MBA Shanghai students compete in race across remote desert in China

A team of 13 students and alumni of the Sprott MBA program in Shanghai raced through the Tengger Desert of Inner Mongolia in the eighth annual Asia-Pacific Business Schools Desert Challenge.

The event took place during the Chinese May Day holiday from April 27-30. Participants represented business schools from countries and regions including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, United States and Canada. Over 90 business schools and more than 10,000 MBA students in the Asia-Pacific region have participated in this competition since 2012.

Over the course of three days, participants were expected to compete in a 70 km race through the desert, trekking through extreme heat and dry conditions. The route covered/spanned 25 km on the first day, 32 km on the second day, and 13 km on the third day.

Team captain Geo Zhuo organized the team, noting that there was a lot of hard work and team spirit that went into completing the desert challenge.

“We needed everyone to contribute both within and outside of the team,” said Geo. “Not only did we need to work as a team, we had to take care of ourselves individually without impacting the team. I enjoyed leading the Sprott MBA team, and making sure that everyone was enjoying the challenge and the process. The idea was not to focus on the individual awards, but on how to make the team successful.”

Each member of the Sprott MBA team was awarded with an individual award for completing the race. The team also assisted the Donghua Hawk team in winning the Sand Gull Award, the highest award of the competition awarded to the two groups that finish the competition without violating any rules. Donghua University is Carleton’s partner university in Shanghai, providing an opportunity for students living in Shanghai to complete an MBA from Sprott.