FULL TEXT : English translation of President Chen Shiyi’s speech
Distinguished Deputy Mayor Wu Yihuan, leaders, guests, faculties and students, dear graduates of 2016:
Good morning!
Today marks an important day in the history of SUSTech, as the first cohort of 166 students are going to graduate after four years’ memorable college life.
So let’s give the warmest applause to all the graduates. Today is your day and this is your commencement ceremony.
Let’s give the most heartfelt applause to all the faculty members for their devotion to the school during its early difficult times. You are the mainstay of SUSTech.
Let’s give the most grateful applause to the parents for their open mind, advanced thinking and complete trust in SUSTech. It’s you who entrust the hope of your family to us without reserve.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Ministry of Education, Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, the People’s Government of Guangdong Province, Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee, the People’s Government of Shenzhen and the Board of Trustees of SUSTech for your unswerving support to the establishment of SUSTech. And I appreciate the concern and care given by the people of Shenzhen and people of all country. In particular, I want to thank the founding president Zhu Qingshi for his foresight, determination and courage of reform. He demonstrates the brilliant spiritual outlook of modern educators. And I am also grateful to the former Chairman of the University Council Li Ming for his outstanding wisdom and leadership, which has laid a solid foundation for the rapid development of SUSTech.
Dear students, when the society favors the universities of Project 985 and Project 211, it’s courageous of you to choose a university beyond these projects.
When the country lays stress on the college entrance examination score, it’s confident of you to choose “631” Comprehensive Assessment System of SUSTech.
With English as the language of instruction and an educational mode of “three systems and three education”, namely residential college system, tutorial system, credit system, individualized education, international education and elite education, study here would be busier and more demanding. Choosing SUSTech reflects perseverance.
Being a trial university for the comprehensive reform of higher education, SUSTech is faced with much uncertainty and has to move forward through trial and error. Given this, you still chose SUSTech. Your choice is a mission for SUSTech.
The harvest season arrives after four years’ hard work. 60% of the students will further their studies in world renowned universities. While some students are starting their own businesses, others have published papers in international journals. You have established the first student societies and set the spirit for Shuren College and Zhiren College. With numerous personal experiences in educational reform and innovative practice, you’ve gained a profound understanding of critical thinking and lifelong study. Through your painstaking efforts, you are shaping your unique life and the extraordinary history of SUSTech.
Last Thursday, when I had dinner with the representative graduate students, I was told many stories about their college life. And I was thinking what the unique spirit of a member of SUSTech was. Being a member of SUSTech requires two vital spirits, which are pursuing idealism and daring to break through.
The establishment itself of SUSTech represents idealism as the university is loaded with the people’s hope for world-class universities in Shenzhen and the reform ideal of higher education practitioners in China. Carrying forward the spirit of Qian Xuesen, an outstanding scientist in China, SUSTech defines as its mission the training of top innovative talents and is always in pursuit of its dreams.
Since you entered SUSTech in 2012, you are destined to be an idealist. In September 2012, Chen Siying, as a freshman representative, said in the speech at the opening ceremony: “harboring love for science and pursuit for free academic atmosphere, we gather here in SUSTech in pursuit of reform and innovation. Forsaking a stable and ordinary life, we work together in braving it and fulfilling our dreams.” Over the past four years, you have participated in the reform of higher education in China and carried forward the spirit of Qian Xuesen, and your precious youth is closely connected to the destiny of SUSTech. I feel so proud as each of you has delivered your promise made four years ago.
The idealism of members of SUSTech drives you to follow your own heart and blaze your own trail. Yang Lin, a student from the Department of Financial Mathematics and Financial Engineering, gave up the opportunity to pursue doctoral degree at the University of Pennsylvania, Colombia University and Duke University and chose to study finance at the New York University instead only because she loves finance. She is determined to be a teacher of SUSTech in the future. Yang Lin, SUSTech will be waiting for you. Another student from the Department of Chemistry, Zhang Xiangyu chose to work for Huawei. As he entertains great passion for computer and aspires to create his value in this area, he gave up the chance to study overseas and joined in the creative undertaking in China.
