Tsinghua University held its online commencement ceremony for undergraduate students on Tuesday.
During the ceremony held outside the Tsinghua Auditorium, the university awarded degrees to 3,425 undergraduates of the class of 2020. 579 undergraduate students were awarded a second bachelor’s degree.
The commencement ceremony was livestreamed world-wide on various media and social media platforms. The university has also offered graduating students the opportunity to return to the university to participate in a future degree conferring ceremony.
In his congratulatory speech, Tsinghua’s President Qiu Yong extended his warmest congratulations to all the undergraduate students.
“Dear graduates, though the pandemic has overshadowed your graduation season, it has also become a unique life experience for you. It was in these special days that you overcame anxiety and difficulties to complete your undergraduate studies,” he said.
Asking the undergraduates to act in accordance with the trends of the times and listen to the voices of the times, he said he is hopeful that they will steer their lives in the right direction and be the masters of their lives.
“I firmly believe that, after these four years of life experience coupled with the arduous test of COVID-19, you have become more capable of handling all kinds of unknown hardships and challenges of fate,” he said.
He urged the undergraduates to scrutinize one’s deeper self and the future with both vision and resolve, and keep to the right direction while making one decision after the other, on the tumultuous seas of fate, full of fluctuation and uncertainty.
“Dear students, today is a day we will deeply cherish. Please remember, Tsinghua University will always be your home,” he concluded.
Yuan Shu, who graduated from the School of Humanities, delivered her commencement speech on behalf of the undergraduate students of the class of 2020.
Shu said she was impressed by the true greatness of the university, which enables students like her to fulfil all their dreams and outperform in their field of interest.
“Reviewing my four years here, Tsinghua has taught me to make peace with myself, pursue my passion and support my country,” she said.
The alumnus Gu Zhenfeng, who completed his doctoral degree in 2012 from Tsinghua’s School of Aerospace Engineering and started working at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center as a rocket scientist, delivered a speech via video at the commencement ceremony as the alumni representative.
He said 16 Tsinghua graduates are currently working at the center on various technical posts and they remain firm in their original aspiration to progress China’s space endeavors. “Tsinghua’s pursuit of excellence makes the university graduates different,” he said, adding, “our center is a place where dreams come true for astronauts and Tsinghua is also such a place for Tsinghua people, fellow students.”
Writer: Sangeet Sangroula
Editor: Li Han, Guo Lili, John Olbrich
