On September 15th, the welcome ceremony for 2021 new students was simultaneously held at the Zhenghe Building’s meeting room, the classrooms in Zhixing Building, and on Zoom & Tencent online platform. Zhao Youtao, Vice President of Dalian Maritime University, attended the ceremony. The Chinese and US sides’ management teams, leaders of the programmes, representatives of the instructors, 2021 freshmen and their parents all joined the meeting online and offline respectively. And the ceremony was hosted by Zhang Jinlei, Dean of the Huston International Institute.
Zhao Youtao took “How to forge ahead to live up to the times” as the starting point to breakthrough and discussed the mission of the age and the value of the university together with all the freshmen, hoped that the students would grow into the core for the country. He raised four requirements to the students. First, cultivate their morality and strengthen their moral cultivation. Second, study hard, ask more questions, learn to study and think, and acquire the useful skills. Third, set a goal, remain ambitious, and make a good plan for the aim of life developments, then put efforts into it. Last but not least, never stop improving innovation abilities, practical abilities, and communication abilities in social activities.
Liu Zhijie, leader of the Mechanical Engineering programme of the Houston International Institute and Professor of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering College, Wang Xinnian, leader of the Electrical Engineering programme of the Houston International Institute and Associate Professor of the College of Information Science and Technology, and Zhang Tian, Representative of the instructors of Civil Engineering programme of the Houston International Institute and Associate Professor of the College of Transportation Engineering, introduced three programmes to the students respectively. All of them explained in details and in various aspects including “What to learn”, “How to learn”, and “What to do after learning”, and solved the confusion of the students. Cheng Xin, leader of the Language Teaching Centre of the Houston International Institute and Professor of the School of Foreign Languages, shared her key to learning English effectively with the topic “Perseverance Spells Success”.
Wang Zhaogui, Representative of the instructors, Zhang Jiaying, Representative of the counselors, Fang Zhenyu and Fu Wenzheng, Representatives of students, and Bi Chengping and Cheng Junchi, Representatives of the freshmen delivered the speech respectively. They indicated the determination of the educators about stepping on their own jobs, casting the spirit and educating students, and the dream of the students about stepping in the Dalian Maritime University and hugging the world.
Shao Guang, secretary of CPC committee of the Houston International Institute, explained the meaning of the colours “Red, Yellow and Blue” of the college and did the entrance education to the freshmen.
At the ceremony, there was an online meeting with the University of Houston. JR Rao, Deputy Dean of the Cullen College of Engineering, Roberto Ballarini, Dean of the Houston International Institute (US side) and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Alejandrina Campanella, Deputy Dean of the Houston International Institute (US side), Badri Roysam, Director of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Di Yang, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Holley Love, teacher of Mechanical Engineering, had a impassioned and cordial communication with our students. They respectively stressed the importance of the good learning methods, encouraged the students to have the confidence to attend the discussion in class, raise their opinions and communicate actively, making sure to learn preview on their own, study comprehensively all the time, bear the concepts in mind, and understand the knowledge thoroughly.
As an important part of the entrance education of the Houston International Institute, the welcome ceremony not only expressed the spirit of the university motto, “To acquire universal knowledge, to offer virtuous assistance” to the students, but also conveyed the unique culture and humanistic care of the institute, echoing the “Jointing Plan” international Freshmen Forum, playing an educational and guiding role of unifying thoughts, cohering with spirits and strength, and encouraging the students to go forward.
