On the noon of November 17, 2021, the lunch meeting which was held by the School of Chemistry in room H705 of the chemical building for freshmen, went with a swing. The dean of the School of Chemistry, Xiao Wenjing, the deputy secretary of communist party of China, Xu Fen, the vice-president Yuan Hong, the headteachers Chen Jian, Shu Chao and the instructor, An Xiaolei as well as part-time instructor Wu Yaoyao, the team called “a date with pomegranate” and the student representatives of the freshmen participated in the activity. This meeting was held by the red pomegranate study and development center and hosted by An Xiaolei.
At the beginning of the meeting, Dean Xiao Wenjing emphasized that the activity aimed at encouraging teachers and students to carry out academic exchanges and discuss their future plans. He conveyed his hope that students could make statements and raise questions actively.
Teachers and students shared their ideas while having lunch. For the question “whether the college students should have an love affair”, which was posed by Wang Yige, Dean Xiao pointed out that university students should focus on study. Also, he didn’t advocate developing relationships. For the query about the importance of professional courses, which was came up by Yu Jiaqin, the headteacher, Chen Jian indicated that the grade was only one aspect while the development of personal ability was fundamental. Meanwhile, Dean Xiao stressed: “Generally speaking, grade is reflection of ability, so to a certain degree, it’s significant.”
“In high school, my goal is being admitted by a key university. However, after I went to college, I’ve been confused and lost my targets.” Cai Linhong thought he had no aim when he was in college. To eliminate his confusion, Secretary Xu stated that students should be aware of the importance of student age clearly, learn their specialized courses well and think about their aims. Moreover, he recommended him to take “career planning” as an optional course. Mr. Chen added that students needed to make time to reflect on their goals since it was easy for them to lose motivation without targets.
During the meeting, Guo Yajing said she always felt she was too busy to make a balance between her study and activities. Dean Xiao suggested us draw a clear distinction between the subjects and concentrate on the main contradiction while getting into the habit of previewing lessons and develop self-study ability. In addition, Wu Yaoyao offered some advice which connected with her experience：“When choosing optional courses, we can view the first class as the preferred to urge ourselves to make waking up early a habit.”
Wang Chunyu and Lu Jianxiang both came from interdisciplinary class of chemistry and biology. As far as they were concerned, the students of chemistry and biology class had not only more courses but also more stress, which caused their confusion. Dean Yuan introduced the advantages of this class from two aspects: on one hand, it provides more choices for the students, for example, they could have two options when they took examinations to get teacher certifications, on the other hand, as a researcher, it was of great benefit to have a chemical as well as biological background. After that, he shared what the students of the class heard when they went to Huazhong University of Science and Technology to do survey: “We attend the HUST to compete with each other. There’s no use being complacent after you go to HUST!” He recomposed this sentence and sent it to the students of the students of the class：“We attend the chemistry and biology class to compete with each other. There’s no use being complacent after you gained admission!”
After having delicious lunch, listening to suggestions from the professors and sharing feelings after going to college, the lunch meeting held by the School of Chemistry for freshmen came to an end. Zhang Weichu said：“The lunch meeting gives me a chance to have a face-to-face talk with professors and solves my problems. I indeed wish the college to hold activities like this more often.”
Source: School of Chemistry of CCNU
Translator: Wang Ruoxi
Reviewer: Kong Yilin
Date: November 22, 2021
