Xi'an Eurasia University is a special place, where everyone is full of innovative and useful modern spirit. They are either teachers and students who are creative, good at thinking and expressing themselves, or teams that challenge themselves in different fields and have the courage to practice and innovate. Their bodies are engraved with the DNA of Eurasia, and their actions affect the people and the world around them to move forward.

What kind of experience do those around us have that made us attracted? The "Faces of Eurasia" series on the WeChat Official Account of Xi’an Eurasia University continues to bring you these different faces of Eurasia, and the stories behind them.

Recently, the 13th award-winning teachers of general undergraduate higher education in Shaanxi Province were announced, and Duan Xiaohua, a teacher in the School of Finance and Data Science of Xi’an Eurasia University, was awarded the honor. Unlike teachers who usually come from other schools, before coming to Xi'an Eurasia University, Ms. Duan Xiaohua has 8 years of experience working in enterprises, which has allowed her to accumulate rich experience in the financial industry, laying a solid foundation for applied education. She also becomes a "bridge", where people, education, and enterprises become interconnected because of her.

Duan Xiaohua has been selected as an outstanding teacher at Xi'an Eurasia University for many years. When faced with the complex and raw basic course of Economics, how to make students learn the course and build up economic thinking, understand the market laws, and master the analysis methods is what Duan Xiaohua and her team have been exploring and striving for.

In the course developed in cooperation with Jinhe Center for Economic Research of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Duan Xiaohua boldly absorbed cutting-edge teaching concepts and adopted the "heuristic and inquiry" teaching method, the essence of which lies in replacing rote memorization with thinking training and analyzing economic theories with real cases.

In each class, Duan Xiaohua will patiently build a knowledge framework for students through different approaches like mind maps and "knowledge trees" so that students can not only understand the main points of the knowledge at a glance, but also build a comprehensive knowledge map in a subtle way.

At the same time, "real cases" are also an essential "teaching partner" in Duan Xiaohua's classroom. In order to enhance the connection between knowledge and real-life scenarios, Duan Xiaohua carefully selects social topics and cases for students to analyze and discuss, which is not only fascinating, but also helps students understand how the theory is integrated with practice and how to explain and analyze economic behavior. "I don't want students to become 'tool people' of knowledge, I want them to draw inferences about other cases from one instance, and to learn how to train the logic of thinking and develop the habit of economic thinking, which is the way to cultivate the economics concept." She explained.

(Fig. 1) Fun Teaching Session in Economics Class

(Fig. 2) Duan Xiaohua Analyzing Economic Principles through the Phenomenon of "Well-Matched Marriage"

(Fig. 3) Duan Xiaohua Selects Real Cases for Students to Analyze and Interpret for Economic Thinking

This approach to education, which focuses on "learning and thinking", is very popular among students. Many students said that in Ms. Duan Xiaohua's classroom, knowledge can be so close to life and economics can be applied in such a way that can mobilize their interest in learning and exploring.

The rise of high technology and the rapid development of the financial industry are mapped to the demand for the cultivation of cross-composite high-quality financial talents in universities. For this reason, Duan Xiaohua opened a course named "Financial Marketing". "'Finance' belongs to economics and can help students master the hard skills of economic laws; 'marketing' belongs to management, which allows students to have the soft ability to optimize management. In a cross-disciplinary way, we can cultivate high-quality generalists who are more in line with the needs of the industry." Duan Xiaohua explained the original intention of the course.

In the early stage, the course is guided by the educational concept of "OBE" (Outcomes-based Education), and the cooperation with banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies, and other financial institutions brings students real projects for practice, and promotes students' integration and application of professional knowledge with real projects. Meanwhile, it helps students to connect with the industry and lay a good foundation for their subsequent career development. Nowadays, along with the wide application of big data, Duan Xiaohua also plans to integrate big data technology into the course, forming a new pattern of "finance + marketing + science" and more diversified interdisciplinary pattern.

