The China Education Daily of June 21, 2018 has devoted a full page to the inspiring stories of Chongqing University graduates of 2018 under the title Endeavoring Is the Best Part of Our Youth. Touching stories are told by the graduates about their campus life and their fighting for dreams. The admission policy of 2018 of Chongqing University is also introduced.
In June when the weather is already very hot, lotuses of the Jinhu Lake have burst into blossom again. Another group of Chongqing University students are saying goodbye to their alma mater and are ready to start the next stage of their life.
They are all in their prime, with all of it before them. Chongqing University has provided them with a stage where they pursue their dreams, acquire knowledge and rebuild themselves and fill their youth with passionate hardworking.
We are going to share some of the selected inspiring stories of outstanding graduates of 2018 from Chongqing University. We wish the graduates a brilliant and successful future and hope that every Chongqing University people would learn from them and keeping moving unremittingly in pursuit of their dreams.
Chen Feiyue:
A dream “builder” admitted by MIT
In September 2013, Chen Feiyue was admitted by Chongqing University, majoring in architecture. Five years have passed ever since. He is admitted by the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies of MIT and is granted half scholarship. In addition, he will act as a teaching assistant there.
Chen Feiyue has been always keeping an eye on the sociology element in architecture. When talking about understanding of architecture, Chen says: “This discipline can be widely extended. On one hand, many theories in architecture focus on basic structure and configuration; on the other hand, it extends towards sociology.”
Such an insight could not have been gained without his enthusiasm about liberal arts. Literature and art are featured by sensation and science by sense. “The former attempts to describe the world while the latter attempts to interpret it.” This understanding has posed a great impact on the practice of Chen.
He once visited Beichuan, and participated in a social practice. After field investigation, he and some other students worked together and finished the conceptual design - as an effort to reconstruct Beichuan by using the ports on the bank and devices on the water. In his fourth year at Chongqing University, Chen decided to study at Kumamoto University as an exchange student. This experience was quite different from any previous experiences in his life, and made him more curious about the other parts of the world. This is why he decided to take on further study abroad. “I was surprised when I received the letter of admission from MIT. Many students of our School have submitted application for study abroad and not a few of them have received offers from famous universities such as Harvard, Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. Senior students that are already studying abroad are also willing to give us suggestions and advice and I was one that benefited from their help.”
Looking back on the 5 years of architecture learning, Chen says: “Learning architecture allows me to observe the world in a more reasonable way and it expands my horizon and teaches me how I should interact with the world.”
Liu Kai:
From a straight A student to a scientific research genius
In 2013, Liu Kai was admitted by the School of Electrical Engineering, Chongqing University under an MD-PhD program. His research area is new technology on electrical engineering. In his undergraduate years, he was scarcely involved in this area and was therefore quite unfamiliar with the knowledge and methodology. Nevertheless, he managed to overcome various difficulties and made amazing progress.
“In the past 5 years, I almost never went to bed before 12:00pm.” This Maonan boy from Guizhou spends nearly 350 days out of 365 days a year on scientific research, mostly on checking experiment data, studying and viewing literature. He got back to the dorm at the end of the day after 11:30pm. “Many people would think such life is monotonous. I find pleasure in it, though.” Liu Kai adds.
Thanks to his hardworking, the past 5 years have been fruitful. Liu Kai visited Zhejiang, Henan, Tianjin and Guangzhou, and tested more than 50 substations and eliminated potential hazards for power companies. In the years he studied at Chongqing University, Liu Kai independently finished the national power grid science and technology project, and acted as a main researcher in projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation. He was mainly engaged in the imaging algorithm research and field test of earthing grid. The rich academic experience has made this young man more confident and calmer.
In particular, Liu Kai acted as the main researcher of a project undertaken in collaboration with Zhejiang Electric Power Research Institute. During this period, he proposed a modeling method of earthing grid and successfully developed a detecting device of corrosion of earthing grid. This project was appraised as “a globally cutting-edge and domestically leading” project on the appreciation meeting chaired by Hou Baorong, an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering. Liu has successively won awards such as the award for progress in power science and technology of Zhejiang, and the second prize for progress in science and technology of State Grid Corporation of China.
