Penn Dental Students Play Integral Roles in Penn Wharton China Summit

Philadelphia – Four Penn Dental Medicine students — Samuel Kang (D’19), Qilin Xu (D’20), Yiyang Zou (D’20), and Grace Huang (D’21) — joined with 70+ students throughout Penn to help present the 2019 Penn Wharton China Summit (PWCS). The event took place April 19-21 at the University of Pennsylvania, attracting an audience of 1,500 attendees from across the world. Since PWCS debuted in 2016, it has reportedly grown to become the largest student-organized Sino-U.S. summit in North America.

The Penn Dental Medicine students participated in active roles. Integral to the planning of this year’s summit, Kang served as Vice President of the PWCS Board.

“As the U.S.-China relationship continues to develop and becomes increasingly relevant to global affairs, PWCS unites professionals and influential perspectives in an effort to encourage discourse and facilitate cooperation among students, executives, and world leaders across international waters,” explains Kang.

This year’s theme was “Paving the Global Road” and consisted of keynote addresses, panel discussions, startup pitch competitions, and a career fair. The six panels addressed the topics of Finance, Real Estate, Entertainment, Technology, International Relations, and Healthcare.

Huang served as the Healthcare panel leader within the PWCS Business Development committee. Kang and Huang invited and coordinated with this year’s panelists, including Dr. Carl June, Director, Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine; Dr. Lieping Chen, Co-Director, Cancer Immunology Program at Yale Cancer Center; and Dr. Cliff Hudis, CEO, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

“Modern healthcare is undergoing rapid expansion and development throughout the world. With such revolutionary advances as the rise of immunotherapy, more people are able to overcome health crises than ever before,” explains Huang, “All the while, investments in life sciences are fueling these and future innovations on an unprecedented scale.”

Xu served as moderator of the Healthcare panel and facilitated the discussion, which focused on ways for the U.S. and China to collaborate and share best practices in an environment of vastly different, though quickly converging, protocols and regulations. Themes addressed include personalized medicine, artificial intelligence, and access to care.

“Aligning academic and industry expertise through international cross—collaboration in a forum like this is so valuable. Students and industry professionals alike had a chance to benefit from the robust discussion about healthcare trends in the world’s leading economies.” says Xu. “Collaborations like this are what make our Penn experience so special.”

As a leader of the PWCS Marketing committee coordinating photography and videography, Zou played an integral role in presenting PWCS in a world-class manner. “We strive to expand our reach and scope with high quality media content. Our posts have been read by more than 100,000 viewers in the U.S. and China.” explains Zou, “What PWCS hopes to achieve is to extend an influence well beyond the 1,500 attendees. We hope to improve U.S.-China understanding and collaboration on a greater scale. As Dean Garrett of The Wharton School well said, ‘The challenge of the 21st century is going from parochialism toward cosmopolitanism.’ ”

Other guests at the 2019 PWCS include former and current senior politicians, leading investors, and even celebrities.