(Fig. 4) Duan Xiaohua in Class

Practice has proved that the curriculum reform on the one hand has broken students' one-sided perception of marketing, and many students' abilities in market analysis, communication and expression, thinking, and innovation have been explicitly improved, and their socialization ability has been trained; On the other hand, more and more companies are interested in finance students at Xi'an Eurasia University since they see the potential of Eurasia students through real projects, and they directly select high-quality talents. Some students also succeeded in starting their own businesses or won a bank offer because they achieved high-quality growth in many aspects through the "Financial Marketing" course.

(Fig. 5) Students Making Presentations

"The financial industry carries an important national mission and is a top priority in the modern national development strategy, and the quality of financial talents has a profound impact on the development of the entire industry." Based on this, Duan Xiaohua, as a senior finance teacher, undertook the Civic Construction Project of the finance course "Professional Introduction".

After an in-depth study of the outline of the course's thinking and politics and combining it with the needs of training financial professionals, Duan Xiaohua sorted out the objectives and means of implementation of the course "Professional Introduction". Through strengthening education on economic history and financial history, and enhancing students' perception of financial ethics and professional morality with humanistic and historical awareness, we can cultivate students who are responsible for their family and country, possessing professional self-confidence and financial quality in both theory and literacy. "Financial education is not only to shape good professional skills, but also to cultivate noble moral sentiments and social responsibilities, and I have the responsibility and obligation to guide students to become better financial professionals." said Duan Xiaohua firmly.

Besides teaching, Duan Xiaohua has never given up her connection with the industry. "As a university teacher, I have the responsibility and obligation to serve the society. Since I come from an enterprise, I also want to use my research to serve the enterprise and help the local economic development. In this process, education and teaching can also be assisted".

With such an original intention, Duan Xiaohua continued to carry out "industry-education integration" for many years. She and her team have served many head financial enterprises such as Western Securities, China Merchants Bank, China Life, etc. Many companies have significantly improved their organizational energy efficiency and business capacity due to her professional training and consulting reports/ That is why she has been well-received by executives and employees.

(Fig. 6) Duan Xiaohua Provides Exclusive Enterprise Services

It is also in the process of serving enterprises that many real-life scenarios have been transformed by her into research topics that can benefit the industry and education.

Looking back on the road of scientific research for many years, Duan Xiaohua conducted vertical projects that all focus on enterprise business models, industry risk management, financial market, and regional economic development synergy, etc. Through scientific research, she provides scientific research basis for enterprise development, regional industry research, and regional economic development measurement, among which she presides over the Natural Science Basic Research Program Project named "Research on Regional Science and Technology Financial Synergistic Development Strategy" established by Shaanxi Provincial Science and Technology Department.

Through the analysis of regional science and technology innovation and financial market integration, Duan Xiaohua constructed a regional science and technology financial synergistic development structure, proposed a regional financial market construction strategy to serve the real economy, and optimized the financial ecological environment construction countermeasures. Her research results were unanimously approved by the jury and rated as a good project conclusion that can provide scientific theoretical guidance for industry development.

(Fig. 7) Duan Xiaohua Receives Industry Research Report Award

The development of enterprises and industries cannot be achieved without a good financial ecological environment. Duan Xiaohua, who has deep insight into the pain points of the industry, is also actively involved in promoting the ecological development and reform of the insurance industry in Shaanxi. She also got involved in the compilation of the industry monograph Insurance Observations and Reflections. As a researcher and referee, she provides a scientific basis for the development of the industry and effectively, and maintains a fair and just ecological environment of the industry.

(Fig. 8) Industry Monograph Edited by Duan Xiaohua

While empowering the industry, she also wants to help students develop. Every year, Duan Xiaohua takes up the role of HR during the internship and graduation seasons.

With many high-quality corporate resources in hand, she actively recommends qualified students to suitable companies and many students are grateful for her recommendation because they finally made it to achieve high-quality career development. This kind of gratitude and connection is always maintained between teachers and students. "What I can do is not only to teach students for four years in university, but also to seek development for their future." Duan Xiaohua said.