Liu Kai could have found a rather good job in a big city. However, he decided to return to his hometown, Guizhou. He hopes to be a part of the economic construction using what he has learned.
Luo Yuekuan:
Many a little makes an invention guru.
Luo Yuekuan from the School of Power Engineering is indeed an “invention guru”. In the four years of her undergraduate study, Luo has been granted 8 invention patents. This delicately-looking girl seems to be endowed with tremendous power. “Her GPA ranks the first place among students of the same major and she has acquired national scholarships, Tang Lixin scholarship and has won 4 prizes in national contests.” She has been making amazing achievements.
“Invention might be inspired by an instantaneous idea. But no invention can be made without long-time accumulation and perseverance.” At first, Luo found it interesting to make improvements on some drawings and devices mentioned in the teaching materials. For example, Luo Yuekuan was carrying out a scientific research project on microalgae when she got to know the power generating device of the wave energy swing type in class. Luo was inspired and started to wonder if it was possible to generate power for microalgae with waves. After continued research, her project “swing-type wave energy algae cultivation device and wave-energy algae cultivation methods” was granted an invention patent. Later, this technology, after improved, won the first prize in the National Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Competition for College Students.
When it comes to invention and creation, Luo Yuekuan believes that it is very essential for college students to “apply what they have learned”. With this attitude toward learning, Luo has always tried to understand the knowledge she learned and kept curiosity about every new thing. This way, she is constantly making progress, achieving breakthroughs and discovering new things. In her productive period, Luo obtained 5 invention patents in a single winter holiday.
After graduation, Luo will take on further study at University of California, San Diego. She will be mainly engaged in battery energy research there.
Liu Jinjing:
A boy that spent his best years in the army
“I hereby swear that I will still act as a soldier and do what a solder should do after leaving the army; I will keep the secrets of the army and CPC strictly and carry forward the fine traditions and quality of soldiers and return to my hometown to make further contributions.”
On December 1, 2014, after uttering those words, Liu Jinjing put on a flower of honor and gave his last military salute to the army flag. Pack-up done, Liu waved his hands to his comrades with whom he had spent 2 years and boarded the train that headed for Chongqing from Jinan. In Chongqing University, Liu Jinjing studied as like his other classmates, and lived a fulfilled life. However, his experience in the army would pose an impact throughout his entire life.
Liu Jinjing had always dreamed to join the army. In the first semester of his freshman year, Liu came across the conscription advertisement and he realized this would be a good opportunity to have his dream come true. “I had only 2 ideas in mind then. Firstly, I would voluntarily respond to the call of the country and army. The quality of army soldiers could be improved if more college students join the army and this is in accordance with the need of the country to strengthen the army. Secondly, joining the army has been my dream since I was young. I was quite interested in army life and I wanted to devote my best years to the army and to the national defense.”
The tough life in the army had made Liu stronger. As a new soldier from the university, Liu was not overwhelmed by the intense and full training throughout the year. On the contrary, he got tougher and more strong-willed. In his army life, Liu was appraised as “outstanding soldier” for 2 consecutive years.
In the years following his returning to Chongqing University, he made even better achievements in professional projects such as calculating data and drawing. Liu attributed all these to the scrupulous and steadfast attitude towards things that he had developed in the army. In the postgraduate re-examination, Liu answered questions raised by the supervisors in a well-ordered manner with clear logic, and was well received by supervisors. Now, Liu is about to graduate from the School of Mechanical Engineering as a bachelor. He has already been admitted by Tianjin University of Technology under a master’s program.
Liu Jinjing hopes to be engaged in development and research of special vehicles in the future. He explains: “I used to be a soldier and there will always be somewhat military in my nature. I hope more and more students would join the army and make contributions to the national defense.”
Yang Hongcheng:
An entrepreneurial journey that starts from a building climbing robot
In the first National Artificial Intelligent Innovation Competition for College Students held in 2018, a robot named “Little Di” caught the eyes of expert judges immediately after it appeared on the stage. This robot was developed and designed independently by a number of CQU students. It is able to walk after people, climb buildings and cross barriers. In addition, it can navigate spontaneously and can be monitored by the user via the images taken by the camera embedded in the robot and sent to the user. It is mainly designed to meet the need of the “last 1km” in express distribution. The project eventually won the gold prize.
