Activities - New Mind Education

A Perfect Getaway: Kayaking, Battleships, and the Beach

newmindadmin — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:00:03 +0000

Last weekend, our University Performance Program at NC State (UPP) took students on a much-needed break from academics and city life, heading to Wilmington, North Carolina for a day trip full of adventure, history, and relaxation. This day trip was carefully planned not only to offer students a relaxing break but also to help them develop important skills like open-mindness, communication, teamwork, and self-awareness that UPP seeks to develop in our curriculum.

Paddling Through Nature at Greenfield Lake

We started the day with an ecological kayaking tour at Greenfield Lake guided by Wilmington Outdoor Adventures. For many students, it was their first time kayaking, and they went through a full learning curve from feeling nervous at the beginning to gaining confidence and even mastering their strokes. It was rewarding to see their excitement as they could paddle up right next to turtles bathing in the sun and birds in the trees – a luxury of closeness only kayaks can bring. Along the way, they also learned about the lake’s conservation efforts and its ecological history, making it an adventure that was both fun and educational.

Stepping Into History at the Battleship North Carolina

After enjoying lunch in downtown Wilmington, students explored one of the most famous battleships in U.S. history – the USS North Carolina. Walking through its narrow hallways and exploring the different rooms gave them a glimpse into the daily lives of the sailors who lived and worked aboard. They were especially intrigued by how the crew managed to sleep, eat, and even entertain themselves in such confined spaces. It was a surprising and eye-opening experience, bringing history to life in a way that textbooks never could.

A Sunset to Remember at Carolina Beach

The highlight of the day for many students was the visit to Carolina Beach. For some, it was their first time seeing the Atlantic Ocean, and the excitement was contagious. They collected seashells, snapped plenty of photos, and played spike ball together, taking advantage of the soft sand and ocean breeze. As the sun began to set, the sky transformed into stunning shades of pink and orange, providing the perfect ending to a beautiful day.

This trip was a reminder of how important it is to step away from daily routines, explore new places, and connect with nature. Seeing the students’ joy and hearing them share how much fun they had makes us even more excited to plan future adventures like this. Here’s to more experiences that bring learning, fun, and a little bit of relaxation together!

The post A Perfect Getaway: Kayaking, Battleships, and the Beach first appeared on New Mind Education.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Break!

newmindadmin — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 07:06:41 +0000

By JEFFREY CARDENAS and TIFFANY MERRITT

With finals behind students and the winter holiday looming ahead, New Mind Education hosted its final Student Life activity of the semester: a Christmas party on December 10. The party had an intimate atmosphere at the UNCG faculty center, with just New Mind students and staff attending.

The main activity of the party was a Secret Santa gift exchange between the students. Prior to the party, students were asked to send in their academic majors and their hobbies so that they could be assigned someone to buy a gift for. To bring a more authentic experience to the American Christmas experience, each student was given a stocking full of smaller gifts including trial-size designer brand personal hygiene products, Christmas-themed hand sanitizers, Chinese candy, school supplies, and hand warmers. New Mind staff watched with pleasure as the students opened presents and witnessed the students’ happiness as they received gifts from their fellow classmates. The experience made everyone feel more united.

On top of gifts and stockings, students had the opportunity to make Christmas snow globes out of plastic wine glasses. Students were able to fill their snow globes with miniature iconic Christmas symbols such as Christmas trees, bells, holly, gingerbread people, cookie cutters, and, of course, snow. Students also enjoyed Christmas-themed snacks such as reindeer donuts, snowmen cupcakes, spinach tortilla turkey wraps shaped like a Christmas tree, and strawberry Santas while they opened and compared their presents.

Overall, this semester-end holiday party gave the students a taste of the traditional American “Christmas morning” and brought them closer together to relax after their hard work this fall!

The post Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Break! first appeared on New Mind Education.

