On June 22nd, JSOU's 2024 Commencement Ceremony was held at its Yingtian Campus. Starting from the new-type university serving whole people's lifelong learning, graduates of different ages and backgrounds took their alma mater's motto of Make learning a way of life to march on their life journey in a vast world.
President Ding Rongyu gave a "last lecture" to all graduates with the theme of "Steadfast Progress in Changes and Un-changes". Speaking of the revolutions in the world, the challenges of the times, and the unknows of the future, Ding emphasized that we should comprehend and grasp the changes, try to explore and create opportunities in the crisis, and improve ourselves with self-confidence, fighting spirit, and practicality. At the same time, he encouraged students to remain "unchanged" in face of the changes, that is, to keep a lifelong learning habit and persist in the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty. In this way, we will shine with firm pursuit and lofty ideals in the fields we are good at.
Xing Long, Secretary of the Party Branch of Zhengyi Village, Bacheng town, Suzhou, and National Model Agricultural Worker who has been rooted in the countryside for over 30 years, spoke as the representative of graduates. When he came across bottlenecks in his work, he found that the key to break through lies in continuous learning of professional knowledge. Therefore, he signed up for the Administrative Management major at JSOU, and filled the knowledge gap through well-designed courses, which greatly helped him manage the team, make overall planning, and ensure the implementation of tasks. Since 2020, JSOU has promoted the "Village (Community) Cadres' Academic Qualifications and Quality Improvement Project", which has trained a total of 17,928 village (community) cadres.
Li Yadong, academic advisor from Yixing Open University, spoke as a teacher representative. To create a warm and dynamic learning environment for adult students, academic tutors like Li are almost online 24/7, providing students with a full sense of security with all-round learning support services. At JSOU, every student is accompanied by several curricular tutors and one academic tutor, who together make sure that students can balance life, work, and study, and truly absorb something useful from learning.
Liu Yang, a current graduate student at Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, spoke as the outstanding alumna. After more than 600 days and nights of hard work, she has achieved a leap from junior college, to undergraduate, and now graduate. She sent an cheering message to her schoolmates: "Cherish every second you sit in the classroom, constantly take in new nutrients to improve yourself, so that your destiny will be changed by knowledge, and learning will earn you a perfect life".
After the commencement ceremony, tens of thousands of graduates will enter a bigger world with their new identities. Bearing lifelong learning in their minds, they will be able to respond to the new requirements for productivity of the updated industrial structure and market, take root in the soil of their homeland, and grow as professionals contributing to the development of Jiangsu.
