Meet Dapeng Wang, MBA Candidate 2024
Hello, this is Dapeng. I’m originally from Beijing, China, and I came to the states to get my master’s degree in accounting after I completed my bachelor’s degree at Beijing City University in 2011. I arrived with one suitcase, some cash, a cell phone, and my broken English. In December 2012, I graduated from the Zarb school of business, Hofstra University in New York.
After graduation, my parents wanted me to return to China. They secured a job for me in a commercial bank. But accounting was not the future I saw for myself. Instead, I worked for a non-profit insurance company called Healthfirst as a sales auditor.
I joined the United States Army in February 2014. This was not an easy path, but after living here, making friends, and getting to know America, I knew it was the right choice for me. The reasons are simple: I love this country and the American way of life. And for me, to protect this way of life was to join the military and serve the country.
I had my basic training in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Later job training in Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, and an internship at Fort Benning, Georgia. After all this training, I had my first duty station in Seoul, Korea. I worked as a member of a two-person orthopedic technician team serving thousands of U.S. service members throughout the Asia-Pacific region. In 2016, I had my second duty station in Landstuhl, Germany, and graduated from the basic leader course at Grafenwoehr, Germany. In in 2019, I returned to the States in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. When the COVID-19 pandemic started, my team transformed a regular clinic into a COVID-standard clinic within a very short period, ensuring the continuity of operations during a time of significant uncertainty.
I was out of the military in September 2020, and I worked as a Real Estate Assistant at Realty One Group Music City. I became a property manager at MM Realty & management in 2021. At the same time of the year, I opened a restaurant in the Nashville area, named Flying Chicken Station.
The first time I heard about Washington University was from my supervisor who is an alum. She told me how she loved WashU and enjoyed her life here. The first time I visited St. Louis I was on a mission! I had two days to get to know the city. I loved it immediately from the historic buildings and how life would find easy, convenient commutes (during a half-hour drive in St. Louis you can go anywhere and find everything you need). I have traveled all around the world and lived in different countries for many years, and St. Louis is one of my favorite cities so far. And we have better peers, higher employment rates, and more resources than other schools. There is no other way to sum this up other than saying “quality”.
I would like to develop more quantitative skills, project management skills, determine key issues from confused and incomplete information, and communication skills. l hope those skills help me keep pace with the speed of the modern business world, provide me with a broader understanding of business operations and help me continue on a smooth and seamless transition after serving six years in active duty military services. My long-term goal is to be a successful entrepreneur, bring manufacturing back to the United States, and establish my own manufacturing business.
