Dear all international students:

Today I would like to share some of my ideas with you, for which I have been expecting for a long time.

Firstly, please accept my warmest welcome for your study in Shenyang, China. This year, in totality, we have around 150 students from 17 countries such as Algeria, Burkina Faso, France, Ghana, I'vorine, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Maldivlan, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippine, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Uganda. The big family is composed of people from different family and educational backgrounds. When working with you, we follow the principle that everybody is born equal, because we stick to the point that equality is the main criterion for evaluating people, everybody has his own advantages and disadvantages.

I am always asking myself this question, what will your study-in-China experience benefit you? As everybody knows, China is a historical country with splendid culture, it is becoming stronger and stronger, and has exchanges with many countries in politics, economy, culture and education. Your experience in China opens the channel for your understanding of the society and people. Of course, I don't mean everything in China is perfect, every country has its problems, especially for a big developing country with 1.3 billion people. But I mean your experience here will be helpful for your future career and life, even extend your sphere of understanding the world.

Chinese culture is characterized to be friendly with guests, in the old saying by famous Confucius more than 2000 years ago, "If there is a friend coming from far away place, we are more than happy to welcome him." So our target is to try everything to make you feel comfortable about living and studying here. We hope in the future you will be the ambassadors of friendship between China and your home countries.

We all know, every organization or institution needs disciplines, because without it, we can't achieve anything. For people from different backgrounds, harmony and cooperation become extremely significant. Because the integrity of individuals determines the development of the group, we can never expect other people to do the same as us, we need to accept others. After graduation, you have to work with more people and adapt to more things, maybe some of them you are not feeling comfortable with, but it is there. Most of you are majoring in aeronautical engineering, when you are working as an engineer in an aircraft company, a small mistake can cause a big loss, maybe not only possession, but lives. That means discipline is rather important for us.

Next thing I want to talk with you is freedom. We all know, freedom stems from control, because everything is contradictory. Last year, we invested 15 million yuan to construct the new apartment to make sure the quality of international education. It is a 12-floor modern building, very nice. Why did we build it? Because if you live on the campus we can guarantee the attendance of classes, keep you safe and easy for the administration. We never want to see our students drinking, playing or idling outside. Because you are far away from your homes, you need to study hard to compensate your parents' sweat and hope, more importantly, you need to work hard for your future life. To make it affordable for everybody, we collected only half of the price comparing to the universities around us. In our apartment, most people are living in single bedrooms, the price is only 750 yuan per month. We also provide more favorable accommodation for two persons in one bedroom, the price is just 400 yuan,around 60 dollars per month, 2 dollars for one day! Generally speaking, living on campus is always more expensive than living outside, because you are enjoying more services and facilities.

Recently we are contacting some companies for your internship and work, we can never guarantee your jobs, but surely we would like to recommend you to work in some good companies after graduation. In this respect, we are all on the same boat. To make you more qualified, I would like to suggest the following aspects. Firstly, be sincere, forward-looking, inspiring and capable; Secondly, be disciplined, creative and cooperative; Thirdly, have good command of specialty knowledge and language capabilities.

All in all, I hope every student will enjoy your life in Shenyang and have a good future, thank you all!

If you have any inquiries, please contact me: richardchen@syiae.edu.cn, or yongqingchen@yahoo.com, parents are also welcome to send me emails, thanks.

Sincerely
Richard Chen
Director of International Cooperation Department
Shenyang Institute of Aeronautical Engineering