港中大深圳校长2019毕业演讲：对人生负责的精神和品格才能使你的学识才华结出丰硕的成果，否则无论你再聪明能干也会化为乌有

今次是我校第二届本科生的毕业典礼，也是我校理工学院首届本科生的毕业典礼，因此具有特别的意义。自2014年大学成立以来，我们已走过了五个年头，在这五年中，我们从无到有，从弱小到壮大，取得了很多的进展与成绩，今年我们成立了第四个学院“生命与健康科学学院”，“医学院”和“音乐学院”的筹备工作也已逐渐展开，大学正朝着创建一所世界一流的研究型大学的目标在努力迈进，这些都离不开我们的师生、家长以及社会各界朋友的共同努力，也离不开深港两地政府和香港中文大学的帮助与支持，在这个收获的时刻，我要感谢每一位帮助和支持过我们的朋友，我特别高兴大家今天能够共聚一堂，见证这个荣耀和欢庆的时刻。

在这里，我首先要感谢所有的家长朋友，您的孩子录取到我校的那年仅仅是大学成立的第二年，我知道你们有许多优秀的大学可以选择，但你们却选择了这所彼时刚在废弃的旧厂房上改造不到十六个月的新学校，我还记得你们当时的担心，担心借住在对面学校的宿舍里路上是否安全，担心同学的英语水平能否听懂教授的讲课，所以我要特别感谢你们对大学的信任，这个信任来之不易，你们对这个学校的支持与付出，超出了任何一位家长对任何一所学校的支持与付出。你们不仅教育孩子在这个学校里奋发上进，而且自己全力参与了这所学校的创建。我去了全国89所中学访问，每到各地我都能见到你们的身影，许多家长是开了十几个小时的车赶来帮助学校的宣讲，让更多的同学了解学校的教育理念。现在我想邀请所有的家长起立，让我们大家为他们鼓掌，向他们致以崇高的敬意和衷心的感谢。

我也要感谢今天坐在台上台下的来自全世界各地的教职员工，你们来到这里创业，付出了比到任何一家大学去工作都要巨大的辛劳，我记得当时的校园是一片荒芜的草地和几幢废弃的厂房，中午吃饭叫外卖都没有人愿意来送。你们是凭着一腔热血，凭着为祖国创建一所真正一流的国际大学的梦想才到这里来的，所以当时我用了四句话来概括创建这所学校的精神，“一腔热血，百年大学，千载品牌，万世良心”，请大家为我们的老师鼓掌。

同学们，一方面我很高兴，真正为你们的成长感到骄傲，昨天我看了一下你们毕业后的去向统计，我看到百分之八十的同学将去往世界各地最优秀的大学深造，光是美国排名前50的大学中就有42所录取了我们280名同学，这里包括哥伦比亚大学、麻省理工学院、芝加哥大学、耶鲁大学、杜克大学、加州大学伯克利分校等。对比着当年我在迎新时看到的你们，从一个个不懂世事的毛头小孩成长为一个个能够走向世界的翩翩君子，我深深地为你们感到自豪。另一方面，我也要感谢你们，这是一所新建的大学，是你们的信任、包容和支持使大学的各个方面逐渐完善。所以我想说，“是这所大学把你们推向了世界，也是你们把这所大学推向了世界！”我感谢你们！

同学们，明天你们就要离开这里了，这所大学就像一条大江里的摆渡船，明天你们就要到达彼岸。临别的时候，你们的老师同学，还有父母都会对你说一句“祝你一帆风顺”，我也希望你从此一帆风顺，可是，同学们，这是不可能的。人生没有一帆风顺的事，人生是一条充满艰辛、充满挑战、充满崎岖的路。在顺境中修行，永远成不了佛。正确的人生态度不是去祈求侥幸，去祈求庇护，去祈求安逸，正确的人生态度是要勇敢地对上苍说，“你该来的都来吧！该属于我的幸运也好，风雨也好，都来吧！我已经准备好了。”这就是一个强者应有的人生态度。

同学们，你们准备好了吗？Are you ready? Have you prepared for yourself to be a strong man or strong woman? 古人说：“志不强者智不达。”要做一个强者，就要有意志和担当，就要对自己要求“严格”。前几天我收到一份申请做我的博士生的信函，他说他已经学了八年英文，英文非常好，但我在他的信里发现了至少十处英文错误，我在想“你为什么不能在寄出这封信之前检查一下呢？”同学们，你问一下自己，你有没有在送出每一份报告、每一封邮件前检查一遍呢？还是同他一样，是一个不够严谨的人。明天你们就要离开这里，在此之后你的人生中不会有人再来帮你“找错改错”。我在家乡有一位先生，你拿给他看你完成的作业，他总是对你说，“还有一点小错误，自己去找出来，把它改正。”他永远不会告诉你错在哪里。当时的我很痛苦，但后来就逐渐养成了自己在交任何一件材料之前先要自己认真地“找错”的习惯。同学们，你在学校的时候，老师会给你打对打错，你离开了学校，是没有任何人会给你打对打错的，只有靠自己认真严格的精神，你才能避免很多错误，才会有可能做出一点成绩来。如果你不能对自己负责的话，这个世界上没有任何人会为你的人生买单。