In 2017, the total number of express items topped 40 billion. Yang Hongcheng, a student from the School of Electrical Engineering, and the lead of the team, says that he would think about developing a robot using the unmanned driving and indoor navigation technology to replace artificial distribution and picking and deliver the parcels to doors every time he saw a long queue in front of the parcel hosting office. Yang Hongcheng and other two students of the same school made up a team. Five months later, they invented the first generation building climbing robot named “Little Di 1.0”, which had won the first prize in the National Intelligent Design Competition for College Students. Later they developed “Little Di 2.0”, the structure of which was upgraded from wood structure to aluminium frame structure, with an additional telescopic rod. This telescopic rod would be automatically adjusted to adapt to the gradient, so as to remain level and keep the loads stable.
After experiments of 5 months and more than 800 rounds of debugging, “Little Di 3.0” came into being. It is a new-generation logistics robot with sound functions. Now the team is negotiating with an enterprise about financing of the project. The team is making efforts to ensure the robots are applied to the express industry as soon as possible in a commercial way.
Yang Hongcheng has been recommended by Chongqing University to admission to Huazhong University of Science and Technology under a master’s program.
Deng Manling:
An emerging Sichuan opera star
Her every makeup, gesture and expression in every play contains the vicissitude of history; her every line, voice and movement makes an eternal masterpiece. She is Deng Manling of 2014 from the School of Arts, a girl who lives to her extreme both on the stage and in daily life.
Deng first got to know Sichuan opera when she was in her second year of senior high school. One day she stumbled across the Sichuan opera titled An Altogether Different World performed by Wu Xi, an actress of Chongqing Sichuan Opera Troupe. She was deeply impressed by the vivid performance, tactful vocal music and exquisite costumes of Sichuan opera in just a few minutes. Later she became a student of Wu Xi and started to learn Sichuan opera. Deng joined Youlan Opera Club at Chongqing University and has since then been even more closely related to Sichuan opera. She says: “The more I know about opera, the more I understand how difficult it is to become a successful Sichuan opera performer. I gain inspirations from every rehearsal.”
Last year, Deng Manling went on a tour in the Europe as a member of the exchange group of Chongqing University. Besides, Deng also acted as a volunteer to teach Sichuan opera in primary schools. She patiently taught the children the vocal music and makeup skills of Sichuan opera, and allowed them to understand Sichuan opera culture by on-the-spot teaching. Deng Manling says: “I wish to become a person who really practices, inherits and promotes the outstanding traditional Chinese culture.”
Deng Manling is to graduate in June this year. With outstanding academic results, she has been recommended for admission to the School of Economics and Business Management under a master’s program. Deng majored in musical performance in her undergraduate years and chose accounting as her second major. She is now planning her future career development on this basis. A person is rarely not endowed with a virtuous nature at birth, but scarcely could anyone keep it to death. These are favorite words of Deng. “I always tell myself to start well and end well”.
Fang Meng:
The most applaudable international student
Fang Meng is probably the first international student who has been elected as the monitor of a class at Chongqing University. “I am very delighted to be elected as the monitor because this means my classmates accept me as one of them. They never make me feel isolated because I am a foreigner and know nothing. On the contrary, they always support me and understand me and are cooperative when asked to perform tasks assigned by teachers.” Fang has studied respectively under a bachelor’s program and a master’s program at the School of Journalism, the School of Economics and Business Administration and the School of International Education of Chongqing University for 7 years. She chose to major in journalism and international business purely out of enthusiasm. She has obtained outstanding academic results and participated in various practicing activities and never allowed a self-display opportunity to escape.
