“change！”——毕业生代表刘燕在毕业典礼上的发言
发布者：imba教育项目办公室 来源：华东理工商学院
good afternoon, dean lawrence pratchett, deputy dean ma ling, vice director xu jing, prof. simon hoy and director ni huijue, faculty of ecust, distinguished guests ms. molly liu and ms. lu yingjie, families and friends, and, above all, all our intake 14 graduates. i am liu yan, now is marketing manager in a company named seepex pumps which is a german company located in shanghai who manufactures pumps, designs pumping systems and provides services for customers in asia & pacific. thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak on behalf of intake 14.
delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility on this wonderful day. the first question jumped out ‘why i am so lucky to be the student representative speaker?’ the day when i was told to prepare this speech. the answer i give to myself is ‘i am not the gifted one, but the one meaningful- a normal and valid sample of the successful international cooperation in education.’ this is one of many cognitions i have got from this program. now i am standing here as a common ‘sample’ even without any brilliant gifts like good looking, singing, dancing or any other genius which is very intriguing. greek author plutarch says: ‘what we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.’ and i’d like to share this moment, that is, ‘change’! yes, i am changed! this is a kind of changes from quantity to quality. classes, assignments, readings, discussions, seminars, surveys, questionnaires, case studies, etc. which were wholly loaded in the past 2 years are plenty and heavy. two years painstaking studying without any distractions is not an easy challenge. we learned and changed, of cursed, we survived. ‘you are not expected to be a professional data experts from this subject’, as professor qian shi chao commented in the first statistic class, ‘the only expecting to you from my side is the mindset difference between your before and after.’ then two years after, we all well equipped with knowledge and skills. as the other pet phrase of professor qian ‘see the essence by the phenomenon’, this change is both the outside behavior pattern difference and the inside thinking model transformation. it was an amazing privilege, not only me but also my classmates transformed by our two years at ecust. change is the biggest achievement we’ve gained in this two years academic life.
following on the heels of the first question, ‘what benefit i can take from this address?’ the other question switched in. being conscious and aware enough to choose what i should pay attention to and how to construct meaning from experience is also a part of my difference. that is a skill taken from this mba experience which put i in the place to get the benefits i need. i've always believed that everything is better when i share it, and what i am going to share is the answer to the second question to myself.
‘take’, the benefits of this mba course is the foremost thing i want to talk about firstly. we have taken abound knowledge, theories and skills from heavy loaded classes, examinations and papers and which is a systematic capability construction work. all about this two years is being in the midst of so much energy and intelligence. it was exhilarating, intimidating, sometimes even discouraging, but always challenging. and the beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take this away from us. with the strengthened abilities which makes us more competitive in the human resource market, of course, the degree we’ve got are definitely an attractive credit marked in our cv. the knowledge that we have emerged wiser and stronger from these courses means that we are, ever after, secure in our strengths to compete.
besides above visible and invisible benefits we have taken, many awards such as the best singer and the best song in 2015 campus voice; the best record of shanghai mba dragon boat race, asia pacific business college desert challenge, shanghai university badminton championship etc. have taken by our versatile members from this unique intake 14. through this two years remarkable campus life, we got credits, friendship, and even mr. and mrs. right. and ‘taking’ is really in the broadest sense, of course, isn't ending here. in many ways, it is endless. after this two years learning, i realized the world has so many things to let us taking. and the skills we've taken from our mba learning is to get ahead is being open to every opinions, opinions from our courses, from our working, from our life and even the grandest universe of all. to be able to walk through life eager and open to ourselves-improvement which is going to best help us evolve, this is really why we're here.
life is not just a check-list of acquisition or achievement. qualifications, cv, and any other things have taken is not the whole life. like breath, by taking & giving, we keep us alive. as emphasized by every respected teacher of our mba course, that is, to make works weight, we should give something new or different from previous researches in our studies which is a kind contribution to academic development. as a kind format of giving, contribution, for academic, it values our articles; for life, it enriches our being. ‘no contribution, no meaningful’.
and as the last section of this speech, here may i express my gratitude to all our greatness teachers for their professional and venerable service. thank you, our beloved mentors! thanks our families and friends who give us constant unconditional support. and the last but not least is thanks ourselves not only for this smart decision of taking this mba program which is really a smart investment but also for future similar wise choice. i believe great things are sure to come. we are what we choose! let’s update ourselves with great stories. and i hope we will come back here every year from this year and reflect on what we have done with our capacity and energy. at that time, i wish we will judge our ‘changes’ not only on how many professional accomplishments ‘taking’, but also on how well we have addressed our “giving” on how well we treat people, other creatures, our environment and society, even this world.
wish we all enjoy this fascinating evolving journey! thank you all very much!