responsibility. So once you go over there, you have to handle your own finances. You have to be able to wake up on time, which is a very important thing. Like I admit, I'll mostly wake up on time, but there are days where I might be a bit late because I've woken up late. And over in France, there's no one to wake you up. So you have to handle these things by yourself. Food, making sure that you're eating properly and eating at the right times. And finally, the fact that you just, at first you might feel a bit alone because you're not with your family anymore. So how do you deal with that? So my parents are definitely very excited as I am, a tiny bit of apprehension as well. Yeah, I can imagine. So you mentioned you probably have to invest in a good alarm clock while you're there because mom and dad won't be spotting you to wake you up in the mornings, that's one. The other thing you talked about was living alone overseas. Take me through some of the emotions. Do you think you might be homesick? What are you anticipating? So I've actually thought a lot about this. And I guess at first there's this excitement because you're in a whole new country. There's so many things to do, so many things to see. But as you settle in more, I expect to feel a bit of homesickness, especially because I'm someone who's very close to his family and I value family above all else. So I will definitely miss them. But at the same time, it's gonna be a very good experience for me because down the line, I have to start living by myself. We have to start becoming independent. And I think of this as a safe environment to experience this without having all the downfalls that come of you actually having to live alone like for a long time. Yeah, I can imagine. Now, are there any things you're planning on doing to maybe reduce that level of homesickness? Like for example, planning times with your friends and family on FaceTime and things like that? So I've already talked to them about this and I'm going to have regular calls with them as well as bring some of my favorite foods that remind me of home or certain articles that remind me of home with me. Yeah, I can imagine. It makes you feel more at home in your new environment. Definitely, yes. I'm curious, in terms of like logistical, you mentioned that ESSEC will be providing housing for you. Will you need to set up a new bank account and things like that? So ESSEC has made this a bit easier for us because you can either set up a bank account in France or you can actually choose to pay with credit cards, which is what I've chosen to do. Are there any other things that people should be aware of based on your research when going to Sergium and living there? In terms of going over there, I would say plan out your flights carefully because you don't want to arrive too early in the morning but you don't want to arrive too late at night as well. It just makes it much more of a hassle when you want to go from the Paris airport all the way down to Sergium. So that's one thing you want to be thinking about. You have to make sure your plane tickets are timed well. The other thing is once you're living over there, aside from food and the housing itself, you might have to worry about transport because while the university itself is close to our housing, we definitely want to go to Paris and other places during the weekends. So you have to factor in that cost as well as how effective the transport around there. Yeah, you mentioned traveling around, one of which is going to Paris. Do you have any other travel plans while you're in France? There's nothing concrete yet, but I do really want to visit Switzerland as well as Spain if I have the time. But like I said, there's nothing concrete yet because my first priority actually, I would say, is to just manage to get there, settle down, get comfortable, and then we look forward from there. Yeah, absolutely. That's top priority. Are you going to any friends there, any classmates? So I am traveling with a few of my classmates. We try to align our tickets so that we arrive at the same time. And I'm even actually traveling with one classmate from Singapore. So I'm not going entirely alone. It provides me comfort knowing that, you know what, there are people that I know and we all are going together. So we're in this together. And I actually recommend this. So if when you travel alone, it's your first time doing this, try not to do it entirely by yourself. If it's possible, get someone you're comfortable with. It makes the journey so much more better and so much more easier. Yeah, that's very good advice. And I think it goes a little bit back to what you were talking about earlier in terms of the homesickness. When you're going with someone who you know previously or once again, we're studying in the same campus, it helps with that familiarity. It helps build that early community before you arrive. So I think that's some very good advice. And I'm curious, you talked about homesickness as one of the potential challenges. You talked about climate differences and things like that. Are there any other specific challenges that you're anticipating and how are you planning on overcoming those? I think one challenge would be that I'm going into my year three over there and there's a change in the academic structure itself, which means that for the first two years, we have a fixed timetable. Our subjects are provided for us. So you don't really have to worry about how you plan it out. The university helps you out with that. But from year three onwards, you have to plan out your own timetable. You have to choose your modules, you have to choose your electives and you have to plan out the timetable in such a manner that is comfortable and convenient for you. So I think this is another big, I wouldn't say hurdle, but it's something that's new for me. And to overcome this, I have basically already started trying to find out information about what all courses are available, what kind of timings are we looking at, so that when the time comes for me to actually choose these courses, I can make the best possible choices. And I really recommend this. Please don't wait until the course is actually released because that's the time you're choosing them. Absolutely. And I'm curious, you talked about what you're looking forward to personally. I'm curious, academically, you talked about more courses may be available on the CRG campus. What are some of the things you're looking to