On September 9, 2017, USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry (ICCI) welcomed a total of 44 new members as Class 2017, including one student from Taiwan, China and another from Canada. It is the first time that ICCI successfully admitted students from outside the Chinese mainland.
September 9 symbolizes the start of a fully new journey for all the 2017 cluster of students. With admission letters in hand, they arrived at the New Gymnasium on Minhang Campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) for university-wide registration in the morning. Early by 7 o’clock, the ICCI admin team and volunteers had already had everything well set, ready to welcome the arrivals of new students. A tailored ICCI gift pack was prepared with great care and warmth for each student, which contains a SJTU school badge, ICCI’s designed T-shirt, mug, card sleeve, notebook, pen, institute brochures, as well as Vitamin-C effervescent tablets to fight against potential weariness after long-distance travels.
Later in the afternoon, students attended ICCI’s Orientation Ceremony in the Institute’s new academic and research base located in Zizhu International Educational Park. Guests present included Wenjun ZHANG, Dean of ICCI, Weimin ZHANG, Executive Dean of ICCI, Feng ZHAO, Vice Dean of ICCI, new faculty representatives Sunghan Ryu and Titus Levi, as well as students’ parents. Exciting warm-up activities such as “Light Up 2017” and “To Your Future Self” were organized before the official event. Fresh ICCIers began their new knowledge-searching journeys in the good wishes of illuminated light. During the activity of “To Your Future Self”, they wrote down their true thoughts and hopes for themselves in 2.5 years on ICCI postcards and dropped them into a specially customized mailbox, which was then locked jointly by the Dean and Executive Dean, Wenjun ZHANG and Weimin ZHANG. The mailbox that holds all 44 students’ voices and dreams won’t be opened until the graduation of Class 2017 in another 2.5 years. To preserve and nurture the dreams of young ICCIers and to provide them the optimal learning and communication platform is a solemn and consistent commitment of ICCI from the very beginning.
The orientation ceremony officially began at 3 p.m. It was chaired by Vice Dean Feng ZHAO. As an opening, Dean ZHANG made the welcome speech to all the students and other representatives. He inspired students to ponder on whom they want to be in the future and the way to achieve their aspirations with a positive attitude and care for others during the two and a half years at ICCI.
As a tradition, the live dialogues with Senior ICCI schoolmates currently studying at the University of South California (USC) filled new ICCIers with happy surprises. In this occasion, they got the precious opportunity to communicate with 2016 students who just started their study at the Marshall Business School of USC, Los Angeles. Senior students introduced the basics for studying at Marshall, shared experiences in application and course selection, and encouraged new ICCIers to lay a solid foundation of knowledge during their first year study at SJTU. Mr. Ermu ZHANG shared his recent experience of operating his personal social media account; Mr. Xingyu ZHU, monitor of 2016 class, offered advices on the importance of setting up a proactive communication mechanism between students and the ICCI administration. Despite the 15-hour time difference between Shanghai and the west coast of America, the audience all witnessed a heated atmosphere for discussions among the seniors and juniors and much laughter on site.
Afterwards, Weimin ZHANG delivered an overall introduction of ICCI and briefly responded to questions from students. He elaborated ICCI’s three major brand new characteristics: Internationalization, Inter-discipline and Industry-orientation. ICCI endeavors to attract resources from all aspects so as to provide a platform that suits the academic and career development of all students, who are considered as the most prominent name cards of ICCI.
Student representatives of Class 2017 made brief speeches next. Mr. Juxing WANG encouraged all the students to stay true to their hearts, work hard and strive for excellence. Ms. Wenjun QIAN, who completed 4 years of undergraduate study at SJTU, said what ICCI attracts her the most is: It is a place full of infinite challenges, plus the featured heavy course load, busy schedule, as well as part-time entrepreneurship practice.
Mr. Ruizhang HUANG, father of Ms. Yining HUANG from Taiwan, China, was invited to speak as the parent representative. He spoke highly of ICCI’s innovative spirit in fostering young talents, its cutting-edge curriculum design, global insights, seamless education model with USC Marshall School of Business, together with the well-equipped teaching facilities. Mr. HUANG feels very proud of his daughter joining ICCI after one year’s exchange student experience at SJTU last year. Having learnt a lot about the heavy work load and fast-paced study life at ICCI, he motivated students to cherish the opportunities to grow more independent, bearing it deep in mind to “Harvest success even if it means you have to stay up late often at nights”.
To guarantee all students a smooth start and help them adapt to the new life in Zizhu as quickly as possible, ICCI admin staff introduced a series of topics with detailed explanations on the teaching schedules in the new term, life guide of the park, safety guidelines and etc. Temporary class committees of both Class One and Class Two of 2017 were elected through public self-introductions and nomination.
On the morning of September 10, all 2017 students attended the grand opening ceremony specially organized by SJTU, wearing ICCI’s newly designed T-shirt. President Zhongqin LIN delivered a keynote speech titled Have First-Class Ambition, Become First-Class Talents. Later in the evening, students listened to their First Lecture on the theme of Aim High with Gratitude and Forge Ahead through Challenges, given by Sixian JIANG, General Secretary of the CPC SJTU Committee, also the Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress.
Edit: Karen ZENG