(Fig. 1) Professor Hu Jianbo, Chairman of Xi'an Eurasia University, Delivers a Speech at the 2023 Commencement Ceremony.

Dear graduates, parents and teachers:

Good morning, everyone! (Applause)

Welcome to the 2023 Commencement Ceremony of Xi'an Eurasia University. Thank you to all parents and guests for coming. Your attention and support to Xi'an Eurasia University over the years make us feel warm and inspired.

The graduates of 2023 have experienced a particularly different university life due to the pandemic, which is brand-new difficulties and challenges for you and Xi'an Eurasia University. Here, I would like to express my special thanks to all of you. It is our common bravery that has allowed us to survive this difficult period of the pandemic and enable our students to achieve success in their studies and graduate smoothly. (Applause)

Therefore, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the graduates! Congratulations on starting a whole new life. Secondly, I would like to thank all the faculty and staff of Xi'an Eurasia University and friends from cooperative enterprises. The healthy growth of students of Xi'an Eurasia University is inseparable from your dedication and companionship.

This is the 17th year of my commencement speech. Every year, after sharing my speeches, I began to worry about what new ideas I could write next year and whether I would repeat myself. In the second year, with the progress of Xi'an Eurasia University and you, I will always have new observations and insights to share with you. The annual commencement speech conveys my expectations for students. For 17 consecutive years, the commencement speech also records my own changes and growth. Lifelong learning starts from me. (Applause)

I am collating 17 years of commencement speeches and recent educational essays, which will be published later this year. If 140,000 alumni of Xi'an Eurasia University can buy it online, I will receive a handsome retirement income (laughter and applause). If you give this book to your leaders, colleagues, relatives and friends, I suppose they will impress you. It turns out that you come from such a beautiful and caring university. This is not for books or school advertising, but to express a state of self-confidence. I hope that every student out of the school gates lives with head held high! (Warm applause and cheers)

(Fig. 2) Commencement Ceremony and Bachelor's Degree Conferring Ceremony in 2023

The Premise of Education Is to Love Others

In terms of time, students spend much more time in the dormitory and community than in class. The phenomena of overcrowded accommodation, incomplete living facilities and disordered articles in the room have always been major problems in college student affairs. After years of exploration, we propose to transform the traditional student dormitory space into a beautiful community education environment and undertake the mission of education. Xi'an Eurasia University has set up eight student-themed communities, promoting counselors and teachers to enter the community, so that students of different majors can live in the same dormitory and experience a diversified social atmosphere.

The premise of education is to love others! Only with complete facilities to meet the life needs of students and a beautiful environment to facilitate students can we establish mutual trust and respect between school and classmates. All departments of Xi'an Eurasia University have cooperated to study students' living needs and implement "Life Quality Improvement Actions" in student communities, including "Air Conditioning Plan", "Living Room Plan", "Bathing Plan", "Laundry Plan", "Toilet Revolution" and "Storage Plan". They have invested a lot to continuously transform all aspects of the community.

Starting this year, we have put forward the community shared values, covering cleanliness, health, friendliness and self-discipline. This expresses the common commitment of community counselors, housekeepers, cleaners and students to the development of student communities. I do not advocate the simple use of strict discipline to regulate people's behavior. Instead, through value guidance and the establishment of "Student Convention", students can gradually have neat hygiene habits, healthy lifestyles and friendly attitudes and behaviors, so as to enjoy the happiness of growth brought by self-discipline in community life.

There are also many warm and thoughtful service designs in the student communities of Xi'an Eurasia University, such as customized cleaning services, laundry services, luggage trolleys, microwave ovens, storage boxes, cartoons in corridors and wind bells in gardens. Even working on ordinary work, they show their genuine love and persistence, which will produce exciting and extraordinary results. Here, I would like to propose that we express our heartfelt gratitude to the community counselors, teachers, housekeepers and cleaners! (Applause)

