笔辞蝉迟罢颈尘别：8/15/2017
August 14th - Chancellor Li Jiange delivered an inspiring speech on the opening ceremony. He congratulated 2017 students of GTIIT to become the first students of GTIIT as well as? encouraged students to overtake around the curve in GTIIT. Therefore, students can say goodbye to the past, embrace the future, be themselves and make greater achievements.
Full Text of Chancellor Li's speech:
Dear students, parents, distinguished guests and colleagues,
Good morning! Today, we gather here to celebrate the first opening ceremony of the Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT). I sincerely enjoy spending the time together with you. This moment of extraordinary joy and passion will be recorded as a remarkable chapter in our school history.
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Here, on behalf of all the faculty and staff, I would like to extend a warm welcome and sincere thanks to the students for joining GTIIT. Congratulations on becoming GTIIT’s first cohort of students. In the coming years, you will witness the start-up development of this world-class research university of science and engineering jointly established by China and Israel.
In the past few years, a great number of people have spared no efforts to turn GTIIT from just a proposal to a consensus, and from a blueprint to reality. Our hardworking faculty and staff had no time to take summer vacation, and stuck to their posts in student recruitment, campus construction, opening preparation and so on. Here, dear students and parents, please join me to thank them with our warm applause.
Dear students, we have the confidence to prove in the next four years that your choice of GTIIT is a wise one, a choice that you will never regret, and instead, will always be proud of.
We are deeply aware that your applying for GTIIT is a show of trust in us; and the acceptance letters we sent are our responsibility and promise to you. You and your parents have decided to trust us with your most precious youthful time, and all of GTIIT’s faculty and staff have felt the huge responsibility we are shouldering.
GTIIT is the only state-level cooperation project between China an Israel in the field of education. It is a university, an independent legal entity, initiated by Shantou University and Technion Israel Institute of Technology under the regulations of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. Why do we need to work with Technion? What can we learn from Jewish civilization? What kind of unique path of innovation shall GTIIT take? In the freshmen education agenda, a lecture has been arranged during which I would like to share some of my thoughts on these questions.
There is a very popular saying in China: do not let yourself or your children “lose at the starting line”. I believe that some students and parents sitting here today will inevitably compare GTIIT with other universities with higher admission scores. However, life is not a sprint, not even a marathon. Life is more like an auto rally. If the game is not over, you will have the opportunity to overtake around the curve at the next stage as long as you keep fighting and do not give up.
GTIIT attaches great importance to inspiring students' self-confidence. In our eyes, you are all outstanding in science and English, and are equipped with high EQ and IQ, solid academic foundation and strong willpower. On this track GTIIT provides, you can say goodbye to the past, embrace the future, be yourself and make greater achievements.
Two years ago at the cornerstone laying ceremony of GTIIT, the late President of Israel, Nobel Peace Prize winner Mr. Shimon Peres spoke that when he was a child, his mother would ask him two questions every day he comes home from school: 1. Have you raised any good questions to the teacher? 2. Have you said anything that impressed your classmates? This is the typical education and thinking philosophy of the Jewish culture，which encourages independent thinking, challenging the authority, being innovative and different, and questioning everything.
This new learning environment of heuristics and analytical thinking will be a huge challenge to you who are accustomed to spoon-feeding and test-based education for many years. In the classrooms of GTIIT, you should give full play to your curiosity and imagination, dare to ask questions and debate. Our professors will not despise you when your questions may seem childish; and they will think highly of you when the questions are sharp and to the point.
Albert Einstein once said: "The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think." Students that GTIIT cultivates should not just be the inheritors of existing knowledge, but the explorers and innovators of the unknown world. GTIIT attaches more importance to students' lifelong learning ability which will help them cope with the ever-changing technology development and industrial transformation in the future.
Here, I must emphasize that the establishment of GTIIT has always enjoyed strong support from leaders at all levels of the central government, Guangdong Province, Shantou City and Shantou University. Our hearts are filled with sincere gratitude and respect. In return, we will keep providing our society with qualified and innovative personnel who are outstanding in both ability and integrity, and proficient in both liberal arts and science. GTIIT will always give priority to moral education and the cultivation of sound values and right outlooks on the world and life.
We should always be grateful to Mr. Li Ka-shing who has provided a huge donation and made outstanding contributions to the establishment of GTIIT. Bearing in mind Mr. Li’s maxim such as “learn to be a good person before you do something" and "building up oneself in the pursuit of selflessness", we should be thankful and contribute to the society.
Dear students, GTIIT's goal is to develop into a small-scale, quality and research-oriented university. Please rest assured that our beautiful and exquisite campus will accommodate not only the desks for your study, but also all your dreams and ambition!
Thank you very much!
Photo: News and Public Affairs Department
