2025 APCDA Hybrid Conference Remembered

By Ma. Leonila Urrea, PhD.

For a participant/guest like me at the 2025 APCDA Hybrid Conference, who had several challenges to overcome before the event, deciding to visit China was an enlightening trip that has completely changed my perspective on my encounter with their people and culture seven years ago.

The warm and welcoming ambiance from the airport to the subway station, from the hotel to the venue of the Conference, Zhengzhou University, and the smiles and helpful stance of local individuals, persons in authority, hotel staff, University students, and administrators were exhilarating experiences that will leave an indelible mark in my heart, far different from the reserved atmosphere imprinted in my mind when I first visited the country.

The invitation to know them better, their rich heritage, values and beliefs, social norms, symbols and language, rituals, and material objects, is evident as they speak and behave towards you, attempting to connect you to their world.

My 9-day journey in the country, as I realized, may not be enough to immerse myself in their core nature and influence my family, friends, and other members of the communities I engaged with to see the Chinese people in a different light. Because beyond their very strong and adamant entrepreneurial spirit lies a genuine psyche attuned to peace, balance, and calmness for themselves and their fellow men.

As a career guidance counselor developing her intersectional lens in her daily dealings, supporting the various advocacies of APCDA, my anxious wander to China becomes an exciting wonder- until next time!

Seeing another meaning for this quote by Haruki Murakami, “Whatever it is you’re seeking won’t come in the form you’re expecting.”