Fresh Start: First-ever Online School Opening Welcomes SU Newcomers

With music and dances from Soochow’s Dance Club live-broadcasted through the Internet, this year’s entrance ceremony, in an unprecedentedly online style due to the COVID-19 pandemic, offered warm welcome with the same vigor and passion to all freshmen on the evening of September 22^nd, 2021.

SU President Wei-Ta Pan advised the novice Soochowers to embrace cross-field, cross-cultural, and diverse learning so as to face the challenges in the ever-changing future.

Frank Ji-Ren Liu, Chairman of Alumni Association, believed that longing for new things and making friends would help ease anxiety for the neophytes. He also encouraged new students to learn as much as they can with their limited time in their college life.

The classic activity of pushing around the giant balls printed with the school motte “Unto a Full-Grown Man” was replaced this year by a creative film that introduced the motto and the campuses, along with an online interactive game that asked the freshmen to type the motto at a chatroom as fast as possible.

The students also learned how to sing the school anthem as the song was played through the online platform.

The ceremony followed a two-week “First Mile Orientation,” which lasted from September 6^th to 17^th, featuring two themes: “participative learning” and “diverse learning.” The former included course selection guidance, campus tour, career planning, physical and mental health, and interdisciplinary learning, while the latter introduced dual majors, minors, second expertise, and so on.

Through the entrance ceremony, the school hoped to give a fresh start to all the freshmen, and wished them a colorful college life in Soochow University.