From July 20 to August 14, 2026, over the course of four weeks, 101 students from 18 countries and regions crossed oceans and continents to gather at the SMART International Summer School at the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (SMART).

They came from countries and regions including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Türkiye, Italy, and Indonesia.

For many of them, it was their first time setting foot in China—and their first opportunity to truly engage with an unfamiliar research environment.

For these four weeks, life at SMART was about much more than the lab.

Students gained hands-on research experience, explored new ideas through academic lectures, and exchanged questions and perspectives with leading researchers.

But the experience did not stop at SMART. They ventured outside SMART, visiting companies and research institutions across Shenzhen and seeing the city’s spirit of innovation up close.

And beyond research, they explored Shenzhen together—wandering through parks, trying local food, and taking in the city lights at night. As the weeks went by, the unfamiliar city began to feel a little more like their own.

These shared experiences became part of their summer, bringing a diverse group of young people from around the world closer together. 

It was a journey from research to everyday life, from unfamiliarity to connection, and from a single encounter to new possibilities.

Shenzhen’s First Impression: Hot in More Ways Than One

For many students, their first impression of Shenzhen came with a wave of heat.

For Buse Lal Polat from Türkiye, the heat was hard to miss. She remembers arriving in Shenzhen to sweltering temperatures that were almost overwhelming. But it wasn’t long before she discovered another kind of warmth in the city.

Stepping into Shenzhen’s Blue-Sky Summer

SMART’s temporary campus in Guangming District, Shenzhen

“Even though I couldn’t speak Chinese and their English wasn’t always strong, they would still take out their phones, open a translation app, and do their best to help me.”

For Buse, the warmth of the people in Shenzhen was just as striking as the heat of the city.

A language barrier, an unfamiliar environment, and completely different everyday customs could easily have created distance. Instead, time and again, small acts of kindness helped bridge those gaps. Yet, time and again, small acts of kindness quietly brought those barriers down.

If the heat they felt upon arrival was Shenzhen’s summer heat, the weeks that followed revealed another kind of warmth—the energy, curiosity, and passion of a young research institution.

Inside the Lab: A First Look at Research in Action 

For many students, one of the most meaningful parts of the SMART International Summer School was the opportunity to experience what research is really like.

Hands-on research was a central part of the summer school. Students joined different research teams and worked alongside researchers on ongoing projects. Through this experience, they gained a closer understanding of what research looks like in practice—from identifying questions and testing ideas to refining approaches and working toward answers.

Lucía Fernández Villameriel from Spain joined a research team at Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, where she contributed to research on wearable devices for diagnosis and treatment. What surprised her most was how quickly research moved here.

Ideas were discussed in the lab, tested and refined through experimentation, and gradually brought closer to clinical application. What students had once encountered only in textbooks was now unfolding before them as part of real, ongoing research.

For Buse, the experience made the reality of research even more tangible.

First Research Project, from Question to Results

For Buse from Türkiye, the experience gave her the chance to do something she had never done before:

“The most valuable skills I have gained, which I might not learn anywhere else, include operating a confocal microscope, culturing difficult-to-maintain cell lines, fabricating micro chambers, and designing a complete experiment from scratch — starting from research questions all the way to interpreting experimental results. ”

“The thing that surprised me the most is how all the techniques I learned from textbooks and lectures connect with one another and serve as stepping stones for each other.”

For many students, the experience meant more than simply learning a laboratory technique. 

They began to see research in a different light—not as something with all the answers already known, but as a process of asking questions, gathering evidence, testing assumptions, and refining ideas.

And the SMART International Summer School was about much more than what happened in the lab.

From the Lab to a Broader Research World

Academic lectures and discussions gave students a broader view of biomedical research.

They explored cutting-edge research and considered questions that shape a research career: Why does a research question matter? How does research move from bench to bedside? What can different disciplines learn from one another? And how do you find your own direction in academia?

At the final presentations, students took the stage to share their own work. They revisited their research questions, walked through their experiments, and reflected on what they had learned throughout the summer.

Beyond Campus: Discovering Shenzhen Beyond Research

The summer school also gave students another way to experience Shenzhen.

Company visits showed them how ideas and discoveries from the lab can be translated into real-world applications, while also revealing another side of Shenzhen as a city driven by innovation.

Visit to Mindray

Visit to XtalPi

Cultural visits offered students a different perspective on Shenzhen, introducing them to the city’s culture and everyday life.

For international students visiting China for the first time, these experiences were an equally important part of the journey.

Visit to Shenzhen International Museum of Art

A Summer in Shenzhen: Young People from Around the World Coming Together

Besides research, lectures, and visits, perhaps the most natural part of the summer was the connection that grew among the students themselves.

From the tentative “Hi” they exchanged when they first met to conversations in the lab, shared meals, and chats after class, students from different countries gradually became friends.

Firuz Simayi, a clinical medicine student, met Kriti Gorisaria from India during the summer school. The two soon became close friends.

“We would have meals together and talk about our work in the lab. We also shared our experiences of studying at our respective universities.”

Their time together soon extended into everyday life in Shenzhen. After a day of experiments, they would head out in search of something new to eat, browse the shops, or stop for milk tea.

They shared glimpses of their life in Shenzhen on WeChat Moments—from sunsets over campus and quiet moments between experiments to evening runs with friends.

When Happy Hour came to an end and the lights went out, the students stayed a little longer, continuing their conversations in the evening breeze and sharing stories from home.

In the end, it was these small moments that made the summer truly theirs.

Shenzhen’s most beautiful season is just around the corner. From September to March, the summer heat fades, the mountains meet the sea, and the city comes alive with a youthful energy of its own.

From One Summer to Future Possibilities

For Buse, the experience prompted her to seriously consider pursuing a PhD in China, with the hope of returning to SMART to continue her research.

Alondra Yazmin Torres Medina, a medical student from Mexico, also began to consider the possibility of continuing her studies or building her career in China. While waiting for her flight at the airport before leaving China, she wrote a heartfelt letter to her mentor:

“I genuinely feel that these weeks changed me and the way I see my future.”

“In a way, Shenzhen showed me a side of my future that I had never really imagined before. It made me realize that I want to keep exploring opportunities outside my comfort zone and, hopefully, find a way to come back to China in the future.”

The summer gave them more than knowledge and skills. It gave them the confidence to see new possibilities for themselves and the courage to imagine a different future.

The summer will eventually come to an end

But what remains will be more than research data, lecture notes, and photographs.

Summer school students have now begun their journeys home, returning to their countries, universities, and everyday lives. But the summer they shared in Shenzhen will stay with them —in the questions they asked in the lab, the ideas they encountered in lectures, the experiences they gained through visits, and the friendships they made along the way. And perhaps, they also discovered that some of the boundaries they had once imagined for themselves were not as fixed as they seemed.

The summer will end, as every summer does.

But someday, when a new research question emerges, when a new choice lies ahead, or when the road forward feels uncertain, they may look back on the summer of 2026 and remember what it felt like to begin somewhere unfamiliar—to take that first step, and to find that there was more ahead than they had imagined.