Distinguished guests, faculties, staff, friends, families and fellow graduates, good morning!
First and foremost, please allow me, on behalf of all 2015 JI graduates, to express our gratitude to our beloved families. The credits of our accomplishments today owe to your help. Thank you for all your devotion and support.
Almost all JI students consider ourselves lucky to be here in this rapidly developing institution. Thanks to our honored faculty members, you helped us understand the world with your knowledge, showed us the methods in doing research and most importantly, shared your spirits of being engineers. Thanks to our diligent staff members, you helped us to have a life as students besides studying in library and taking exams. In the past few years, we also witnessed the tremendous changes happening here at JI such as the establishment of the Yu Liming student center as well as the installation of state of the art lab equipment. For this rapid development of JI, I would also like to express our gratefulness to generous donors who helped JI grow. Let’s give a big hand to all of those who have contributed to our JI community.
“Save the world, if that doesn’t pan out, save that part of which you were called to help.” The famous quote from Professor Jason Daida has guided many generations of JI students. The million dollar question now is: have we prepared ourselves to live up to this expectation?
Four years ago, we were called upon to save the world by becoming a qualified engineer at JI. Starting from introduction to engineering and programing, we had our first taste of real world problem solving. With the guidance from faculties, we found our interest in the vast realm of engineering and headed to acquire more knowledge in the field that we want to devote our lives to. Taking three semesters per year, 18 credits of courses each semester, studying hard over mid night for exams, amazing company sponsors in course projects, we dedicated our time and energy to follow the guidance from Professor Daida and improved ourselves.
Two years ago, more than 100 of us went to University of Michigan to continue our journey of becoming qualified engineers. Working hard as always, getting straight As seems normal for JI students. After all, we are “A”sian students rather than “B”sian. On top of that, we never stopped trying to save the world around us even as students. Doing internships and researches on topics such as autonomous vehicle, computer architecture and rocket aerodynamics, we have been using what we had learned to solve real world problems. Besides studying, we joined student clubs to do community services, established SJTU alumni association at UM and organized company visits. The list of things we accomplished keeps going. When you mention JI to a UM faculty, you will get a big thumb up. This is what we have done to honor the oath of saving the world.
To my dear fellow 2015 graduates, I want to say congratulations! We have not only survived numerous challenges at JI, but also indeed thrived in becoming successful on the path we chose. I believe we deserve a round of applause to ourselves for what we have accomplished here.
Today, we graduate, as qualified engineers setting out on our journey into the bright future. We shall always bear the mark of our beloved JI, work hard and seek opportunities to give back. To our dear families, please don’t be worried for us. All is well. To my beloved fellow graduates, no matter where you go, please remember, we are supposed to save the world! Thank you!
