felt like zero chinese language skills, was a scary thought. truthfullyspeaking, i’m a pretty shy person, and knew this was going to be a challengefor me to start over, make new friends; but it was an opportunity for growththat i knew i would regret if i didn’t at least try. though i heard rumors thatmy family had started taking bets on how long i would last here beforerealizing that i was crazy and could not handle all of the stress, and emotionsthat came with my decision. once i arrived i just assumed that i would glidefairly invisibly through my two years here, receive my degree, and head back tothe states. after all, i was just one person, one student, in a sea of over 44,000. however, that’s not how it happened at all.shy or not, and slowly without me even noticing at first, fudan showedpresented a phenomenon that despite such a large number of students, therecould still exist a close knit community where you are not just a number. studentsand organizations here all made me feel like i was a part of a fudan family.the more i felt this way, the more and more i wanted to be involved in thatfamily. in fact, i like to say i’m theunofficial member of dia, and i am so proud to say that i am from thisuniversity.

inregard to future plans after graduation—before coming to fudan i knew thatafter graduation i wanted to return home and pursue a career in diplomaticwork, specifically in building even stronger relations between the u.s. andchina; however, after coming here, i fell in love with this community. lastspring i jokingly said that if the students here don’t stop being so sweet andsupportive, i’ll never leave. and in part that has turned out to be true, becausei have been offered a scholarship to stay here at fudan as a language studentfor one more year as i set out to improve my chinese language skills to help mein my future career path. so you can’t get rid of me just yet! i know thatafter this week, we will all be setting out on different paths. some havedecided to stay and pursue higher degrees or certification programs here, somewill join the work force, and others will pursue different passions. so whilemany of us are here together today, i just want to say thank you to everyonethat i have encountered in my 2 years here, for being a part of a very largeand life changing experience for me. it has pushed me so much further than myown expectations, helped me to realize potential that i didn’t know i had, andhas shown me that love and acceptance a

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