Dear teachers and students,

Good afternoon!

We are here today to observe thegrand Opening Ceremony for the 2015 Freshmen and the Awards Ceremony of Year2014-2015. On behalf of our university, I hereby extend the warmest welcome tothe 4097 freshmen coming from 29 provinces and cities all over the country aswell as to the 74 overseas students from Russia, Korea, North Korea and Japan.Congratulations on your becoming the youngest hosts of Dalian NeusoftUniversity of Information. Taking this opportunity, I’d like to express my mostsincere respect to your parents and your teachers who have been heartedlydedicated to your growth. In the meanwhile, congratulate the collectives andindividuals who are awarded today.

Dear students, your universitylife has officially begun. Although four years of university life sound verylong, in fact it is merely about 1400 days. Some students always feel in needof more time to finish the reading of a book, to complete projects, or toattend the activities while some other students get indulged in computer games,immersed themselves in the play, and then approach to graduation beforecomprehending any of the implication of studying. How do you spend your collegelife? Recently, our university held a summit alumni association, where ouruniversity’s first patch of graduates returned to our university; many of whomgraduated in 2005 and currently they have become the top in their workplaces,or have set up their own enterprises, pursuing their own happiness on the wayof following their own dreams. In the sharing of feelings for the ten years ofgrowing up after graduation, they all, without exception, expressed nostalgiafor the university time, when they had a clear goal, and the busy college lifelaid a solid foundation for them; they mentioned that it was our university’sstrong innovative and entrepreneurial atmosphere that lit up their creativeenthusiasm. As our university’s president, I hope, from now on, you can teardown the wall of the thinking, open the window of innovation to render the fouryears of college life more wonderful and fruitful. Here, I have somesuggestions to share with you:

Above all, let the dream navigateyour actions.

Forty years ago, when Bill Gatesand his friend Paul Allen founded Microsoft, they dreamt that every familywould have a computer on every desk, which sounded like illusion then, but theydared to dream, dared to innovate, and to work on their original dream.Everyone can have dreams, big ones or small ones. "To prepare the studentsfor future jobs, to prepare the students for work of high quality, to make thestudents help their own peers get employed, and make the campus an incubator ofinnovative entrepreneurs ", are one of the not-too-great dreams of DalianNeusoft University of Information. The university has constantly renewed therecord in the development course of fifteen years, and witnessed the entireuniversity’s teachers and students committed to the single-minded pursuit ofdreams. For the students, from childhood till now, you have long been theattention of family surrounding you, and your parents have made many decisionsfor you, which resulted in the fact that some students may have never seriouslythought about their dreams. I hope that in the course of university learningyou can harbor your dreams, recognize the gap between the " idealmyself" and the "real myself", confront challenges courageously,advance forward fearlessly, release your creativity to the fullest, openwindows of potential, try more, experience the wonderful world, and accumulateprecious assets on the path of dream pursuing, even in the face of the failure.

In the second place, read toenrich your mind.

The Internet makes the worldsmaller and smaller and the information increasingly complicated. Our societyneeds not only the rational and calm talents, but also the critical spirit anddecision-makers, which is exactly what you need to learn and develop intoduring college years. We see too many students who would rather listen to thespecious hearsay instead of being patient enough to distinguish the true fromthe false; some students prefer the fast-food type of piecing-out withinformation on the Internet to rational thinking. Dear students, I hope youdon't follow suit blindly, do not go with the flow, do not echo what the otherssay; I hope you can read classic masterpieces of humankind boiled down intoessence through tens of hundreds of years; you should know better than to stayglued to the cellphone to update WeChat or Microblogs. "Histories make menwise; poets witty, mathematics subtle, natural philosophy   deep; moral grave, logic and rhetoric ableto contend." Reading has a huge impact, so I hope you get the good habitof lifetime reading. Through extensive reading, you can accumulate informationat the same time, improve your discrimination, and filter out all kinds of junkinformation so as to fill your mind with genuinely valuable information.

Thirdly, let tolerance shape yourcharacter.

A number of students enteruniversity to find it hard to form new relationships. Since you are fromdifferent parts of the country, it poses a new challenge to those who arewithout the experience of living together with others under the same roof wherepublic space overlaps private space and individuality has to give way tocommonality. When disagreements or clashes arise between classmates orroommates due to your differences, I hope that you show adequate tolerance,which is a wise communication based on patience and understanding. Only whenyou put yourself in others’ positions can you erase barriers andmisunderstandings, forming cordial and genuine friendships. In university, tobe fellow students means more than eating and chatting; more importantly, itmeans companionship in study and growth. Therefore, I hope you can be open,respecting, understanding and learning from others. Tolerance of others is atthe same time benign treatment to yourselves, conducive to an open heart and abroad vision, hence a rich and proactive youth.

Finally, let your good habitssustain your lifelong success.

Once a journalist asked Kapitza,Nobel prize winner for physics, “In which university or lab did you acquirewhat you reckon as the most important thing?” The white-haired scholar replied,“It was in my kindergarten. In there I learned to share my stuff with my fellowkids, not to take what didn’t belong to me, to put things in good order, towash my hands before a meal, to say sorry for any mistake, to have anafter-lunch rest and to observe the natural surroundings closely—I have beenfollowing what I was taught by teachers back in kindergarten.” Unexpected asthe answer was, we are informed of a simple logic: good habits serve as afoundation and prerequisite for success. Raising your English scores will notbe a challenge when learning words by heart and reading passages become yourhabits; you will take delight in learning when listening attentively toteachers in class rather than bending and fixating your eyes on the cell phone;being innovative and entrepreneurial will no longer a dream beyond reach whenthinking, questioning and working in the field become your habits. So, I hopethat you, who have just commence your university life, will not loosen thestrictness with yourself; rather, gradually develop some good habits likeexercising for half an hour each day, reading a good book each week orentering  a competition linked to yourmajors each year, etc. Those habits will benefit you for the rest of yourlives.

My dear students, you have setfoot in university. I wish you all the academic successes, a rich and happylife and a fulfilled youth!

Thank you!