As a native of Bulgaria, Fang Meng participated in the “Chinese Bridge” - Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign High School Students, and got the best results in her country. Then she was sent to China as a member of the Bulgarian delegation together with other 2 members to participate in the competition. Eventually the delegation won the second prize for groups. Fang was granted scholarship for studying in China of 1 year as a reward. Fang Meng chose Chongqing as the place where she would study Chinese language. “I came to Chongqing because of this Competition and I fell in love with the beautiful campus views of Chongqing University.” She says with a smile, “I resolutely chose Chongqing University when I was preparing for scholarship application. Now I know I made the right choice for my present and future. I’m so lucky.”
“I still believe that Class 1 of Journalism of 2012 is the best class.” A Fang Meng still remembers the moment when her name was announced among the list of outstanding graduates at the undergraduate graduation ceremony held in 2016. “I heard the students offstage burst into cheers. I miss them very much when I recall the 4 undergraduate years.” Fang Meng says with emotions. Now she is about to graduate as a master. Fang says that she hopes to find a job that is related to Chinese culture back home.
Yuan Yuchan:
Multiversity, unchanging goal
The WeChat Moments of Yuan Yuchan is full of memorable moments in her life as a student of CQU-UC Joint Co-op Institute in the past nearly 1 year. In this 1-year period, Yuan Yuchan was on an academic exchange visit abroad.
Unlike traditional undergraduate education, the Joint Institute adopts the university-enterprise joint cultivation mode under a 5-year program. During the 5 years, students will be required to finish required lessons and participate in enterprise practice. In the last year, the students will be sent to the University of Cincinnati for academic exchange visit and will finish their graduation project there.
Thanks to the joint cultivation mode, Yuan Yuchan was able to practice in industrial enterprises and labs several times successively. Rich practicing experience makes easier for her to understand the living status outside the university, and allows her to get used to the new environment very soon.
Besides capacity building, Yuan Yuchan also gained a clearer insight into her future development planning through practice. To strengthen her scientific research capacity, Yuan Yuchan successively worked at different university labs 3 times. Her fine scientific research quality was thus built. In April 2018, the scientific research findings of Yuan Yuchan and her team were accepted by Biomicrofluidics, a journal of American Institute of Physics. This means that her scientific research capacity will be recognized by main international journals in the microfluidics research area.
The life of Yuan Yuchan at the University of Cincinnati has been quite out of the ordinary. During the period, no one told her what to do. “It is all up to me when I should go home, when I should go to sleep and whether to go to class.” Yuan had much more freedom. However, she never got slack at her study. When she was studying at the University of Cincinnati, she worked even harder than before as she knew that one has to be responsible for whatever choice he has made.
In May 2018, Yuan Yuchan finished her academic visit program, and became one of the first graduates of the Joint Institute. Yuan decided to pursue further education. She refused offers of a number of famous universities such as Northwestern University, and decided to study for a master’s degree and a doctorate degree at the University of Cincinnati.
“I have always kept an open mind to the world and never stopped trying.” Yuan Yuchan says when talking about her growth process. She is proud of her perseverance in the 5 years.
Dong Jing:
Work hard and you will have more choices.
Dong Jing is a student of 2014 from the School of Urban Construction and Environmental Engineering. As an outstanding student of Chongqing University, she achieved a GPA of 3.56. His academic results ranked the first place among other students of the same major He has been recommended for admission to Tsinghua University under a direct-doctorate program, and was granted 8 scholarships including Tang Lixin scholarship, national scholarship and national encouragement scholarship.
“Great efforts lie behind the seemingly effortless success.” This has been the motto of Dong Jing for years. For others, Dong Jing seems to be a lucky dog. In fact, he has to work very hard to be this “lucky”. Dong says: “Life is like a Laplace operator. It is dynamic, 3-dimensional, random and variable. However, we can find the superior solution in life by making constant efforts, so that we would have control over our own life, rather than being controlled by it.”
Life is also like a game. You have to activate various skills and buy a lot of weapons, in order to solve difficult problems encountered along the way. Only this way could you win out eventually. Everyone somehow gets trapped in difficult positions. Those making more efforts would have more chances of extricating themselves. The point is that you have to try.
