【Reported by Yu-xuan Li, Tamkang Times】Tamkang University’s graduation ceremony took place on Saturday in the Shao-mo Memorial Gymnasium and 3000 people came to express their congratulations to the graduating students. Also in attendance was President Flora Chia-I Chang, the 3 vice presidents and deans of each department. Also invited was Ambassador of the Republic of Kiribati, Teekoa Luta, and President of the Board of the Alumni Association, Zhao-shen Chen, to give inspirational speeches. This year’s graduation ceremony was a bit unconventional containing music videos and films by the Student Association that magically captured four years of study at Tamkang University. It also served as an encouragement for students to be critical thinkers as they bring new innovations and ideas into the career world.

At the start of the event President Chang first congratulated the students on their magnificent accomplishment. She expressed that TKU offers an information-oriented, future-oriented, and internationally-oriented educational program so that students are able to make great innovative strides in society. She expressed, “TKU graduates are the embodiment of the ideology of the Three Circles and Five Disciplines, cultivated through a professional, core and extracurricular curricula that include the concepts of conduct, intelligence, physical education, teamwork, and beauty. This educational perspective also teaches a global vision, circulation of data, healthy lifestyle, morale character, independent thinking, and self-restraint.”

For this year’s graduation five students received awards for excellent mentorship: Guan-yong Qu, Jian-fu Zheng, Ming-wen Hu, Hui-ying Lin, and Jian-mu Ye. For the musical performance winner of the 25th annual Musical Composition Award, Yun-ping Zhang, sung “Invisible Wings” and “Proud of You” to show his appreciation for his four years of study at TKU. The event ended with President Chang, Ambassador Teekoa Luta and Zhao-shen Chen giving warm words of inspiration for the graduating students to take with them on their new journey.