Feeling the Love on Valentine’s Day

newmindadmin — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 07:02:45 +0000

By WILSON WOOTEN and ERIN HOLLOWAY

Editor: MICHELLE DANNER

Valentine’s Day has slowly become a global, commercial holiday. Despite the widespread appeal of heart-shaped candies, flowers, and romance associated with this holiday, many of our students were still unsure of the value this holiday could have for them personally, especially since many are single or in long-distance relationships. Nevertheless, New Mind Education hosted an event for students to celebrate their friendships, enjoy some activities, and learn about both toxic and healthy relationships in general. The event began with a presentation by Dr. Stephanie Francis, a representative from InterAct. Her presentation was then followed by several fun classic Valentine’s day games and activities.

Interns and staff decorated the location, Poe Hall on NCSU’s main campus, in an explosion of reds, pinks, and purples. Hearts adorned the walls and activity stations, balloons framed the entryway, and glittery garlands enveloped the podium where Dr. Francis spoke. The speech focused on the components of a healthy relationship, good relationship practices, signs of an unhealthy relationship, and how to support those who are in an abusive relationship. InterAct is a private, non-profit, United Way agency that provides safety, support, and awareness to victims and survivors of domestic violence and rape/sexual assault. InterAct fulfills this mission through the support of its volunteers and community, and through reaching out to the community via presentations like this one. Students discussed how there are many signs of an abusive relationship, and how they can sometimes be subtle or sometimes very obvious. These signs include some of the following: emotional abuse, threats, intimidation, isolation, sexual abuse, and economic abuse. We also talked about signs that signify a healthy, thriving relationship. Some of these signs include communication, trust, and not taking advantage of one’s partner. Students got involved in the seminar by asking and responding to questions.

“It’s interesting and helpful, ” Wenting Li, a student of UPP, said about the presentation. “During the lecture, I learned how to avoid conflicts, like don’t intend to change another person, don’t pressure him and learn to keep personal space for each other,” Esther Li, another student, said. Overall, it was a helpful presentation that the students learned a lot from.

Directly following the presentation were several Valentine’s Day themed activity stations and games that the students cycled through as a group. These activities included pinning the arrow on the heart, guessing how many candy hearts were in a jar, playing Valentine’s charades, Valentine’s day card making, and positive note giving. Pin the arrow on the heart is a game derived from the popular American’s birthday game, “Pin the tail on the donkey,” in which the player is blindfolded, spun in a circle, and then attempts to put the tail in the correct location on a poster of a donkey on the wall. This was a very difficult task and it took some of the students a few tries to do well. Our variation of this game gave students an arrow to pin on a big poster of a heart on the wall with a heart-shaped bullseye. In the end, Lingchao Mao’s arrow was the closest to the bullseye, so she won a Valentine Heart pillow.

The next activity involved a jar full of candy hearts, 1220 candies to be exact. The students all had a chance to guess how many were actually in the jar. Yuquan Cui won with a spectacular guess that was only 50 candies off, and she received a plush Valentine’s Day doughnut pillow as a prize. The last station, which was most of the students’ favorite, was the classic American game “Charades,” where participations must silently act out prompts on cards. For our Valentine’s Day themed deck, the cards were separated into 5 categories: What Men Like, What Women Like, Relationship Advice, What Couples Do and Share, and Nicknames. For many students, this was an interesting challenge to their presentation and acting skills and was a great exercise for the shyer students. The students enjoyed this game so much that students played until the event ran out of time. “Love is to go straight forward, following your heart, and pointing to the right place with eyes closed,” Lingchao Mao said.

Valentine’s Day is most often thought of as a couples-only holiday. However, there are other forms of love that ought to be celebrated, such as that between friends and colleagues. And although many of the students sulked about not having a date for Valentine’s Day, the night provided relationship advice for the future, fun games, and a lot of candy! On the way out, everyone was given a goodie bag full of typical American Valentine’s sweets, giving students the little pick me up they needed to finish February strong.