United by the common ideal of “taking root in the land of China to create a world-class university”, plenty of outstanding teachers gather in SUSTech. In March this year, when he learned the educational philosophy of SUSTech, Prof. Chen Wei, only 44-year-old, an expert of Chinese “1000 Talents Program” and responsible for the preparation of the largest genome center in Germany and Europe, decided to return to China and join SUSTech as chair professor in the Biology Department. Not long ago, a number of high-level teachers such as Liu Ke, Fellow of Australian Academy of Science and Yu Dapeng, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences also joined SUSTech, which has gradually enhanced SUSTech’s faculty.
The meaning of life is not only to realize personal values, but also to achieve social values. An ideal that comes from reality and can withstand the test of social practice is a real ideal; a person who combines his personal ideal with the social progress, has truly noble spiritual characters. SUSTech is established in a critical period of China’s higher education reform. It aims to cultivate more outstanding young people and to make contributions for a more powerful China. I hope that you can position yourself in the long course of history and integrate your ideals into the realization of the Chinese Dream! Stay true to your initial determination and press forward with efforts!
Dear students, in today’s commencement ceremony, I would also like to say, in your future life, apart from holding high the banner of idealism, please also remember the mission as a member of SUSTech.
Shouldering responsibility is our common spirit and the most important value of SUSTech. Former US President John F. Kennedy said, “We do this not because it is easy, but because it’s difficult”. To build SUSTech to be a world-class university is difficult and it is a rough path from the very beginning. Over the past four years, SUSTech developed rapidly as you strove and grew together with it. During the four years, there are both difficulties and unexpected harvests during the exploration. During the past four years, you have acquired not only knowledge, belief, vision and an open mind, but also spiritual ethos and ideas different from the other universities. Dear students, please remember, we have shared happiness and sorrow together for four years.
Since I have been engaged in the study of fluid dynamics, this year I specifically present each of the ten graduates with honors a Von Karman as a souvenir. Von Karman is great not only because he together with his contemporaries such as Prandtl and Taylor promoted the hydrodynamics research to an unprecedented new level in the last century, but also because he trained a group of world-renowned scientists. As one of Von Karman’s students, Qian Xueshen is a science master and has a far-reaching influence on new China. Looking back on the history, Master Qian returned to China determinedly, which reflects his sense of responsibility to promote the development of China! As the father of China’s aerospace and missile courses, Master Qian shows us that undertaking responsibility requires not only spiritual strength but also excellent skills and extraordinary abilities. Only through constant pursuit for excellence and becoming the pillars and elites of the society can your responsibility play a greater role in the trend of the times. If you want to be another Master Qian, first of all, you should have the ability to undertake responsibility like him.
SUSTech’s teachers have also shouldered their responsibilities. They proposed “Research, Innovation, Entrepreneurship”, which are three areas that the teachers will work on to better fulfill their responsibilities. After the Tianjin Port explosion, environmental emergency response was urgently needed. Prof. Zheng Chunmiao and Prof. Hu Qing led the emergency team to the scene hurriedly. The team overcame various difficulties and cooperated with relevant teams to carry out a comprehensive groundwater pollution emergency monitoring, providing critical technical support for environmental emergency work after the explosion polluted the groundwater and the environment. All these are the results of the experience accumulated during their years of scientific research. The combination of excellence and responsibility undertaking is the pursuit of SUSTech! SUSTech inherits the unique gene of Shenzhen, which incorporates the ground-breaking “Shekou spirit” of Mr. Yuan Geng, the “spirit of innovation” of companies such as Huawei, Tencent and also the “pioneering spirit” of the first generation of Shenzhen builders. Besides unremitting exploration, we also bear persistence and responsibility in mind. Therefore, dear students, please remember that the 166 students graduating today are not 166 ordinary students, but 166 kinds of power that will change the future and the world. Your adventure has just begun! Your journey to fulfill responsibility has just set sail!
Dear students, no matter where and how far you go, SUSTech will always care about you; no matter where you are, please remember that Shenzhen and SUSTech will be your life-long pride and spiritual homeland.
Best wishes for you, graduates of 2016! Thank you!
