尊敬的姜虹书记、薛其坤校长，亲爱的老师们、家长们，和我最可爱的各位弟兄姐妹朋友们，大家早上好!

I'm Arthur Gabriel from Shuli college, College of Engineering, Department of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Aerospace Engineering major.

First of all, I'd like to thank the university for granting me this opportunity in giving a graduation speech.

At the same time, congratulations to all of you, class of 2025! 祝大家毕业快乐!

Since young, I have always been passionate with aerospace engineering and eager to contribute to the world with it. And seeing the technological prowess of China, the inclusiveness of SUSTech, and the outstanding faculty it has, I was more than glad to pursue my studies here...to call this school my alma mater.

My four years here have been nothing short of a blessing and allow me to summarize it in two words: hope and courage.

The first word is hope.

Many consider hope as a wishlist of unfulfilled desires: I hope to have this, I hope to do that. But as I journeyed through, I saw my peers, especially in the Mechanics and Aerospace Eng department, who tirelessly studied and seemed to always have ways out of problems. I also saw my professors who dedicated themselves day by day into passionate teaching and doing cutting-edge research.

From them, I learned another definition of “hope” which reminded me of a piece of writing by the Venerable Antonio Bello. Hope, as a close relative to realism, is the decision of someone, with both dedication and trepidation, to journey to his goal that has not yet been reached.

As Bello wrote, hope is a strong commitment without escaping.

The second word to reach my goal is courage.

When I began my studies here, I was lacking many things, even the fundamental knowledge. Thus, I had to muster courage to make drastic – and at times radical – changes. Motivated by my peers' actions and my professors' dedication, I decided to change myself and focus on my goal: to be the best learner I can be, to be the best person I can be.

This journey of change, however, was far from being smooth. I faced a multitude of challenges, both academically and mentally. Often times, I would fail and sometimes even feel discouraged by my failures. But with hope and courage, I decided to always get up after every failure and try my best to not fail again. Courage is much demanded.

And today, with the two most important things that I have learned from my life here, I, as your brother, would like to encourage all of you:

Always have hope! Always have courage!

At the same time, with much hope and courage, and in light of the current world situation, I would like to make an appeal to all of you:

be engineers of fraternity, researchers of prosperity, and builders of peace.

Not enmity, conflicts, nor destruction.

Remember that no matter where we come from, what languages we speak, we all share a common home, we all share the same Earth, we all are sons and daughters, we are all brothers and sisters. Remember: fraternity, prosperity, and peace.

As I conclude my speech, I would like to once more thank all of you: 感谢中国！感谢南科大！感谢国际合作部！感谢力航系！感谢树礼书院！感谢我的老师们！感谢我的朋友们！有了你们，我才获得了希望和勇气。

And to all of you, always strive forward on this journey of life! Never lose hope! Never lose courage! And lastly, never forget to become beacons of goodness for everyone you meet along the way. Thank you very much！谢谢大家！