The post Feeling the Love on Valentine’s Day first appeared on New Mind Education.

Lights Up! The New Mind Education Talent Show

newmindadmin — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 06:59:45 +0000

By JIANGXUE CHEN, New Mind UNCG Intern

The annual New Mind Education Talent Show was held on Friday, January 29th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. The Talent Show took place in on UNCG campus in the Faculty Center. The purpose of this event was to encourage students to seek and experience their inner talents and to foster confidence in that talent as they prepared to perform.

In this event, participants were allowed to do up to two performances either alone or with a group. The judges awarded 2 prizes: 1st and 2nd place. Both of the winners won prizes for their great performances.

On the day of the event, 67 people attended. 28 of them were New Mind students and 27 of them were INTERLINK students or UNCG conversation partners. During the event, many students performed different talents. There was dancing, singing, playing the guitar, and other performances. All of the performances were really amazing. In the end, the first prize went to a New Mind student Seline (Yin Yiwen) for her outstanding singing performance. The second prize went to INTERLINK student Yessica and her partner Bryan. With all the delicious sushi and many other food that New Mind Education offered during the performances, everybody really enjoyed the event!

The post Lights Up! The New Mind Education Talent Show first appeared on New Mind Education.

Language exchange continues and thrives!

newmindadmin — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 06:56:48 +0000

By XIN RAO (student) and ERIN HOLLOWAY

All UPP students face the unique challenge of communicating with Americans effectively. Nevertheless, many of the students have drastically improved their English skills during their time here not only by paying attention in their classes but also by taking advantage of UPP’s Language Exchange program. Language Exchange is an continuous event held by New Mind Education, with activities occurring about every two weeks, starting in the Fall semester of 2015. UPP students are paired with other NC State students who are learning Chinese in FLC (Foreign Language: Chinese) classes, and they take turns practicing both English and Chinese with their native-speaking partner. In this way, UPP students get to be both learners and teachers! Student pairs meet in Talley Student Union on Fridays from 6:00-7:30 pm.

The most recent exchange was on March 4th, the day before spring break. Although many students had already made plans to travel that day, four students (two UPP and two FLC students) attended the event. Although there were fewer participants than usual, the students seemed to have very good conversations.

“It is pretty useful!” Yuquan Cui said. “It (the Language Exchange) is a place where you can meet a lot of American students and keep contact with them. We can actually help each other with language and enlarge our friend circle.”

Language Exchange is a casual event, so students choose where they want to sit in Talley and what topics they want to talk about. It is very common to see UPP students and FLC students become good friends and make plans to meet outside of the Language Exchange events. These mutually beneficial events also help FLC students earn credit for their class, and they really help our students adapt into their new environment at NCSU.

“It is a very interesting event. I can learn a lot of Chinese words, like slang that cannot be found in my textbook, from Chinese students,” FLC student Luis Esteves said.

“I got a lot of information about entertainment, such as TV shows and movies’ names,” UPP student Xiaorui Qu said.

“It helps me understand Chinese better,” Sarah Crawford, one of the most dependable FLC students, said. “I mean, not just from my professor, I can hear a lot of explanations about different aspects of the same word which is really helpful.”

It is good to see that both FLC students and UPP students can take advantage of this event and learn more about their second language and the accompanying culture!

“The event is fun, and I’m looking forward to attending more,” Esteves said.

The next Language Exchanges are scheduled for March 18, April 1, and finally April 22.

The post Language exchange continues and thrives! first appeared on New Mind Education.

Let’s go fly a kite!

newmindadmin — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 06:53:35 +0000

By TIMISHA HENLEY and TIFFANY MERRITT

On Saturday April 9th, 2016 UNCG held its 34th International Festival (I-Fest). The International Festival is an annual celebration of the diverse world in which we live in and of the beauty that all human cultures have to offer. I-Fest promotes cultural awareness, appreciation and understanding through music, food, crafts, demonstrations and entertainment from all over the globe. The event took place along College Ave, where about 40 different booths participated in the event.

