On October 16th, the 2016 Tianjin University award ceremony for the Zheng Dong Innovative Education Grant was held at Peiyang Park Campus. Tianjin University's 88th distinguished alumnus, Zheng Dong and the former party secretary of Tianjin University and chairman of Tianjin University Alumni Association, Liu Jianping delivered speeches.
At the ceremony, the guests and leaders firstly awarded the 2016 students education grants and funding certificates, and then issued the funding certificates to both the 2012 and 2015 students who had passed this year's review. Afterwards, the president of the Zheng Dong Love Club and the 2014 undergraduate of the Qiushi College, Liu Chuang, gave a report of the work of the Love Club during the 2015-2016 academic year: The School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology student, Cheng Yiting, and the Qiushi College student, Wang Cong, delivered their speeches on behalf of the freshmen and senior students respectively. They expressed their heartfelt gratitude to Zheng Dong, University leaders and teachers for years of help and care. Cheng Yitingsaid, “The education grant can not only free us from misery and feeling inferior because of family misfortune, but can also motivate us to focus on study, and academic work so that we can excel and be, dedicated and creative students at Tianjin University.”. As the student who was awarded the A level Zheng Dong Education Grant twice in succession, Wang Cong shared with the students his own stories about how he had struggled hard to change his major ranking from 100th to 10th, participated in subject contests and also organized class activities. At the same time, he called on all the students to value the time and make strenuous efforts to live their life to the fullest.
Zheng Dong hoped that while involving themselves in club or class activities, students should also study hard to improve their academic results. He cited some inspirational entrepreneurial stories of famous ones like Yu Minhong and Ren Zhengfei, as illustrations of students who frequently challenged themselves to use their own initiative, were never afraid of difficulty, and never felt self-abased. They established the spirit of serving others to turn their family difficulties into motivation and treasure on their road forward.
Liu Jianping extended a warm welcome to Zheng Dong, and also expressed his heartfelt thanks for the support that Zheng Dong offered to the educational development of Tianjin University. He pointed out that the Zheng Dong Innovative Education Grant plays an important role in the University’s funding system and had already supported 300 students for six years with a total sum of three million RMB. On October 2nd, 2014, at the time of University’s 119th anniversary, the alumnus, Zheng Dong generously donated 50 million RMB to set up the Zheng Dong Educational Endowment. The Zheng Dong Library which bears his name has become a landmark of Peiyang Park Campus. It is affectionately called “The most beautiful library”, and it has attracted more and more attention from the teachers, students, and also different sectors of society. He encouraged the students to make a full use of the broad platform offered by the University and the abundant opportunities to enrich, improve and surpass themselves. When stepping into society, they were also required to work steadfastly to contribute to the country and society.
