Speech by Yanan Xu for 2019 GBJ Commencement

Graduation Speech for the TSJC's GBJ Class of 2019

Ms. Yanan Xu (Chinese Student Representative of 2019 Graduating Class)

July 4, 2019

Dear teachers and students, good afternoon! It is a great honor for me to stand here as a graduate of the Global Business Journalism project. I am sincerely grateful for having this opportunity to share with you my journey in these three years with GBJ. First of all, I want to thank all our teachers for leading this journey. A fun fact is that the other day I was going through the voice memos on my phone. And I found there were many 30-second old voice memos which recorded various kinds of ambient sounds, like the pitter-patter of rains or tick tock of the clock. I suddenly realized it was part of preparation for audio assignment in Rick's course of "News Writing and Multimedia Business Reporting." And I was thinking: "Ah this is how I started my journey" with these basic and practical knowledge and skills to tell business stories in multiple dimensions.I also found several voice memos in which I practiced my elevator pitch again and again as my final presentation in the course "Corporate Strategies." Thank you Miller. It helps a lot for the job-hunting. There are also text memos that reminds me of days I spend in the Bloomberg laboratory exploring the financial data, let along the calculations on the draft papers in Ms. Hang’s course "Economics and Accounting Basics for Journalists" which helps to lay the foundation to my journey of business journalism.Looking back, I feel the three years with GBJ is quite fruitful and inspiring. The cutting-edge courses not only equip me with professional economic and journalism knowledge, but also help to cultivate a global vision and critical thinking when it comes to international communication. The charm of it is to stand higher and see further when reporting on the ongoing political or economic issues.Specifically speaking, GBJ taught me to be a global citizen. I experienced the Russian-Western diplomatic conflict during my three-month internship in CCTV Moscow bureau. We did a live interview with a former official from Russian Foreign Ministry, going through the history of two sides diplomatic history and economic relations with interests of both parties concerned. The interview showed a comprehensive view on the conflict——because I know that one side story has no good for finding the common value.GBJ project is also a great platform for cultural exchange. My foreign students and I went through many group work together, presenting our analysis on the Belt and Road reporting or creating media kit for Beijing's tea industry. We talk and exchange information based on our own cultural background, ending up with friendship and an inclusive view on the country we may have never been. GBJ helps us find the bond behind each other.This GBJ journey is seemingly short, because now the graduation is here. But for each of us, the exploration is just about to begin. We still have lots of questions left to be answered, since the new media environment is constantly changing and the global trade situation is increasingly complicated. The lucky thing is that we now have our professional skills and perspectives to ask better questions.All together we are only confused at a higher level.Thank you GBJ. Thank you all.