At the New Mind Education table, students and visitors were invited to create their own traditional Chinese kites. Unfortunately, we did not have the time or material to make the kites in the traditional method; however we thought of an effective way to improvise. First, participants glued a cross beam structure of wooden dowels onto white butcher paper. Then they folded the paper around the wooden dowels to form crisp borders and the shape of a diagonal kite. After the structure of the kite was established, participants were able to paint colorful designs on their kite with paint markers.

Our students enjoyed practicing their English with Americans as they taught them how to make the kites. This activity turned out to be popular since it was a a very windy day–the perfect kind for flying kites! The International Festival was a great way for our students to experience and learn about different cultures.

The post Let’s go fly a kite! first appeared on New Mind Education.

Adventures in Charlotte Whitewater Center

newmindadmin — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 06:44:29 +0000

UPP @ NCSU Fall ‘15 – Spring ‘16 Cohort!

April has been a whirlwind of exams, final papers and projects for the students.” As students have continued to immerse themselves in America and its culture,” Steve Pond, UPP Director at NC State, said, “we want to continue to help them adapt to new surroundings and challenges as well.”

For this semester’s trip, students visited a unique and very special location in North Carolina: the National Whitewater Center, which is the qualifying and training grounds for United States Olympic athletes. Although it was only a weekend trip, from April 8 to 10, students had ample opportunities to challenge themselves and try new things, while taking a much needed vacation from looming deadlines in their classes.

The National Whitewater Center provided numerous challenges, such as rock climbing (3 routes to choose from), hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, paddle boating, climbing rope courses (7 routes to choose from), zip-lining and of course, whitewater rafting!

“Students got to climb to new heights, brave raging rapids in fast-moving rivers, and mountain bike, trail run and climb to their heart’s content,” Steve Pond said. “In our experience, introducing new and challenging experiences in a safe and controlled environment really helps to motivate, encourage and empower students. It was great to see these qualities emerge in so many of our participants this year!”

From 11:30-1:30pm on Saturday, students could explore whatever activity they wanted. A popular attraction was Hawk Point, a high-ropes course built over the river. At about 1:30, they geared up in wetsuits, water shoes and splash jackets to attend an orientation about whitewater rafting to cover procedures and safety concerns, such as what to do if they fell out of the raft.

“For me, I think it’s hard for me to get such experience,” Tianming Liu said. “The most interesting part of our group is that our captain fell into the water during the rafting. My favorite part of the trip is the rafting!”

The UPP group set out in groups of 8, to brave class 3 and 4 rapids along the man-made river. Some rafting guides even arranged for the groups to go “surfing” meaning the raft was wedged into a rapid for a few seconds, so water spills into the raft.

“I think the rafting was very, very fun,” Lingchao Mao said. “We got totally wet and we asked the trainer to get us to a more exciting one again and again They said they will make my glasses drop, after three founds, one of the team fall off the boat, but my glasses did not. There were so many things to do and have fun with friends: mountain biking, kayaking, high ropes, zip lines, climbing, etc. Especially I liked climbing, very very challenging. I tried to climb a blue line again and again and every time I get a little bit higher. It is to surpass yourself and being aware that you need to go to the gym, haha.”

“I think rafting is a team work, and it is a challenge to keep balance in the boat and not fall in the water,” Xiaorui Qu said. “My favorite part of the trip is the mountain biking. I have never done that before and I felt excited and the view is so pretty!”

The spring trip also coincided with a rare and special event – kayaking athletes were training to be accepted into the upcoming Olympic games! This event drew a large American crowd, and many different breeds of dogs, which allowed students plenty of chances to meet and converse with Americans.

