Due to the impact of COVID-19, the 2020 undergraduates of School of the Gifted Young did not return to school until the last days of their undergraduate study. To let teachers and students of the graduating class leave good memories, the college had been discussing the arrangement of the graduation commemorative activities since March of this year. After repeated consultations, and in light of the high-level of COVID-19 control achieved in China, the final decision to hold on-campus graduation ceremonies was made.

Before the students returned to school, the preparations for graduation activities had already been under intense preparation launched intensively. With the data collected by head teachers online, the college uniformly made graduation commemorative albums, exclusively for each class, and officially distributed them to every graduate on June 17. The heavy album contains the miniatures photos of the students' youth and time at school, the expectation for each other's future, and of course the teachers' sincere advice.

In the early morning of June 19, the college's customized photo display boards were set outside the office building of School of the Gifted Young. The boards' interesting design and good wishes attracted many students to take a group photo as a memorial. At 4 pm, graduates of 2020 wearing academic dress took graduation photos in front of the college building by class, according to the pre-arranged order. Before taking pictures, the monitors of each class put on corsages for their head teachers, thanking them for their continuous care and love. All members of the college management team attended to witness this important moment in the lives of graduates.

Graduation is not parting. The spirit of "acceptance, dedication, development, and inheritance" of the School of the Gifted Young is enhanced and passed down among the students generation after generation. In May, "Building Dreams·, Self-improvement, Flight·Flying , vol. 66^th" was not affected by the epidemic and sent to press opportunelyon time. This special volume records the thoughts and insights of the Wwinners of the Guo Moruo Scholarship (USTC’s highest student honor), and the Chinese National Scholarship. These winners, who mainly came from graduation gradethe senior grade, shared their growth trajectory and life insights, conveying friendship in the text. This tradition has lasted for six years.

On June 1, all the teachers of the college and a dozen student representatives from the 2016 gradegraduating class had an online discussion. The graduates shared their learning and living experiences, and made suggestions for the development of the college and the school. On June 22, the teachers and students who had returned to school had a discussion about their previous suggestions in classroom 308 of the School of the Gifted Young. Dean Lu Zhengtian Lu invited the students who were going to leave school to speak freely and leave their valuable opinions of the college. Everyone had a lively discussion on the curriculum, the arrangement of the dormitory network self-study room and gymnasium, inter-school communication, and the improvement of the information communication system. Dean Lu thanked the graduates on behalf of the college, and hoped that the symposium of graduates giving feed back to the School of the Gifted Young’s management team would become a new tradition and provide a better environment for students to grow and become talents through the reflection and resolution of problems.

May all graduates set sail with their dreams towards a brighter future!

Translated by Guangyuan Wei