Staff Spotlight: Pablo Carvallo

At the moment I am the Managing Director of the Center for Sustainability Shanghai. So far I have been involved in the study abroad industry for about 3 years. In my previous job I was the business development manager for a company that specializes in providing high quality summer school for business and law schools. While working with them I also attended Tongji University on the United Nations Environment Program and Tongji University Master in Environment for Sustainable Development. After finalizing the master, together with some other professionals I founded the Center for Sustainability Shanghai with the motive of providing high impact summer schools and internship programs in China and ensuring the highest academic standards for international students and universities focusing on Sustainability.

I started my study abroad experience when I moved from Venezuela to the US to pursue my bachelors in economics when I was 17 years old. During my 5 years of University, I had the privilege to assist with a couple of study abroad opportunities in China and Turkey. In 2006 I came to China for the first time with a group of my University classmates. During this trip I was very impressed with the country and all it has to offer. One of our trips was the typical ferry down the Huangpu River in Shanghai. I remember very clearly the amazement I felt when cruising down the rive--I was able to see on one side, the magnificent statement modernization and prosperity of the Pudong New Financial area and on the other, the Romantic architecture of the 1930's on the Bund. That day I decided that one day I would make Shanghai my home.

The future of the Center holds much more of what already exists. Our main focus is to be able to offer the highest academic levels of education focusing on sustainability, while offering students a dynamic and interesting space where they can grow as professionals as well as individuals. In the meantime, we are planing on opening 3 to 5 more destinations in the next 5 years, and we will continue to focus on developing regions such as Africa and South America, while also developing programs in the US and Europe.

I think in the future, the international education industry is going to grow rapidly due to how accessible places have become that were once thought of as difficult to reach. Not only will there be a larger offer in a variety of course and destinations, but more and more study abroad options will feature very specific subjects for students to further prepare themselves for the future.