On Sunday, students visited Concord Mills, one of the largest shopping malls in North Carolina. Once again, students had a selection of activities they could choose from, such as the aquarium, arcade, go karts, movie theatre and many shops and restaurants to visit before they returned to their dorms that evening.

Overall, this event taught students to be more independent and to choose their own adventure – the maximum benefit comes from greater challenges. We hope students will take these experiences and apply them to the future – to follow their interests and enjoy facing obstacles.

The post Adventures in Charlotte Whitewater Center first appeared on New Mind Education.

Garden and Forest Fun: Earth Day Event in Jaycee Park

newmindadmin — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 06:36:58 +0000

By JASON ZICHENG JIN and ERIN HOLLOWAY

Editor: MICHELLE DANNER

April 22nd is Earth Day, an American holiday dedicated to clean and protect our common mother: Earth. For the final service event for the Fall ‘15 cohort, UPP partnered with the North Carolina State government’s Parks and Recreation Department. Students visited Jaycee Park on April 16, 2016 and helped remove invasive species from the nature trails. They also developed the lily garden. Considering the temperamental weather in NC this semester, it was great for students to experience a field trip on such a sunny, clear day!

“This is really an interesting event,” Yuhan Pan, a 2015 UPP student, said.

The goals of this event were to teach students about Earth Day as a holiday, to think about how human activity can damage the environment, and what we can do to solve issues. Common Earth Day activities include reducing the amount of water or electricity one uses, recycling, planting trees, or removing pollution. UPP students also learned about the concept of invasive species and the importance of removing them, as well as local ecology information such as plants, birds and insects native to the area. This event also encouraged teamwork and critical thinking regarding the impacts of human activity.

“It is meaningful and useful, and I can get knowledge that I cannot learn from class,” Tianming Liu said.

Thirty-two students attended the event, arriving at Jaycee Park at about 9am. Considering that some students might not have had breakfast or might get hungry around lunch time, UPP provided snacks: bananas, apples, and almond biscuits in addition to the granola bars and bottled water park staff provided.

Leigh Bragassa, the Invasive Species Coordinator, explained the concept of invasive species (foreign plants or animals that, due to not being native inhabitants, cause damage to the local ecosystem) and how they can disrupt native species or even cause extinctions. For this event, students were shown two common invasive species in Raleigh: English ivy and poison oak, which are both crawling vines that can choke adult trees and outcompete most native ground-covering plants. Students wore protective gloves, glasses and were given poison ivy/oak after-exposure cream to protect against any allergic reactions. For many of the students, this was the first time they worked in a forest setting.

“As children and young adults, we need to learn to work hard and play hard to endure hardship,” Yuquan Cui said.

The UPP group was divided into two teams: one team worked on revitalizing the lily garden and the other larger team helped remove English Ivy and poison oak from the trees on the nature trails. The first group removed weeds from the garden and replenished the pine-straw to protect the garden and prevent weeds. This team also collected echinacea down from the tree. The other team used saws, hand clippers and larger clippers to remove the strangling vines from native pine, cherry and oak trees by cutting as close to the base of the tree as possible and removing the first foot or so of the vine growth. When English ivy matures, the vines can grow very thick and interconnected, creating a second “skin” that obscures the tree’s actual bark almost entirely. The predominant dangers of this occurring include stifling the tree’s growth, killing the tree and undergrowth (by hogging all the sunlight) and contributing to tree collapse due to the tree’s inability to sway in the wind.

“This activity is meaningful since it not only cuts ivy and removes weeds, but it also lets us see trees, wildlife and people,” Xinhua Du said. “We can learn from them and get the knowledge of plants from them.”

Removing English Ivy vines, an invasive species in NC

Students in this group worked in smaller groups all along the Jaycee Park trails until about 11:30 am. The difference in the trees was incredible! So many young pines that had been all but swallowed by English ivy were finally free, and imposing masses of the ivy were cleared away. “In about three weeks, all the vines above the cut will die and break off,” Ms. Bragassa said.

