Good morning, distinguished faculty members, honored guests, dear professors, families, friends, and fellow graduates.
My name is Wang Yi, a proud member of the first graduating cohort of the Digital Social Science program in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. It is my great honour to stand here today and speak on behalf of the Class of 2026.
Looking back on the past four years, I often return to our university motto: “In knowledge and in deeds, unto the whole person.” I first came to understand it in my first-year EAP class. I still remember that during a discussion on excellence, my teacher suddenly asked me: “Do you think you are an excellent person?”
I could not answer.
After three years of high school, I had learned to evaluate myself solely through scores — and mine had never seemed outstanding enough. Seeing my hesitation, my teacher said: “A test may measure how well you respond to one set of questions, but it can never measure the whole of who you are.”
His words were like a beam of light, illuminating the quiet self-doubt I had carried within me. In that moment, I began to understand BNBU’s vision of whole-person education. It is not about getting every answer right, but about becoming a complete individual — with a grounded sense of self, a sound mind and body, and the resilience to face life’s uncertainties.
Perhaps it is within such a warm and supportive environment that BNBU students develop a quality I deeply value: courage.
Over the past four years, many of us have stepped beyond what was familiar — joining exchange programmes, attending summer schools, and travelling far from where we began. As our world expanded, so did our understanding of it. The people we met — across genders, cultures, ages, and backgrounds — allowed us to see the world in more complex and meaningful ways.
We all start here, but BNBU gives us the courage to go anywhere.
Behind this growth are many people to whom we owe our deepest gratitude.
First, I would like to thank my parents. As a girl who grew up in a small fourth-tier city in China, my parents’ decision to send me to BNBU was, in many ways, unconventional. Yet they believed that a liberal arts education could open a different path for my life — and it truly has.
I would also like to thank my teachers — many of them remarkable women — who have guided me along the way. Through their example, they have taught me not only how to pursue knowledge, but how to face challenges with strength, grace, and determination.
At the end of my speech, I would like to return once again to the word courage — and to borrow a concept from sociology: the idea of a “risk society.”
A risk society is one in which the very progress that once promised certainty now produces new forms of uncertainty. The knowledge, experiences, and stable pathways that guided previous generations can no longer fully prepare us for the complexities we face today.
In such a world, uncertainty is no longer the exception — it is the condition we live in.
The rise of artificial intelligence, the transformation of industries, the shifting nature of truth and information — these are not simply challenges to overcome. They are realities that redefine what it means to live, to work, and to make sense of the world.
And perhaps this is where our education matters most.
Because what BNBU has given us is not just knowledge, but a way of thinking. Not just answers, but the courage to live with questions.
So as we step into this uncertain future, may we not fear risk — but learn to navigate it.
May we not seek absolute certainty — but remain open, curious, and reflective.
And may we not simply adapt to change — but have the courage to shape it.
This, I believe, is one of the most valuable gifts of our four years of liberal arts education.
Thank you — and congratulations, Class of 2026.
