—Speech by President SUN Qixin at 2016 Opening Ceremony for 3+1 Dual Degree Joint Program in Food Science Between NWAFU and UNL
This school is highly above the average in the U.S. Just this may, I gave a visit to Lincoln. Actually, I was deeply impressed by your facilities in food science and international departments. So I want to tell you this program will provide you a very very unique opportunity for all of you if you succeed in getting your certification and passing the exams like TOEFL and IELTS. When you go to Nebraska, you will have a very very special experience. The University of Nebraska Lincoln does make every effort to make this program to a more successful program. I visited the facilities and actually they are also fresh to me, and they are so diverse for you learn to manage. It is the second year for the program, so I would like to thank Nebraska University for making this program a success. When we proposed this dual-degree program with Nebraska, actually we did not know whether it would happen at that time. After a period of hard time, we initiated the program within 2 years and made this program a success. Actually this is the first program for this university to have such a program in food science with international courses, so you are really fortunate to be a member of this program. And I firmly believe if you want to be successful, try to work hard and take this opportunity to go further in your future area. Nebraska Lincoln is a world-class famous school in the world. More than 20 years ago, I was very lucky to pay a visit. I was deeply impressed by the research and teaching programs there. As for this program, I’m not sure the feelings of the second-year students. But our first-year students said they are quite confident about their future learning in this program. Before this program was initiated, actually our university including myself was not very confident about your English level and English skills, but after one year, you are performing well. We are very much delighted to have our students perform well and are even more confident for your future classes and for your study in the Nebraska campus. But what I want to tell you is that if you are going to succeed, this is not a very easy task. Just this morning, I recepted a person whose son was also in this college. The dad told me his son would fail this semester, and he has to go back home. The reason for this student’s failure is that he paid too much time on social affairs and during the first year, he failed in several classes, and in the second year, this situation continued. So I want to tell you being a new student in this program is an opportunity in your life, and it will be the starting point of your future success. I strongly encourage you to work harder and to make this program more successful, you need to pay much more effort on our program. I hope all of you can pass the exams and earn a bright future. Five or ten years later, the world will change a lot. You can see in China, there are so many international companies being built here. Two weeks ago, I visited some colleges in center Asia. there are dynamic cultural and economic exchanges between the countries. So your future will strongly depends on how much you have the version of the internationalization. Thus, this program provides you a very very unique opportunity for you to learn in China and in the United States, to share the experience of communication, to share the culture, and to train you to be true talents which are needed in the future. Wish you great success.
Thank you very much.