For many of the students, seeing the results of their hard work was satisfying.

“The feeling was great when I cut the vines and removed them from trees,” Naining Xu said. “It did release my stress and I could see the beautiful view at the same time.”

Jaycee Park staff were impressed with the amount of teamwork, dedication and focus that UPP students displayed during the event, commenting that our students are coachable and quick learners. Park staff were also glad to see that so many young people have an interest in helping the environment. Ms. Bragassa and Ashley Deans, the volunteer coordinator, really appreciated our help and efforts.

Also, some students said that this event was their first experience with Earth Day.

From our feedback from students and staff at the park, students gained many benefits from this event, such as knowledge about American holidays, invasive species and local wildlife; stress relief;and enjoying nature and teamwork. For some, this was a welcomed chance to exercise too, considering many have holed up in their rooms preparing for final exams.

The post Garden and Forest Fun: Earth Day Event in Jaycee Park first appeared on New Mind Education.

Onto the next adventure!

newmindadmin — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 06:33:41 +0000

By TIFFANY MERRITT

Editor: MICHELLE DANNER

On Friday May 6, we held a graduation ceremony in the UNCG Student Center for the August cohort of New Mind Education students, as well as for our other students who had completed their English studies at INTERLINK. This event was planned to let students enjoy their favorite American food–spicy chicken wings and cake–as well as reflect on all of their fond memories during their time in the UPP program. While students ate their food, they watched a video compiled of photos from their time at UPP. These photos captured the many activities they participated in such as the Welcome to America pool party, Casino Royale Poker Night, volunteer events with UNCG, Thanksgiving dinner with Americans, a Christmas party with a Secret Santa gift exchange, volunteering at a church for trick or treaters, the fall trip to Asheville, Chinese New Year party, the sports tournaments, the spring trip to Williamsburg, and many other happy times. Students even submitted some of their favorite photo-memories to be used in this slideshow.

After the slide show, Program Director Enoch Chow presented the superlative awards, Honor Roll Medals, and the winner of the Songtao scholarship. All 22 graduating students received a superlative award. These awards were chosen by the UPP advisors and they describe the personality, talents, or future prospects of each student. Some awards said things like “Most Likely to Become a World Re-known Pianist,” describing a student who is very talented at playing the piano. Others were more humorous such as “Most Likely to Wear Sweatpants to Work at His Own Company,” describing a student who wore sweatpants everyday.

This year, ten students also earned a place on the UPP Honor Roll: Luo Xuemin, Wang Xiaoyu, Yin Yiwen, An Yi, Zhao Xingyi, Zeng Junhao, Li Minghua, Cai Zhenqi, Wang Zixuan, and Zhu Ruifeng. These students received awards based on their attendance to Advising, GLC, Student Life Events, and volunteer activities, as well as their dedication to their studies.

Finally there was the Songtao Scholarship. The winner of the scholarship was Zhao “Alice” Xingyi. Alice is a model New Mind UPP student, expounding the many traits we strive to cultivate in our students. From the day she arrived, she took advantage of every part of the UPP program. She not only came to many of the Student Life Events, but she also volunteered during set-up and clean-up–jobs that nobody wants to do but which helped provide relief to the Student Life Coordinator. She also came to advising frequently and met with her advisor outside of class to get more advice about how to improve her studies. She sought out extra volunteer activities to do in her free-time and volunteered with young school children nearly every weekend. She became a Student Council Representative in January 2016 on the New Mind Student Council, and rose to be Student Council President by the time she finished UPP in May. On top of all this extra work, she maintained high grades and was selected as one of students to give a speech during the INTERLINK graduation.

We are very proud of Alice and all our other UPP graduates for how far they have come since arriving in America! We wait in eager anticipation to watch as they become more and more successful in their futures.

The post Onto the next adventure! first appeared on New Mind Education.

