On the evening of May 29, Yenching Academy of Peking University held an online welcome meeting for the 2022 Alumni Secretary Program. Dean Dong Qiang, Associate Deans Fan Shiming and Brent Haas, Director of Graduate Studies Lu Yang, Assistant Deans Chen Changwei and Zuo Jing, and the incoming alumni secretary team attended the meeting. Following warm messages from YCA’s leadership team, the alumni secretaries expressed their expectations for further building the Yenching Academy alumni family in the future.
The meeting kicked off with a "Say-Hi" video message, showing alumni secretary representatives from all over the world and different cohorts introducing their positions, locations and jobs, and expressing their inspiration and plans for future work.
After the video, Dean Dong Qiang delivered a speech, sharing several stories and expressing gratitude to the outstanding YCA alumni network, who have made significant contributions to the development of the Academy through excellent performances in their jobs and studies after graduating from YCA. Dean Dong said that Yenching Scholars would need help and advice from our alumni, and the alumni can also seek comfort from YCA. "The alumni secretaries are the bridges that connect Yenching Scholars from the outside world to the way that leads home."
After Dong's speech, Fan Shiming announced the appointment list of alumni secretaries and handed out digital versions of certificates of appointment to each of them.
Afterward, two representatives of the alumni secretaries, Tian Meng (China) from the 2015 Cohort and Vedika Kedia (India) from the 2020 Cohort, shared their fond memories of YCA life.
Tian Meng stated that for her, Yenching Academy was an excellent citadel of learning she loves and cherishes. Meng noted her desire to help the Academy build a collaborative and safe space for alumni to share their stories. Vedika described the colourful activities she participated in during the past two years, including the Yenching Global Symposium (YGS) and the thesis support group. Although she could not come to the campus due to the pandemic, she still has a deep affection for her teachers and friends in the Academy. Vedika hopes to have more in-depth communication opportunities with them going forward.
Brent Haas gave a summary speech. He shared his opinion on two aspects of "contact" and "activities" and put forward suggestions and expectations for the incoming alumni secretaries, drawing on his experience managing the alumni community. He mentioned that the Alumni Secretary is not only a challenging work but also an exciting job. In this process, the alumni secretary is more than just playing a role as a transit hub of news; but is building continuous relationships between YCA Scholars, connecting their hearts and minds.
In the second part of the meeting, the Alumni Relations Manager of Yenching Academy introduced the current alumni work portfolios of the office, including alumni information management, alumni newsletter, alumni reunion, alumni meet-ups, alumni activities, and alumni sharing events. The Alumni Relations Manager also explained the responsibilities of different positions to the alumni secretaries.
In the warm atmosphere, everyone recalled the wonderful time in the Academy and anticipated the blueprint for building the Yenching alumni family.
We are looking forward to a mutual improvement of Yenching Alumni and Yenching Scholars with the support of the Yenching Academy Alumni Secretary Team.
written by Xu Zhanyi
