During my exchange journey at University of Pennsylvania, I joint the University of Pennsylvania Band, PennBand in short! It is one of the longest standing student organization on campus, a traditional American style marching band. As an Asian girl who has lived all her life in Hong Kong, the marching band was only ever seen in American movies. Never have I imagined participating in one! It was a fresh experience which taught me important lessons in life.

1.The art of collaboration

Scrambling to create formations is a thing that I have never done in my life. Every Wednesday we had field trainings that we need to remember our designated positions. What I do is cooperating with the two neighbours around me and remind each other of our positions. The outcomes are always amazing looking from afar, including Facebook logo in Harvard’s game, cursive “Penn” sign for homecoming game. This is the art of collaboration.

2.Mutual trust and leadership

We never know what the grand pattern looks like by standing in our positions. Everyone relies on the central leader standing from afar to instruct us to move and shuffle. Being blinded to the overall view, we place complete trust into the leader. It is this high level of mutual trust which determines success of the collective action.