Smiling while standing there, President Huang Daren still presents at each of the 16 ceremonies and shakes hands with each of the 14130 students. President Huang Daren calls the grand ceremonies “graduation carnival”. Preparations have been made early so that he could attend the ceremonies at his best. The graduates are deeply moved when they see our president being so tired. President Huang Daren says: “I am so happy about that and I am not feeling tired at all. As the president of SYSU, seldom do I have the chance to communicate with them. I need to say goodbye to them when they are leaving. I feel happy after each ceremony because these kids moved me and gave me a lot of surprise.”
So many students hug our president during the ceremonies. Every time when a student receives the academic degree certificate, s/he always asks for a hug, and our president would say kindly: “sure!” Liu, a student from the School of Law, says excitedly to his friend: “it felt so warm when I hugged our president!” She also says that she doesn’t feel like leaving, so she couldn’t help hugging our president. It pains her to see our president standing there for such a long period of time, so she hugged him to express her feeling.
This is a moment of excitement and gratefulness. It’s hard to say goodbye at this moment and there is full of affection in our eyes when we look at each other. Let’s remember this moment with exciting words and colorful pictures!
Inner Voices from the Students
A senior fellow apprentice said excitedly: “The president said ‘hello, doctor of arts’, and I replied ‘thank you, president!’”
A senior sister apprentice from Department of Chinese said: “I was too nervous when I walked onto the platform, time flies. It is like a dream. And the president was smiling kindly.”
A senior brother apprentice told the journalist with a smile: “Just now, the president said to me ‘young man, keep fighting in the future!’”
A graduate signed with a pity: “Looking at the president with a gentle smile, I really wanted to say something, but time slipped so quickly!”
A doctoral graduate senior brother said with gratitude: “Just now, on the platform, I told the president ‘three years ago when I graduated with a master’s degree, I shook hands with you, and today, I’m so glad that I did it again. I want to express my thanks to Sun Yat-sen University for the five years’ of cultivation.”
Xiao Yao, a student from the School of Communication and Design who first went onto the platform to receive his bachelor’s certification, described his feeling of the moment when he yelled out ‘I love you’ :"I felt much honored and very excited! This is the voice for all the four years. We have feelings for our university, our school and our president. Today, all our feelings are expressed in these three words – ‘I love you!’ It is very direct and I feel very happy!”
Xu Lili from the School of Psychology who had talked for a long time with the president said: “The president asked me about the employment prospect of psychology major. I felt that our president is so kind and amiable. The graduation ceremony is one of the most important moments in our life and it is a turning point towards the peak of our life.”
