In order to deeply implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important ideas about youth work, with the backgrounds of studying, promoting and carrying out the initiatives of the 20^th Congress of the Party, of sowing among the youth emotional seeds of loving the Party, the State and Socialism, of guiding them to firmly remember their responsibility of times, of helping them strengthen their ideals and beliefs in following the Party as well as making achievements in the New Era and of making them put into practice their manifesto of “Let me make the State Stronger”, under the guidance of the Communist Youth League Commission in Beijing, Gengdan Institute successfully held an online event to elect the “College Star for Independence” for the year 2023-2024.

Ever since the launch of this election on January 28, with extensive promotion and mobilization from the Institute, personal applications from students, elections and recommendations from various colleges of the Institute, scrutiny from the Office for Student Affairs, etc., of six colleges are there ten candidates for the “College Star for Independence” and one candidate for the “Scientific Innovation Group” succeeding in entering the election at the Institute level.

On the afternoon of February 6, by means of an online meeting the Office for Student Affairs organized and carried out the election for the yearly “College Star for Independence”. The electors are composed of Gengdan Institute leaders—Party Commission Secretary Bai Zhiqiang, Vice-President Xu Fei, Vice-President Liu Lin—as well as leaders and teachers from various executive divisions and colleges and student representatives from the colleges.

During the oral defense sessions, one after another ten candidates showed their epic deeds from different loci and perspectives. Some candidates come from poor families but still remain positive turning hardship into motivation to forge ahead; some candidates take the bull by the horns, ready to make great breakthroughs in scientific research; some candidates are really grateful for particular sponsorship policies easing their financial difficulty, eager to contribute themselves to society and the State. Every student sets a vivid exemplar through their own epic stories, though different, which shows that these youthful students bear a valuable quality based upon firm ideals and beliefs and self-independence. As the “Scientific Innovation Group” candidate, in the form of oral defense the student in charge of the BGD Robot Office showed to the audience the team’s fruitful research results and honorable achievements in particular applied research areas. Subsequently the team will continue to be oriented by national strategic needs, making greater contribution to sustainable development of society.

According to candidates’ application materials, their online oral defense performances, etc., finally panel reviewers elected Han Wenna as the candidate for the “College Star for Independence” and the BGD Robot Office as the candidate for the “Scientific Innovation Group”. Representing the Institute both of them are to participate in the election at the Beijing city level.

In the evaluation process, as far as the oral defense sessions are concerned Vice-President Liu Lin put forward her valuable suggestions and advice that students are hoped to improve their personal abilities in the very process of self-training, learning from each other and making continuous progress and that colleges are to keep looking for typical examples of excellent students so as to create a good atmosphere characterized by self-independence and hard work within the campus.

In the end, Secretary of the Party Commission Bai Zhiqiang made a summary speech in which he shared with youthful students the following three keywords: the first keyword is “fight”, encouraging students to keep fighting with the belief that everyone is useful ever since their birth; the second keyword is “environment”, hoping they can avail themselves of the full range of the open resources at the Institute to train themselves to grow up in a better way; the third keyword is “orientation”, hoping they can combine their personal growth with the trend towards social progress and national development so as to find out the direction for personal development to make the youth richer and more meaningful.

By promoting the typical stories featured by self-independence, the purpose of this election campaign for the “College Star for Independence” is to deliver inspiring positive energy among youthful students so as to create a rich atmosphere of hard work, which is an important measure of Gengdan Institute for completing the fundamental task of cultivating good talents and performing the duty of sponsoring and raising talents. Following this election, the Institute will continue to capture exemplary deeds of self-independence from excellent students, trying its best to promote and report on the typical examples, so much so that more and more Gengdan students would be inspired and motivated by the spirit of hard work, realizing their dreams in the end.

                                 Contributed by the Office for Student Affairs