Professor Rick Dunham to 2025 graduates: "You are prepared to be influential international players"
- Rick Dunham
- Jul 4
- 3 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Professor Rick Dunham delivered parts of this speech in Chinese. This text contains an English translation of those sections.
Good morning.
I am Rick Dunham. It is my honor to represent the international faculty of the Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication on this joyous day. For the past 12 years, it has been a privilege to have been co-director of the Global Business Journalism program with Dr. Hang Min.
The GBJ program is a partnership with Bloomberg News and the International Center for Journalists and it was our school’s first international program. GBJ has trained about 600 graduate students from 76 nations and every province in China in global best practices and has prepared a new generation of economic experts to analyze our complicated, interdependent global economy.
But GBJ is just the beginning for TSJC. Under the visionary guidance of Dean Zhou, we are rapidly expanding our global footprint and our international leadership with new dual degree programs and an English language Ph.D. program. In 23 short years, Tsinghua has become the most respected international graduate school of journalism on the Chinese mainland, and I am proud to be a part of it.
The Tsinghua community is special because we are diverse in background and outlook. The journalism school is unique because we — faculty and students alike — truly care about one another. We care not only about academics – but also about the personal well-being of the students.
We want to prepare you for your professional futures, but we also want you to get the most out of your Tsinghua days. For our international students, we want you to get the most out of your China journey.
Today is the next step in that journey. For many university graduates, your journey is fraught with uncertainty. Uncertainty in the short run about jobs and global disorder. Uncertainty about the future of journalism, communication and where technology is taking us.
But I want to leave you with a note of optimism. The skills that I teach in the Global Business Journalism program — that we teach in the School of Journalism and Communication — are invaluable in future careers, whether they are in journalism or business, startups or government, entrepreneurial ventures or corporate cultures, or in academic life.
You have learned advanced storytelling tools and techniques. You have learned data research and analysis. You have mastered multimedia storytelling, new media platforms and data visualization. You are on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence developments.
You have honed your skills in cross-cultural communication and teamwork and team-building. You are prepared to be influential international players.
I will conclude, as I do every year at this time, by quoting my grandfather, the American philosopher Barrows Dunham. My grandfather – who was blacklisted in the United States during the Red Scare era of the 1950s for refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee – remained an optimist throughout his life. He wrote this poem after returning from a visit to Valley Forge, near his home outside of Philadelphia, where George Washington retreated in the winter of 1777 after a series of setbacks at the beginning of the American Revolution.
“Winter is a cold thing,
But faith and hope are warm,” my grandfather wrote.
“And charity’s a bold thing
That can outlast a storm.
For love has its defenses
Where winter cannot blow,
And he is safe who senses
The spring beneath the snow.”
I hope this is a season of love and warmth for you. Congratulations to you and your families! Your Tsinghua family is proud of you.
Thank you.
Commencement 2025: Complete coverage
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>>> Professor Rick Dunham to 2025 graduates: "You are prepared to be influential international players"
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