Fudan President Jin Li's message to undergraduate graduates: Make innovation a way of life
June 20th, the last day of the Grain in Ear solar term, represents both harvest and sowing of new hope. 3,702 undergraduate graduates of Fudan University in 2024 held their graduation ceremony. Jin Li, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and president of Fudan University, used "innovation" as the keyword to send a message to the graduates.
In today's China, innovation is the main theme of the new era. The country must rank among the forefront of innovative countries. This is the first driving force of China's modernization and the most important way out for high-quality development. The society must build a learning society and an innovative society, and create an open innovation ecosystem with global competitiveness. The social production role of individuals has also undergone a leap. Traditional productivity requires workers, and new productivity requires innovators. Innovators are the first element in cultivating and developing new productivity.
Fudan University is destined to be a university that continuously innovates. The name of the university implies the image of unremitting innovation, “renewing every day and renewing every day”. Today, Fudan University is building a first-class university innovation system and making every effort to achieve a new leap towards a comprehensive research-oriented innovative university.
Choosing the path of innovation in life means facing the uncertainty of the future and outcomes more proactively, solving various conditions and resource difficulties more creatively, enduring more doubts and criticisms, loneliness and pressure more tenaciously, and boldly challenging the learning curve of new fields, new knowledge, and new skills. As a result, you will see more beautiful scenery, generate more passion, achieve higher transcendence, gain deeper resonance, hone your stronger heart, and promote better changes in the world.
"We hope that everyone will take innovation as a way of life and find and walk their own path of innovation." Jin Li said, before leaving, there are a few words he wants to say to everyone -
First, those who are not satisfied are always innovative. "A month ago, I silently wished my old colleague Professor Zhong Yang a happy 60th birthday. I hope he can hear it now that he is in his 60s." "It is not the outstanding who have good dreams, but the good dreamers who are outstanding." This famous saying of Professor Zhong clarifies the relationship between innovation and excellence. In recent years, our country, society and individuals have been under pressure. China has developed to this point. If it does not continue to innovate and deepen reforms, it will not break through the last pass and will lose the opportunity to stand on the top of the world. On the new journey, if the post-00s do not have the ambition to transform the world and benefit mankind through innovation, and do not have the belief to continue to strive for national modernization and national rejuvenation, and attach too much importance to the small happiness of being content and contented with one corner, and care too much about the small gains and losses of social capital, it will be easier to stop under pressure and sink in anxiety.
People live with stress and anxiety throughout their lives. Young people are naturally more sensitive to stress and prone to anxiety. There are many reasons for anxiety, such as fear of a foggy future, panic of having no plan, and so on. Instead of passively dispelling negative emotions, it is better to turn anxiety into wings and pressure into sails, and ride the wind and waves to pursue excellence. There is nothing destined in the real world. The most effective way to get out of the confusion of "not knowing" and the situation of "uneasiness" is to innovate and strive for "unsatisfied".
Second, let the soul be filled with sunshine. "Excellent and interesting" is a vivid portrayal of Fudan people. Fudan people are excellent because of innovation, and they become interesting because of innovation. The road of innovation of Fudan people is inseparable from the exploration and expansion of the external world, as well as the cultivation and growth of the inner world.
Over the past few years, although the school has done a lot of work centered on students, due to various reasons such as the epidemic and the renewal cycle of the old campus, there are always unsatisfactory aspects. My colleagues and I will continue to work hard and improve. But I believe that students have a deep attachment to Fudan Garden, because it is a fertile soil for the soul to take root and grow the spiritual characteristics of Fudan people. I hope that when everyone leaves the campus, everyone will take away such a pot of "grassroots feelings", and continue to nourish it with the sunshine of life, so that their souls will be like grass, full of love for life, sensitive and curious about the world, and at the same time have spiritual resilience, a calm mentality, and stable emotions. One day, the accumulated vitality will bloom vigorously, blooming the flowers of innovation and bearing the fruits of excellence.
Third, be a "big picture player". This is not only the way to success for video game masters, but also the way to success for innovators. "Kings" will formulate strategies, predict situations, allocate resources, control the rhythm, and continue to accumulate advantages to achieve victory. In reality, innovators must not only examine the frontiers and trends, identify opportunities and risks, and plan for the long term and the present, but also be responsible, take risks, be flexible, communicate and cooperate, and achieve win-win results.
Two weeks ago, after completing the established procedures, the school officially launched the reform of the undergraduate academic evaluation system. Thank you to the students for working with the school to promote the reform, which ultimately benefited the juniors. In the early stage, we were pleased to see that many students actively thought and expressed themselves, and took the initiative to participate in the construction; when the reform came, some students rationally reflected on whether the GPA was the whole of college life? Whether at home or abroad, GPA is just one of many yardsticks. In addition to responding to practical demands, this reform is more important to break the "GPA-only" tendency, and to untie and empower students to devote themselves to innovation and grow into "stem cell"-style top innovative talents. If you are too concerned about the gains and losses of details, you cannot quickly adapt to changes and make good use of new tracks. Such a vision and state of mind are relatively narrow. I hope that after you step onto the big stage of society, you can transcend the temptation in front of you, use a far-reaching strategic vision and excellent execution capabilities, and create an extraordinary path of innovation.