UPP Spring 16 Graduation

newmindadmin — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 06:29:07 +0000

By DANIEL WANG, Intern

As the weather gets warmer and the flowers start to bloom, we know graduation season is approaching. We are very pleased to announce that the three recipients of IEP’s Wolf Award were all UPP Students! This year, on May 6, 27 students graduated from the University Performance Program after an academic year of hard work and earning at least six UPP credits. Thirteen of these students also earned the perfect UPP Attendance certificate. Congratulations as well to our UPP Honors students Jessica Xiaorui Qu, Ling Mao, Wenting Zheng and Naomi Nan Sun for their exceptional efforts, resilience and motivation! Lastly, four students demonstrated incredible growth and performance in both academics, extracurricular activities, community service and cultural engagement. These students were awarded the New Mind Education’s Songtao Scholarship of $1000 each! Congratulations Tom Tianming Liu, Jessica Xiaorui Qu, Ling Mao and Wenting Zheng!

To the students, this graduation was meaningful in many different ways. It reflected a year of building lasting friendships, surviving American culture shock, making breakthroughs with the language barrier and gaining valuable experiences that they will benefit from for a long time. Graduation may mark the end of their journey with UPP, but it is also a new beginning for their future education.

The ceremony took place at University Towers with a reception on the pool patio. Students gathered together and enjoyed taking pictures with each other, especially since so many dressed up in formal attire. “It was my first time dressing up like this, and I am so happy to see many others here at the graduation,” Kai Deng said. “It will be a great memory for me.” There was also a photo booth where students could take pictures with peers and advisors with funny props, such as giant classes and fake hair. Additionally, one advisor loaned their Polaroid camera for the event. “We all love the instant camera, it is a lot of fun,” Amy Liu said.

It was also a special day for Shuai Zhao because his brother was getting married in China on the day of graduation. Shuai had mixed feelings of grief and joy. “I am so sad that I cannot be at my brother’s wedding, but I am also very happy about what I have accomplished this past year,” Zhao said. Shuai also invited Alyx, his UPP advisor, to join him in a short video and sent their blessings to his brother who is thousands of miles away. It was probably the sweetest moment that happened during the graduation reception.

After the reception, the graduation ceremony began at 8:30 in UT’s dining hall. Michael Chen, the founder of New Mind Education, was the keynote speaker for the graduation. He congratulated students for their efforts and told the students to be proud of themselves, regardless of whether they had passed IEP or not. All the UPP advisors also gave a speech about their groups and took pictures with their students. “The speeches are so touching and I am almost crying,” Xinhua Du said. “Le is a great advisor and she truly helped me a lot.” Jessica Qu also commented on the advisors’ speeches, “They have not only summarized everything in the past year but also encouraged us to look to the future.”

There were many rewards and certificates given out during the ceremony, such as graduation certificates, perfect attendance certificates, honors medals and scholarship awards. “It is a great feeling to be recognized with so many rewards,” Lingchao Mao said.

“I cannot believe that I won this scholarship, I am so excited and I need to tell my parents,” Tianming Liu said after he won one of the Songtao Scholarships.

Many students had very positive comments on the food provided during the graduation. “The cake was so great! It was not so sweet like other American cakes I had before, this cake tastes like the ones we have back in China,” Qu said. “It is simply amazing.”

Every student, regardless of whether they earned enough credits to graduate, received a photo album from all the student life events as well as a personalized card from their advisor.

“The photos were my favorite gift I got from graduation. The photo album is filled with memories and I am glad to see myself in it,” Rick Zhou said.

Theresa Liao had a great suggestion for this event. “The slide show during the graduation could become a more significant part. It would be great if we, as students, could also add pictures to the slides before we graduate.”

Constantine Zong may have had the best comment about the graduation ceremony. “Today is perfect, not because of my outfits, but simply because I am graduating and I cannot wait to get into college!”

The post UPP Spring 16 Graduation first appeared on New Mind Education.