The year 2009 will witness more than 150 SYSU graduates setting out to work in the western part of China and grassroots communities. On the morning of 26 June, an award ceremony was held at Huai Shi Hall in the south campus, in which 52 graduates who would work in Western China and grassroots communities in 2009 were awarded. President Huang Daren and Vice-secretary Li Ping attended the event, which was hosted by Mr. Li Mingzhang, head of Career Development Counseling Center.

At the ceremony, Vice-secretary Li Ping read out the decision of SYSU award which will grant the awards to twenty-nine graduates going to work in Western China and grassroots communities, seven who joined the San Zhi Yi Fu programme, eight recruited in the Aiding Western China programme and eight postgraduate volunteer teaching fellows.

Representing the awarded graduates, Zhang Hang and Cai Lina delivered their speeches at the ceremony, expressed their excitement of going to work in the west and grassroots communities in the coming days, and hoped that they could make contribution to the development of western China with the knowledge they have gained. On behalf of the volunteers who did a good job as teaching fellows, Fan Pingyu, who graduated from School of Foreign Languages in 2007, exchanged with others his experiences and feelings of being a volunteer teaching fellow.

Representing the teaching staff of Department of Chinese, Prof. Li Wei made a speech at the event, and quoted an excerpt from a poem by Li Bai--“A time will come to ride the wind and cleave the waves, I’ll set my cloudlike sail to cross the sea which raves” -- as a piece of advice to the graduates, in the hope that they would work hard in their posts as noble and confident individuals and make their lives fulfilled.

At the end of the ceremony, President Huang Daren handed the corps flag to the 11th SYSU Postgraduate Teaching Volunteer Corps that would go to Western China for volunteer teaching services. President Huang said that he was moved by the deeds of the graduates who are willing to give up comfortable lives and choose to work in Western China and grassroots communities. Their enthusiastic responding to the calling of “ going to the west, grassroots communities and the places that are most desperately in need of talents” embodied and shaped the spirit of SYSU. President Huang hoped that the graduates would deem working in grassroots communities and Western China as part of the social practices in their lives and make contributions at the grassroots level, embodying the good qualities of SYSU graduates, and keep the SYSU spirit in their posts and social practices.

Nearly 100 people, including officials from related administrative offices and departments and awarded students, attended the ceremony.