Good morning, everyone!

My name is Sofia Serebrennikova, I’m from Russia and I’m delighted for the opportunity to represent International students 2018 on this ceremony. I am honored to be here today.

My journey to being here still feels a little bit like a dream. I still can’t believe that everything that I was thinking about for the past few months is now real in flesh in front of me.

Frankly speaking, I was uncertain about how I’m going to fit in here at SUSTech. New place, new environment and new people around you – you know all that could be exciting and stimulating in a good way, but at the same time could also be challenging for obvious reasons. But I decided that this year for me will be a year of new academic experience, a year of new adventures and new friends. And I am absolutely determined to overcome any difficulties I might encounter on my way.

A couple of days before my flight to Shenzhen, I met online my peer mentor who was so helpful, so calming and so positive about everything that I still can’t be grateful enough towards her. And I want to thank her once again here. Thank you so much for everything, Eszter!

I should say that almost immediately after I arrived here at SUSTech all of my small fears vanished. Girls who met us at the airport were so sweet and lovely. I really didn’t think that such a big community of people who were brought together by a chance would be so friendly and helpful towards each other. I don’t know how would any of us survive and adapt here if it wasn’t for all of the other students in our colleges. So thank you all again!

I think it is really important for everybody to feel understood, safe and valuable among other students on campus. And our university does everything for us to feel that way.

In addition, I want to express my gratitude towards members of our stuff, who were doing their best to help us throughout our journey. Especially to Isaac, who was always there to answer our seemingly endless stream of questions and always helped us in any way possible.

This campus, this university feels like a place you really want to be in, place, that you want to cherish, love and help it grow. And it wouldn’t be that way if it wasn’t for people I mentioned before. So I suggest a round of applause for them.

Thank you.

As for my future plans in this University, I’m currently choosing between two possible majors – Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. For me, programming and mathematics were always my favorite areas of interest. And in my new academic journey starting here at SUSTech, I want to explore these fields of study deeper and choose the right one for me. I’m so glad that we will have the time and supports to decide for ourselves what we want to explore as our major. But we should remember that the sooner we decide the better we can get at the chosen major, and our future career path will be shaped by this choice.

They say that college years are the best and most adventurous years of your life, and I wholeheartedly agree with that. I truly believe that now is the time for us to live and work to the fullest, because today we have a fresh chapter opening in our lives and it’s only up to us how and in what colours this important chapter will be written in our memories some four years later. So I strongly encourage you to be the best you you can be.

Now, as the final touch, I want to mention that getting higher education is not only important for improving our lives, but also important for improving the lives of others, improving our communities and making the world a better and safer place in general.

I think that through the upcoming years of studying at our University we all should aim for our better selves. We should set goals and achieve them, we should dream and then bring these dreams to life and we always should treat others the way we would want others to treat us.

Thank you so much for your attention!