academically? I am someone who is very keen on consulting. So I am looking at courses which can actually add on to my resume or strengthen my position so that when I go out into the industry, I have a resume that reflects my passion for consulting. And this is what I'm looking at. And this is one of the great things about ESSEC, that they really let you choose and customize the way you want to. Aside from consulting, I'm also interested in marketing. So definitely at least one or two of my courses are going to be about marketing. Wonderful. As a marketer, glad to hear that. So obviously, like you said, this is going to have a huge impact on you personally, you talked about personally, when it comes to living on your own, building that responsibility. What do you anticipate in terms of professionally, how this inter-campus mobility is going to impact you later in life? So this is something that in today's world is really important. We live in a world that's growing smaller day by day, right? And I don't mean smaller in size, but we're just getting more and more connected. So it's important to understand how people in different countries, in different cultures, in different work environments operate together. And it's important to understand the fact that I get this opportunity to go to a different country and not just experience the culture of food people, but possibly their work environments. When I put this on my CV, I believe this is going to make me stand out from the average applicant, because this tells my potential employers that this is a man who has worked in, who has seen the work environments of different countries, has had the opportunity to interact, use the language, culture, whatever it is, he's understood this, and he can apply this in our company, which means we can send him out perhaps, or he can work for different types of clients. So this shows adaptability. It shows responsibility, because I had to stay by myself, take care of myself, take care of so many other things, right? So it shows responsibility. And finally, the fact that we are traveling, it gives you the exposure. So they know that this man can travel comfortably to wherever we want to send him. So this is, professionally speaking, I think this is what I get out of it. Definitely, as an employer looking at adaptability, especially working in MNC, we're working with people from all of the world, all different cultures. So this is definitely going to be an advantage for you. And you just spoke about one thing in terms of language. Obviously, French is the primary language. I'm pretty sure all the Essex students, we all know this, but those of us who are non-native French speakers, we learned French in the first two years over here. And I'm proud to say that I've picked up a fair bit, and I definitely look forward to practicing this while I'm in France, because I've learned something, and I really want to make sure that I do not forget it. And I want to improve upon it even more. So while I'm over there, I'm going to be doing my best to converse with people in French. Well, that's great to hear that you already have that fundamentals in terms of the French language, because once you go there and you're in the environment, it should just go through the roof in terms of improvement while you're there. So very exciting. What other advice would you give to them to get the most out of it and make sure they're prepared before they arrive overseas? Research is key, and I've mentioned this before, but once again, I cannot really emphasize on how important research is. Research every single aspect. Honestly, in this case, over-preparedness is good. Look up visa requirements, because this changes depending on which country you're from and which country you're traveling to. The second thing would be start booking your flight tickets early. So maybe you might even want to start doing this before ESSEC reaches out to you, because flight tickets are so much more cheaper when you book them over six months in advance as compared to less than six months in advance, right? So you're saving yourself money, and at the same time, you are giving yourself options. The third thing would be research. Okay, this may be a bit extra, but research where you are landing. So how do you, from the point you land, how do you get to the place you wanna get? For example, for me, I land in Paris. How am I gonna get from Paris to Sochi? This is actually very important, because depending on different times of the day, there's different types of transports available. So how can I make the best of what is available to me? Because we're not just arriving with one bag. We are arriving to stay for three months, and there's gonna be quite a bit of luggage with us. Speaking of luggage, make sure you pack smartly. Don't overpack, don't underpack. Take what's necessary with you, and try to figure out what can you buy over there. So this is something that I spent a lot of time on, and I know I'm going in September, but I already started planning this, is that what should I put in my luggage? Because you have a finite amount of luggage, right? It's an airline. They're not gonna let you carry over that limit unless you pay for it. So I wanna make sure that I'm sticking in my luggage limit, and I'm deciding only what is necessary I take from here. Once I reach there, can I buy the rest of it? How quickly is it available to me, and how convenient is it for me to get it? So I guess this would be my advice to those who wanna travel in the future. Yeah, those are some very practical tips, imagining what it's like before you even arrive, putting yourself in that mindset. Once you arrive, before that, what do you pack? Like you said, what do you need to pack versus what do you buy there? Once you arrive, how do you get from the airport directly to campus or wherever you're staying? So really taking it step-by-step in terms of the entire process can help reduce some of the anxiety that many international students will face when they're looking to study and live overseas. Exactly. So once again, Asad, thank you so much for coming on today's episode. This has been super helpful for our upcoming students who'll be taking part in a similar program. So thank you so much once again. Thank you, it has been my pleasure. Absolutely, and for everyone watching, listening to today's episode, if you have any other questions for us, do let us know. Otherwise, we'll see you on the next episode of ESSEC Diaries.