Dear students of the Class of 2028,
It is a great honor and pleasure to welcome you to NYU Shanghai, a Sino-US joint university that can be characterized as being both tiny and big in terms of its size, both new and old in terms of its history, both tough and considerate in terms of its academic atmosphere, and both diverse and unified in terms of its philosophy of education.
This year we have been commemorating the 300th anniversary of Immanuel Kant, a philosopher whose ideas, particularly his vision of a Weltbürgerliche Gesellschaft, or cosmopolitan society, continue to shape our understanding of global responsibility, which is of special relevance to a school like ours.
NYU Shanghai’s goal is, as argued and practiced by our founders like President John Sexton, Chancellor Yu Lizhong and Vice-Chancellor Jeffery Lehman, to cultivate “cosmopolitan patriots,” or people who “can entertain the possibility of a world in which everyone is a rooted cosmopolitan, attached to a home of his or her own, with its own cultural particularities, but taking pleasure from the presence of other, different places that are home to other, different, people,” as a famous NYU philosopher wrote more or less than three decades ago.
I would like to mention another event this year, in order to highlight the importance of the year you start a new stage of your life journey at NYU Shanghai. In June, China’s Chang’e-6 mission returned the first-ever samples from the far side of the moon. As a Chinese person, I’m very proud of the fact my country moves furthest in the human journey towards the far side of the moon. But I must admit we were very late in knowing that there is a far side of the moon, as I was told by a friend who specializes in the history of science: we may very possibly have learnt about the existence of the far side of the moon from people living in other parts of the world. But the fact that now Chinese scientists have the best knowledge of the far side of the moon shows that human beings not only learn from the outside world, but also learn from each other, and each of these types of learning is more successful when combined with the other.So, I mention China’s success in lunar exploration to emphasize not only the importance of being curious and courageous of knowing the far side of everything you encounter, but also the importance of learning from everybody you study, work, and live together with in the future, starting from your learning at NYU Shanghai.
Some of the major features of our school, as you may have all known, come from its student body: we have a large proportion of international students; our students are from a variety of countries and cultures, and communications with fellow students as well as with professors are meant to be essential to the learning experiences of you as students of NYU Shanghai. I hope all of you will very quickly come to see how important these features would be to your success in the following four years.
When I encourage you to learn from your peers, I don’t just mean that you should learn from your fellow students of the same cohort as yours. As a school of almost 12 years old, NYU Shanghai has a glorious history written not only by our faculty and staff, but also by our students.
Of the over 2,500 undergraduate graduates in the past 12 years, I’m glad to tell you, most have chosen to pursue further studies, demonstrating exceptional academic strength and potential. Of those pursuing further education, 75% have been accepted by universities ranked in the top 50 globally, and more than 80% by institutions or programs ranked in the top 50, including Yale, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and NYU. Each year, several graduates are selected for prestigious global scholarship programs, such as the Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua University, Yenching Scholars at Peking University, the US-China Scholars Program, Knight-Hennessy Scholars, Fulbright Scholars, and the Erasmus Program.
With regards to our graduates who’ve entered the job market, I’m proud to say that their employment covers a wide range of industries and is globally dispersed, showcasing their cross-cultural leadership and global competitiveness—a testament to the quality of education and training they received at our university. In addition to entering fields like finance and computer science, many students chose to engage in non-for-profit initiatives, such as the "Teach For China" program, demonstrating a commitment to social responsibility and making positive contributions to society.
For students passionate about research, NYU Shanghai’s highly individualized education, with a low student-to-faculty ratio of 8:1, has enabled many to publish research papers in top international academic journals, including Nature Communications. Each year, several students go on to directly pursue PhD programs at prestigious institutions such as Stanford and MIT.
What your senior fellow students have achieved, I hope, would encourage you to experience your learning processes here as efforts of writing new chapters of NYU Shanghai’s history with even higher aims.
I would also like to remind you that the learning processes you will experience here at NYU Shanghai are not confined to the walls of our classrooms or the pages of your textbooks. I encourage you to take full advantage of the numerous public events, lectures, and cultural activities that take place every day in this dynamic city.
Among the rich facilities for your physical and cultural life here in Qiantan and more broadly in Shanghai at large, I want to mention sports facilities in particular. In addition to the gym and courts on our campus, nearby you will find places like Sports Park and Oriental Sports Center. I urge you to use them not just for physical well-being but also as a way to build camaraderie with your peers. Sports, as we recently saw not only in the Paris Olympics, but also in the NYU basketball teams’ Shanghai tour, is a universal language that brings people together, transcending cultural and linguistic barriers. Engaging in physical activities can be just as important for your personal development as any academic pursuit.
And perhaps most importantly, I encourage you to engage with the local community, ranging from the Sanlin neighborhood and Pudong district to the city of Shanghai, the Yangtze River Delta Area and the country of China at large. If you want to visit Chongming Island, the third largest island of China, where I spent three years as a worker on a state-owned farm, or if you want to trek the ancient path between Xiaoshan and Shaoxing, in neighboring Zhejiang Province, where I spent part of my childhood, I would volunteer to be your tourist guide.
Ultimately, the aim of being here as a NYU Shanghai student is to learn how to become a better version of yourself. As you navigate your way through academic and personal trials, remember that the key to success is not just in overcoming obstacles but also in using them to refine your understanding of what "being better" truly means for you as a unique individual. This sense of self-improvement should resonate with your own inner values and aspirations, yet it should also stand the test of comparison with those whom you admire as role models.
In conclusion, I wish your time here will be a journey of discovery, growth, and profound joy.
Thank you.