EF UG Graduation Ceremony
EF PG Graduation Ceremony
Speech by 2017 EF Graduate Representative
By GAO Luyan (Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance)
President, Deans, Honoured Guests, Professors, Fellow Graduates, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It’s my great honour to be here to share my undergraduate life and tomorrow’s dream with you all.
When I first came to Hong Kong in August 2013, I was excited yet anxious. Upon graduation, I’ve been courageous enough to face every single challenge independently. Now that I’ve moved to New York I still miss the time I spent in Hong Kong. I am grateful for what I learned and gained at CityU: knowledge, critical thinking, and new perspectives on humanity and society. But more importantly, I developed my dream at CityU for my future.
My undergraduate life started with microeconomics and ended with quantitative methods in finance. In my third year, I started dreaming about what to do after graduation. At that time, I was an exchange student at the University of British Columbia in Canada and I asked Dr Novin for his advice.
He thought for a while and then asked me, “Clair, what do you really want to do?”
I said, “I would like to study Mathematics. It has been my favourite subject since primary school, and it has important applications in quantitative finance. In the future, my dream is to start a career in risk management. You know, after the crisis, financial institutions pay great attention to this area. However, transferring to a mathematics programme can be quite difficult for a finance student, so maybe…” I hesitated.
He interrupted me and said, “You are lucky to have a dream, and so stick with it, and you will finally make it.”
I took his words to heart. When I came back to Hong Kong, I took more Mathematics courses. There was a risk that these courses would drag down my GPA. But I didn't worry about it. For me, studying math is more valuable and much more important than the GPA itself.
I spent days deriving math formulas and working out proofs for the theories. It was indeed grueling to stay late at night in the library, dealing with hard mathematical problems. Sometimes I wondered if I could make it. I began to doubt myself. But fortunately, I did not give up. Now I am living towards my dream – I am studying the mathematics of finance at Columbia University. After graduation, I dream to come back to Asia, work in the financial industry, and contribute to the economic development of the Asia Pacific region. I will always carry on with my dream that I acquired at CityU.
You may have had similar experiences. What I want to share with you through this little story is simple: Follow your heart to chase your dream. If you take the initiative and work hard, you will finally achieve it.
Thank you, CityU, and, thank you, Department of Economics and Finance, for providing us with precious opportunities and exposure that helped us to broaden our horizons. Today’s Congregation is symbolic: it marks the end of one chapter of our lives and opens up a brand new one. Let’s look forward to the future and move on with our stories and dreams from CityU.
Thank you.
