Rethinking Asia 1: Education and Innovation

When learning about leadership, education or entrepreneurship in Asia, you often hear only abstract ideas and theories. Truly learning about Asia and its emerging issues requires experiencing that vast and varied continent for yourself. Such an experience means engaging in conversation with a journalist in Shanghai who espouses "both government and society," encountering a tearful student in Hong Kong who speaks about the competitive, exam-based education system; immersing oneself in the surreal orderliness of Singapore while walking its streets; feeling the energy from entrepreneurs in Kuala Lumpur who want to bring change to their country; or listening a North korean defector in Seoul who said that "freedom is like a drug."

Education and Innovation is a collection of personal essays from the two Asia Leadership Treks and seven Asia Leadership Fellowship Tours that took place in 2014. Known as one-of-a-kind experiential learning and public service programs, eighty-eight graduate students and Fellows from Harvard, MIT, and Tufts University travelled to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and Seoul in January; to Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Yangon, Bangkok, Jakarta, and Bali in June; and Beijing, Manila, Seoul, Ansan, Pohang, and Kuala Lumpur in July and August. Adopting the responsibilities and mindsets of diplomats, journalists, and teachers in their meetings with individuals from all walks of life, the Trekkers and Fellows in their essays offer a much-needed window into the complex story of contemporary Asia.