(Fig. 9) Duan Xiaohua Guiding Students in Internship

In this way, a "bridge" centered on Duan Xiaohua has been built year after year to connect and seek win-win situations for talents, education, and enterprise demands, in which every person and every organization flows and develops.

Duan Xiaohua's child is now in college, and various problems and ideological dilemmas have surfaced. While guiding her own child in solving problems, she thought that the same confusion would also happen to students. Therefore, she believes that she should give students the same guidance in their thoughts, emotions, and ideas as she gives to her Students call Duan Xiaohua "Teacher Duan" in the classroom, but actually, they secretly called her "Mother Duan".

"I met Ms. Duan in my sophomore year, and her relationship with us was not only a teacher-student relationship, but more often a parent-child bond. At that time, she was our academic advisor, and when students were confused about their studies, she neither blamed nor criticized them, but invited us to a café, where we would dine while asking questions and receiving guidance. Every student who went through her counseling had a great improvement in their spirits and motivations for learning, and she was like a bright light that illuminated our path that is full of confusion.

Meanwhile, my sophomore year was also the happiest year of my life. With Ms. Duan's patient guidance and continuous encouragement and help, I obtained several professional certificates, passed the English IV exam in one go, and got the third-best grade in my year, which made me gain a confidence I never had before. Later on, Ms. Duan also gave me great help and support in passing the English 6 exam and preparing my graduation thesis.

In life, Ms. Duan was like a mother, giving me the utmost care and attention. I remember that when I was infected during the epidemic, Ms. Duan sent me a lot of medicine at the risk of being infected, told me to drink more water and get more nutrients, and regularly checked in with me about my condition every day. It still makes my eyes water when I think of it.

"Peaches and plums do not speak. Sincere men need not speak much but they will hold gratitude for their lifetime." Li Lue, a student of Finance Class 1902 in the School of Finance and Data Science, recalled.

(Fig. 10) Duan Xiaohua Delivers Medicine to Infected Students during the Epidemic

(Fig. 11) Photo of Li Lue (first from left) and Duan Xiaohua at School

Zhang Jianjun, who is graduating from the Graduate School of Finance and Data Science this year and was a student in the Class of 2016, recalled his time with Ms. Duan with the same gratitude:

"My first impression of Ms. Duan was that she was friendly and kind, but after a long time, I realized that she was a good teacher who could really put herself in the students' shoes.

I still remember that after the first class meeting, Ms. Duan and our class leaders asked each student about their academic situation in detail and addressed each problem individually. At the same time, Ms. Duan also gave us professional guidance on our future development plan according to our grades, strengths, and interests. We were given professional guidance on our future development plans. She was really looking out for us.

Not only did she teach us knowledge, but she also taught us how to behave in the world. I used to be a person who didn't pay much attention to details, and I was rather 'one-line thinking' in handling things, but Ms. Duan always told me a more comprehensive solution in a gentle way, which improved my 'three-dimensional thinking' in dealing with people. I was very impressed when I assisted Ms. Duan in issuing graduation certificates and diplomas. Many students were unable to collect them in person because of internships or employment opportunities in other provinces, so they chose to ask others to collect documents on their behalf. At that time, I didn't think anything was wrong, but Ms. Duan told me about the security risks involved, and through this incident, I understood the scientific nature of the workflow and a more organized way to do things. I became a lot more mature and prudent.

Currently, I am about to graduate from graduate school, and job hunting has become may major issue. Despite having graduated from undergraduate school for two years, Ms. Duan still patiently and comprehensively analyzed the current employment situation, career potential, regional choices, etc., which gave me a clear perspective. She used to be my teacher, but now she is my life mentor."

Teaching and educating people requires not only professional knowledge, but also love and patience. Looking back on her twenty-year career in education, Duan Xiaohua summarizes it in one sentence, persistence without distractions and persistent faith. What we can see in her is not only a calm and tough, gentle and meticulous attitude but also a kind of craftsman spirit. She firmly builds connections between people, enterprises, and education. She understands that if people can things with good preparation, they can always march forward without hesitation. Duan Xiaohua will continue to contribute to financial education and the financial industry with such a mission and expectation in mind.