(Fig. 3) Graduates of 2023 Present Flowers to Teacher Representatives

Thank you for your applause, which shows that the community service of Xi'an Eurasia University has won the heartfelt recognition of all present. Obviously, Xi'an Eurasia University's success in student accommodation has gradually turned into a competitive advantage, and its communities have attracted campus management and student departments from hundreds of universities across the country to visit and study at the university. Such achievements come from the love of the faculty and staff of Xi'an Eurasia University for education and care for students and also show the love of the students for the community, the university, the country and the natural environment. (Applause)

The Essence of Education Is to Change Ideas

Mathematician Riemann once said: What is more important than solving a single problem is to redefine the set of problems. Many times, when we are stuck on a certain problem and cannot get the answer, the best way is to newly classify and integrate the relevant elements of the problem. We can often re-understand the problem and find a solution.

The success of the "Life Quality Improvement Actions" is due to our reordering of relevant elements. We found that the three main factors to improve students' accommodation experience are: reducing the number of occupants in each room, improving basic services and contents and establishing shared values to guide students' behaviors. Once the order is reversed, this aggregation effect will no longer exist.

Limited by financial resources, the "Life Quality Improvement Actions" can only be implemented gradually, and not all students enjoy the same excellent service facilities. You can also see that the International Student Apartment designed by the Australia-based design company Denton Corker Marshall (DCM) is about to be topped out, and the supporting new gymnasium and swimming pool will also start construction soon. Next year, Xi'an Eurasia University will have one of the highest-quality student apartments among China's universities.

(Fig. 4) Student Apartment in the West District (The Picture Above Is the Rendering, and the Picture Below Is the Scene of the Topping out)

I'm really sorry that I didn't have time to let you experience a better community environment. This is also a problem you will continue to face in the future: development is not just progress and glory, but also means challenges and regrets. This is true for the development of a country, the development of an organization, and the development of an individual. Therefore, we should not always cheer for development and be frustrated when our own interests are damaged. Sometimes we need to slow down and let our minds keep up with the pace of development.

The essence of education is to change ideas. Albert Einstein said that education is what remains when you forget what you have learned. Indeed, knowledge is most easily forgotten if it is not used frequently. However, people's ideas and habits are relatively stable. People rely mainly on their own ideas rather than rationality to make decisions every day. After fully experiencing the respectful, clean, friendly and developing community environment of Xi'an Eurasia University, you will certainly practice such values in your future work and life if you understand the story behind it.

Convey Ideas and Contribute Value

Student development theory points out that human growth requires the transformation from the natural person to social person to organizer, and finally to professional. The above-mentioned community education is to make up for the shortcomings of our previous education and train students to become better social people and organizers through a beautiful community environment.

You're going to be an organizer soon. Within an organization, there is a focus on both achieving the organizational mission and meeting individual development needs. There is a delicate balance between the two. The best organizational state is to align the organization's mission with individual development goals.

Peter Drucker told the story of three masons in The Practice of Management. When someone asked the three masons what they were doing, the first mason said, "I am supporting my family." The second mason replied, "I am doing the best masonry work in the country." The third mason looked up at the sky with bright eyes and said, “I am building a cathedral."

In Drucker's view, the first mason's harvest was only a daily wage. The second mason is more concerned with his craft than understanding the purpose and ultimate meaning of his craft. The third mason has a vision, positioning his work from a holistic perspective to find meaning and create value. Confucius said, "A gentleman is not a tool." Once a man becomes a tool, his horizon narrows.

Xi'an Eurasia University is such an organization. Most of the teachers and staff here have found a compatibility point with the development of Xi'an Eurasia University in the university's mission and vision, dedicating their wisdom and strength to innovation every day, which will bring immeasurable energy and value to the university. If students can consciously pass on what they have learned, thought and felt in Xi'an Eurasia University to others around them and contribute to the realization of their organization's goals, this is my happiest thing.

It's time to say goodbye. I especially like a passage from Drucker's book "The Last of All Possible Worlds": "My goal is to build a humane environment so that people can live with their heads held high." (Applause) That's my farewell message today.

Thank you.

Goodbye, everyone! (Cheers and applause)

(Fig. 5) Group Photo of Professor Hu Jianbo and Graduates