同学们，你们可能在大学里取得了很好的成绩，既有学识又有才华，就像一棵葡萄树，很快就要成熟结果了。但是你设想一下，如果没有支架，葡萄会怎么样呢？它就会躺在地上，就会腐烂。我今天想告诉你们的对人生负责的精神和品格就是能够架起葡萄的支架，只有这种支架才能使你的学识才华结出丰硕的成果，否则无论你再聪明能干也会化为乌有。

Dear Governing Board members, students, parents, guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning! On behalf of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, I welcome you to this special event. Today marks the Graduation Ceremony of Class 2019, and we shall celebrate the graduation of the students from the School of Management and Economics and the School of Science and Engineering. They have reached a milestone, both academically and in other aspects of life. Congratulations! At the same time, allow me to express my gratitude to all distinguished guests present. I want to thank Prof. Ada Yonath, in particular, for being with us here today. Your speech, I believe, shall be a privilege to hear, and will benefit us with ideas and inspiration. Prof. Rocky Tuan, Chairman of the University Governing Board and President of The Chinese University of Hong Kong also sends his congratulations as he is unable to join us due to other commitments.

This is a significant and meaningful moment as it is the second baccalaureate graduation ceremony in the history of our university, also the very first of the School of Science and Engineering. Since its establishment in 2014, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen has marched forward into the fifth year. Over the past five years, we have grown in size and strength, leaping from zero to what we have today, defining each passing day with progress and advancement. This year, we have established our fourth school: School of Life and Health Sciences; we have also started planning the School of Medicine and the School of Music. The University is forging ahead towards its mission: to become a world-class research university. All of these would not have been possible without the joint effort of our faculty, staff, students, parents, and friends from all walks of life in both Hong Kong and Shenzhen, without the staunch support of the Hong Kong and Shenzhen governments and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. I want to take this opportunity, this moment of celebration to thank every one of you who has given us support. This is truly a great moment to see us gathered together to salute this time of accomplishment and glory.

First of all, let me give recognition to our remarkable parents. You and your children, I knew, have had a wide range of renowned universities to choose from, and you decided to place your trust in us, whose campus back at that time was renovated from abandoned factory buildings. It was only the second year since our very establishment, and we were such a new university as with a history of scarcely sixteen months. Your many concerns then still come back to me vividly. Road safety of students’ commuting between our campus and their dorm rooms in the neighboring university, their adaptation to our English medium instruction, you have undergone a great many anxieties and doubts. You chose us and have all along the way stood by us regardless. That perhaps explains how much we value and appreciate your trust, which is hard-won. In the meantime, you have supported and contributed to CUHK-Shenzhen as no other parents would have willingly done for any other universities. You have showed your next generation to strive for excellence, not in words but in deeds by fully participating in the betterment of our university. I have up till now visited 89 high schools nationwide and have been impressed by your active involvement in what we do wherever I go.  Many parents, I learned, would drive for ten-odd hours to help with our University’s admission information session, so that the education philosophy of CUHK-Shenzhen can reach more students and parents. May I ask all parents here today to rise? Ladies and gentlemen, let’s give them a round of applause with full respect and appreciation.

My respect and appreciation also goes to the faculty and staff of CUHK-Shenzhen, both on and off the stage today. You have come a long way; you have worked harder here than you would have done in any other university. The campus as you first joined us, I recall to my mind, was a much deserted place with weeds sprawling and a handful of abandoned factory buildings, a place even food delivery refused to cover. It was your keen aspiration for education, your ideal to contribute to the establishment of a first-rate global university for our country that has brought you here. I thus summarized the spirit of our university: with keen aspiration, we establish a university of lasting eminence and a brand that endures through ages, with a conscience that withstands eternity. I would like to propose a second round of applause to our teachers.

My dear students, it gives me great pleasure and pride to see you mature and progress. I looked at your graduate employment survey yesterday and learned the fact that eight in ten of you are about to step into the world’s leading universities for further studies. The US, to take one instance, 42 out of its top 50 universities have offered places to 280 of our graduates, which include Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, Yale University and UC Berkeley. From inexperienced kidults into men and women of maturity and capability, you have gone through considerable changes since the day when I first welcomed you into CUHK-Shenzhen. I am, on the one hand, proud of you. On the other hand, I feel much indebted to you for it is your confidence, tolerance and support that has driven this newly established university to advance in every way. I guess it can be well said that “the university has ferried you to the world as much as you have presented the university to the world!” I thank you all!

