With the cool autumn breeze and the fragrance of osmanthus flowers, amidst the celebratory atmosphere of the 76thanniversary of the People’s Republic of China, the first Alumni Homecoming Day of our university was filled with warmth. The event attracted over 400 alumni, including collective returning classes such as the Class of 1991 from the former Department of Finance and Economics and Department of Electronic Information Engineering, and the Class of 2001 from the School of Electronic Information Engineering, Environmental Engineering major, International Trade major, as well as spontaneously returning alumni. Carrying memories of their youth and concern for their alma mater, the alumni returned to campus, retracing their steps, reminiscing about classmates, and discussing new developments, injecting deep warmth and vitality into the campus during the National Day.
During the event, alumni revisited the campus, immersing themselves in familiar yet novel places such as venues, classrooms, cafeterias, and dormitories, experiencing the changes at their alma mater. In the library, alumni gently touched the bookshelves, recalling times of hard study; in the Museum of Ethnology, guided by professional docents, they felt the profound depth of ethnic culture; in the University History Museum, old photos and historical artifacts connected the arduous development journey of the university, and alumni felt deeply proud of the heritage and current achievements accumulated by their alma mater; inside the teaching buildings, they took photos at the doors of their old classrooms, sharing interesting stories from their class days, making youthful memories vivid once again.
Group photo of teachers and students. (Photo by the Office of Employment and Alumni Affairs)
Alumni are visiting the University History Museum. (Photo by the Office of Employment and Alumni Affairs)
The campus nostalgia tour organized by the Office of Employment and Alumni Affairs was highly praised, with over 300 alumni actively participating. Many alumni brought their families along, holding the“Campus Nostalgia Tour Map”and, guided by volunteers, went to campus landmarks such as the Museum of Ethnology, the Library, the Art Museum, the Gymnasium, and Building No. 15 to collect stamps. When alumni who collected 4 stamps exchanged them for campus cultural and creative products like“Min Ge”and“Nan Mei”in the lobby of Building No. 4, their faces were filled with surprise and emotion, saying,“This is the most meaningful souvenir, bringing the memory of the university back home”.
Alumni are touring the campus. (Photo by the Office of Employment and Alumni Affairs)
Happy moments. (Photo by the Office of Employment and Alumni Affairs)
“The taste is just like back in the day!”The“Alumni Exclusive Windows”at the Second and Fourth Cafeterias were bustling with activity. Returning alumni, holding "Nostalgia Meal Vouchers" distributed by the Office of Employment and Alumni Affairs, orderly received carefully prepared nostalgic meal sets. Familiar dishes instantly awakened the alumni’s youthful taste buds. Yin Yujian, a Class of 1991 alumnus from the former Department of Electronic Information Engineering, now from Foshan, Guangdong, specially visited the Second Cafeteria with returning classmates for the nostalgic meal, saying,“We always ate at the Second Cafeteria during school; today we came back to reminisce and feel our university days”.
Various reunion class groups also jointly held alumni forums with relevant schools and the Office of Employment and Alumni Affairs, where teachers and students gathered happily. Responsible persons from relevant schools, the Office of Employment and Alumni Affairs, as well as representatives of retired and current teachers participated in the forums. During the discussions, Ke Zuntao, Director of the Office of Employment and Alumni Affairs, introduced the concepts, ideas, and measures for alumni work. He expressed the hope that alumni and alumni entrepreneurs would deepen cooperation with the alma mater in areas such as the joint construction of internship and practice bases, horizontal scientific and technological research, the integration of industry, academia, research, and application, the construction of micro-majors, and the high-quality employment of graduates, to build bridges for university-government and university-industry collaborative development. He also welcomed alumni to often return to the alma mater and share valuable experiences and success stories in study, work, and entrepreneurship with current students through the "Alumni Lecture Forum".
Alumni are talking freely. (Photo by the Office of Employment and Alumni Affairs)
Alumni expressed that this Homecoming Day event provided a platform for alumni to relive old ties and discuss development, further strengthening the connection and interaction between the university and its alumni, laying a solid foundation for gathering alumni strength and assisting the university's“Double First-Class”construction. Since the beginning of this year, the Office of Employment and Alumni Affairs has resolutely implemented the decisions and deployments of the Party Committee of the university regarding alumni work, implementing four major projects:“Foundation Strengthening, Digital Intelligence, Cohesion Building, and Strength Pooling”. Efforts have been focused on connecting with alumni, uniting alumni, promoting alumni, and serving alumni, striving to build an emotional community, development community, and shared future for alumni and the alma mater. The university held the Alumni Congress and the Forum on Alumni Assisting the Alma Mater’s“Double First-Class”Construction to help the alma mater achieve high-quality development; university leaders led teams in batches to 12 provinces and autonomous regions including Beijing, Shanghai, Qinghai, Ningxia, Gansu, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Guangdong, Shandong, Zhejiang, Hubei, and Guangxi to conduct visits to alumni and alumni enterprises, consolidating development consensus, pooling alumni resources, and forming development synergy; simultaneously, in accordance with the requirements of enhancing appeal, cohesion, and execution power, further efforts have been made to strengthen the construction of local alumni associations, optimize and strengthen the leadership of local alumni associations, and complete the reelection of alumni associations in places like Zhejiang and Suzhou. The first Alumni Entrepreneurs Annual Meeting was also held in Shenzhen on October 18thto further unite the strength of alumni entrepreneurs and build a high-end platform for "University-Industry-Government”collaborative development.
