GLOBAL BUSINESS JOURNALISM NEWSLETTER
June 2024
By VICKI CHALERMLAPVORABOON
Global Business Journalism reporter
Greetings, readers from all around the world! I am writing this amidst the peaceful silence of our campus. One thing I’ve learned this semester is that time really flies when you're having fun. As the semester draws to a close and both professors and students enjoy their well-deserved breaks, we have a few updates to catch up on.
The one big thing we have to tell you is that we’re saying our goodbyes to our graduating GBJ students.
1. The end of the era: 29 GBJ students from 13 nations have graduated!
June 28 was a very exciting day for all of us at GBJ. In the early morning of that day, a commencement ceremony was held to celebrate the graduation of master’s degree students. The ceremony, which was held at the recently renovated Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication building, honored 15 Chinese students and 14 international students coming from 12 different countries in Asia, Europe and North America.
Hard, consistent work definitely paid off as some of our GBJ students including Millie Lee from South Korea and Stephanie Fallas from Costa Rica were awarded with academic honors, while Nguyen Hà Linh of Vietnam and Lee were honored for top professional journalism portfolios. A GBJ alumna, Liwen Zhang of Canada, earned her Ph.D. from the journalism school with academic honors and shared the stage with this year's GBJ honorees.
Yidi Wang of New Zealand and Alicia Zeng of the United States won awards for Outstanding Service to the GBJ Program for their exceptional volunteer service to the GBJ office, website, social media platforms and faculty.
Co-director Professor Rick Dunham noted that this graduation made history with the best academic record for their thesis defense of any other cohorts since the program’s establishment in 2007.
One of our departing students, Zeng, said, “The Global Business Journalism program has brought so much good to so many people including myself. During my time at GBJ, I wanted to give back to the school and community continuously, and I am so appreciative that it was recognized.”
Added Fallas Sandi: “My time at GBJ could be described as fruitful: I have learned many things from great professors, created new friendships and grown as a person and completing it has filled me with a lot of happiness and a little sadness at having to say goodbye to school and friends."
And for us, we will definitely miss you! Definitely a “see you later,” not a goodbye.
>>> Read comprehensive coverage of Commencement 2024 on GlobalBusinessJournalism.com:
2. The start of the new chapter: thesis proposals
While our seniors have completed their thesis research and journalism portfolios, our first-year graduate students are embarking on new projects. From mid-June until the end of the month, 10 international GBJ students presented their innovative and trending topics to academic panels, with their proposed research covering subjects from cutting-edge technology to international affairs.
Although we can't share all the details just yet, we’re excited about the promising topics emerging from the scholarly give-and-take. Wish them luck over the next year of intense academic effort, and stay tuned for more updates!
3. Exposing falsehoods: GBJ student shows that a wave of social media criticism of Tsinghua is disinformation
In an assignment for Professor Rick Dunham's In-Depth News Writing course, later published on the Global Business Journalism website, GBJ student Li Ruojia wrote a fact-check analysis that systematically disproved a series of social media posts that accused Tsinghua University of unpatriotic behavior and academic failures. Citing facts and experts, Ruojia showed that some of the posts were written by social media influencers who were seeking viral content and did not care whether their information was truthful or not. Other posts were written by ultranationalists seeking to damage the university's reputation.
Congratulations to Li Ruojia for some excellent reporting and writing. Read her work here.
4. GBJ's Hannan Gillani takes you on a search for the best dishes from Tsinghua canteens
Tsinghua University is a place where academic excellence meets a vibrant culinary scene. Based on recommendations from classmates, Hannan Gillani of Pakistan put together a list of top menu items around the Tsinghua campus. The post includes the canteens where you can find our favorites and a description of the delicious dishes.
Among the favorites are qiaojiao beef, Hainan chicken, mala tang (pictured above), bean curd noodles, mushroom chicken pasta, rice noodles, lamb skewers, the old stanby jiazi, and the crispiest fries ever.
Check it out. There are plenty of places for you to try from one end of campus to the other.
5. Welcome aboard: an essential guide book for new students
Excited to start a new journey at Tsinghua University but unsure where to explore? Looking for the best cup of coffee or the top places to eat around campus? We've got you covered.
Looking for a place to relax or get away close to the dorm? We'll tell you where.
The GBJ program proudly presents our essenctial digital guidebook for new international students. This guidebook includes a curated list of places and venues essential to enhancing the lives of our international students.
The item above (about nine favorite dishes from Tsinghua campus canteens) is part of this new GBJ digital guidebook that we have been working on for the past few months. It was created by this newsletter in conjunction with Professor Rick Dunham's In-Depth News Writing course.
We hope this guidebook will significantly improve your campus experience. We are putting it together chapter by chapter on our website. The list will be continuously updated, so feel free to check out the links below! We will publish an updated guidebook with an introductory chapter in time for new student orientation at the end of August.
Here's our first set of recommendations for you:
6. Catch up on other headlines from GlobalBusinessJournalism.com
It's been a great month for the Global Business Journalism website, with a wide variety of news stories making their debuts. Here are links to some of them, in case you've missed them before reading our GBJ newsletter:
Thanks for reading the June GBJ newsletter. We'll be back next month with news and fun items from our global community. If you want to be the first to read each GBJ newsletter, subscribe here and receive an email notification when a new newsletter is published.
Comments