In the past 4 years, Dong Jing has been engaged in academic research, and has been making innovations. He has won various prizes and made considerable achievements. Dong has won a lot of prizes in national and international competitions. Furthermore, he always cares about the water environment ecology of the campus, acted as the director of Guochuang project, and studied the eutrophication issue of the Jinyun Lake of Chongqing University. Whatever projects he undertook, he would devote all his energy and time.
Many people see him as an “able man”. Dong does not think he is as “outstanding” and “able” as others see. He says: “The knowledge of people is like a varying circle. Within the circle is the knowledge you have mastered and outside the circle is the knowledge that you haven’t. The circle grows bigger when you are gaining knowledge, and its perimeter grows longer as well. Then, you would realize how much knowledge is still out there for you to learn.”
“Everyone can be ignorant in certain circumstances. Learning is by no means a way to be omniscient. We learn to understand what we didn’t. What’s more important, we would feel full and delighted for every little progress we make.” Dong Jing says.
We have to make secret efforts to gain visible outstanding achievements. This way we could be rewarded abundantly in the “game” of life and be envied by others. Dong Jing has always upheld this philosophy and now he’s eventually got what he wanted.
Cui Huan:
Live while we are young.
At this time of a year, every senior student is seeking for a job. Cui Huan, a student from the School of Economics and Business Administration, once also wanted to make a living in a tier-1 city or find him a stable job in a bank or as a civil servant. But after thinking twice, she decided to do something special.
In her junior high school years, Cui Huan spent a period of time in Qinghai. The charming landscapes and kindhearted people there have since then been lingering on her mind. Of course she knows it will not be easy to work at a grass-roots position in west China; but it provides an opportunity to develop her skills and a broad space of development, which will bring her satisfaction and sense of accomplishment. In addition, work at the grass-roots level would turn her into a tough-minded girl. As such, Cui Huan decided to volunteer as a candidate of selected graduates of Qinghai.
Every morning she would go to the library very early. Besides reviewing study materials, she would also read political news and practice document writing. After she passed the written examination, Cui often practice interviewing skills in front of a mirror. “I was very excited when I was told that I had been admitted. My effort has paid off, and it was all worth it.” Cui Huan says with a smile, “I do not know to which position I will be assigned; but I’m still looking forward to seeing what the future will be like and I’m willing to accept challenges in my job.”
“We're ready to work in grass-root units, develop the western China and go where our nation needs us most.” This is not just a slogan for Cui Huan. It is a way to realize the value of life. For her, regretless youth means spending the best time of her life in that vast land in west China.
Dong Liyang:
Every cloud has a silver lining
“Every cloud has a silver lining.” Dong Liyang, a student of the School of Journalism, says when walking about his campus life. Dong has been engrossed in reading for the 4 years in the university. He read a total of more than 600 books. Those seemingly boring days of reading have somehow given him courage and strength to move ahead.
As a liberal arts student, Dong has his particular experience and understanding of reading. “It does not matter how many books you read or whether the books are popular. I read whatever books I need to read.” Besides books related to his profession, Dong also reads books about Chinese ancient civilization and history. For example, he managed to settle down and finished reading the classics written in classical Chinese, Shih Chi and History as a Mirror, which many people find too difficult to understand. The chances are left to those who are well-prepared. In the written examination for candidates of postgraduate recommendation to the Law School of Beijing University, Dong Liyang found answers easily to a question about legal institution in ancient China. He believes that this has contributed greatly to his being recommended for admission to Beijing University as a postgraduate.
In his freshman year, to find out what he was really interested in, Dong often “audit classes” of other schools. One day he went to a class of the Law School and audited the “legal logic” course, and was impressed deeply by the humorous way of teaching and the speculation logic of law. He then gradually got interested in law and later decided to minor in law.
In September 2017, Dong Liyang took part in the interview for candidates of postgraduate recommendation to the Law School of Beijing University. On the night of the day of interview, he rode a bike and had a close look at the campus of Beijing University. Looking at the trees and bush in the campus, Dong was overwhelmed by emotions at the thought of the tough times behind him. His effort eventually paid off. One week later, he received the letter of admission from Beijing University. Had he not been that perseverant and tough, he would not have been admitted by the Law School of Beijing University as a recommended candidate from another major.