Tomorrow, you will depart from here. As a ferry boat in a grand river, the university shall convey you to the other side of the water. Upon departure, your teachers, peers, and parents would like to say “bon voyage”. Bon voyage indeed I would like to wish you, as I also wish the best for your life. But we are well aware of its impossibility. The world is never a rose garden, and along our life path, hardships, challenges, and setbacks shall surely await us. Yet praying for ease and protection, I believe, is far from the right attitude towards life. Then what does the right attitude look like? I think it’s something like looking at fate right into the face and say: “Let all that would come come. I am ready for my share of the journey, be it of prosperity or adversity.” Such should be the life attitude of the strong, and it is the strong your teachers and parents ultimately wish you to be, one of enduring vitality and a will for excellence.

My dear students, are you ready? Have you prepared yourself to be strong? As the proverb goes: “He whose will falters his wit withers.” Will comes before intelligence. It takes a determined will and a sense of responsibility to be strong, that is to say, to be “strict” with oneself. I received a PhD application the other day from a student who expressed himself to be in good command of English as he had been learning the language for eight years. Yet more than ten mistakes struck my eyes when I read his application letter. I couldn’t help thinking “why hadn’t you proofread the letter before sending it?” Dear students, now ask yourself this question. Are you in the habit of proofreading every report, every email before clicking on “send”? Or are you just like him, falling short in strictness and preciseness? As you are departing from here tomorrow, bear in mind that no one will be on the watch to correct your future mistakes. There used to be a schoolmaster in my hometown when I was a kid. Whenever I showed him my work, he would always tell me “there is still some minor mistakes. Go and find it out yourself.” It did give me a hard time as he never pointed out the mistakes for me. But I gradually developed the habit of “fault-finding” before turning in every piece of work. At school, your teachers help you judge the right from wrong, but once stepping out of school, you should make your own judgment. By upholding a standard of “strictness” and preciseness, many blunders can be avoided, and you can thus hope to reach some achievement. If we don’t take the responsibility for ourselves, nobody else will pay the price for our life.

Dear students, you might have made great accomplishments over the past four years, having gained a sound knowledge and polished your talents. As a grape vine, you shall soon yield fruits. But suppose what the grape vine would look like if it is without scaffold. It will fall prostrate on the ground and the grapes will come to waste. Taking responsibility of your own life is the very spirit and quality I want to communicate to you today, which is to your future life as the scaffold is to the grape vine. Equipped with this scaffold, you can hope to yield your knowledge and talents into mellow fruits. Otherwise, everything, be it intelligence and capabilities, will come to nothing,

Four years ago as you first arrived here, we took a photo for each one of you and asked you to write down a word or two below for your future selves. Do you still remember that? We put up your photos on the wall, upon which I wrote: “United we blaze as a flame. Separate, we, each sparkling, light up the entire sky.” Today, I want you to take it out and have a look at it. I would also like you to take another photo and write down something else for future regard. In four years from today, when you return to your alma mater, you might look back fondly on this and recall the changes that has taken place in the years between. I wish you to pass this on as a tradition. Dear students, your alma mater shall remain your spiritual home, reminding you of who you are, where you are from, and where you are going. She shall safeguard your youthful dreams and be an inexhaustible source of vigor and strength. I said this last year, and let me say it again: wherever you go, whatever difficulties you are faced with, however glorious your success, however disheartening your failure, even when your entire world seems to be enveloped in darkness, a light shall always be kept for you here at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.

May 18th, 2019

约纳特教授在致辞后，为6名杰出的本科毕业生颁发“杰出学生奖”，以表彰他们在大学期间优秀的学生表现、卓越的领导力以及对大学发展的参与及贡献，获奖学生分别是来自经管学院、学勤书院学生陈安楠，经管学院、逸夫书院学生陈嘉喆，经管学院、逸夫书院学生杨津京，理工学院、学勤书院学生龚康，理工学院、学勤书院学生李杰，理工学院、逸夫书院学生林圳。

获得“杰出学生奖”的林圳同学代表全体毕业生发表感言，他说，很幸运能够在香港中文大学（深圳）就读本科，在这里，每个同学的英语语言真正得到了锻炼，跟随大师的脚步培养思辨能力，可以真正追求自己的兴趣，多样化的课程让大家全面发展，前瞻的研究机会让大家灵活运用所学知识，不断挑战自己。在这里，同学们可以享受丰富多彩的大学生活，这里教会我们独立，且充实而快乐。“大学生涯，给了我知识和梦想的实现，培养了我自律和坚韧的品质，赋予我友善和感恩的情怀。我们即将离开这里，但我们会带着这里满满的收获和美好回忆走向世界。当人们问起我们为何如此优秀时，我们可以骄傲地说出我们的故事，并告诉他们，我们来自香港中文大学（深圳）。”