2013 The Boeing Company Scholarship in Economics Recipient

Biography: Zhihao Zhao is a second year Business Economics and Psychology double-major and Mathematics Minor from Beijing, China. At UCLA, Zhihao has developed a strong passion for entrepreneurship and education. He plans to bring his knowledge of developmental psychology to Chinese parents through a future start-up business. In addition, Zhihao is currently the External Vice President of Building Engineers and Mentors (BEAM) at UCLA and a circle docent for the Los Angeles Math Circle (LAMC) in the Department of Mathematics at UCLA. He is also an undergraduate research assistant at the W.M. Keck Center for Neurophysics, studying the formation of spatial consciousness. Zhihao has previously served at the Beijing Friendship Hospital as an assistant and he was an accounting intern with the Shougang Group in Beijing. He enjoys skating and swimming in his spare time.

Future Plans: Zhihao is currently looking for internship opportunities in consulting industries to gain more experience in business. He plans to obtain a MBA and a doctorate in education within the next ten years. After finishing those degrees, he plans to go back to China, start up his own consulting business, and establish his own schools to provide high-quality education to younger generations. The business will seek to establish schools that better encourage students’ psychological development and help remedy the widespread problem of psychologically inappropriate educational methods in China.

What does the scholarship mean to me?: I am very grateful and honored to be a recipient of the 2013-14 Boeing Company Scholarship in Economics. I appreciate Boeing’s dedication to supporting higher education. To me, this scholarship represents much more than the wonderful financial benefit it provides to me and my family. I also regard this scholarship as an encouraging validation of my previous work and a mandate to pursue my career goal in entrepreneurship and education. I expect to bring the benefits of this scholarship to bear on schoolchildren and parents in China, which should ultimately make a positive impact beyond China as well.