In the afternoon of July 19^th, the closing ceremony of the Second International Youth Leadership Program (IYLP) was held in the lecture hall in the library of BNU. Prof. Dong Qi, president of BNU; Prof. Chen Guangju, Vice President; Zheng Guoming, Director of Teaching Affairs Office; Wang Jvn, Deputy Director of Office of International Exchange and Cooperation; Ms. Tracy Wells, Assistant Director of Career Service of Academic Administration Division in the University of Oxford and Dr. Gan Chunyan, Director of Office of International Affairs of BNUZ attended the ceremony, along with the IYLP participants and other staff.

Before the ceremony, President Dong and Vice President Chen jubilantly visited the IYLP Research Achievements Exhibition. They earnestly reviewed and were offered detailed presentation about the achievements of each research group.

On the ceremony, Vice President Chen, on behalf of BNU, extended warm congratulations to 113 IYLP participants, from home and abroad, as well as sincere thanks to all the staff for their hard work and great achievement. He pointed out that IYLP is dedicated to stimulating participants’ potential, to respecting cultural diversity, to paying close attention to community development and to bringing up outstanding citizens. It is forged to produce youth leaders of new generation, who hold the sense of social responsibility for their countries as well as the world.

Then, Xie Jiansi, junior student from BNUZ, reviewed the activities during the program. During this 20-day program, 113 students from BNU, BNUZ, Oxford and Birmingham, adhering to the principles of United Nation Academic Impact, carried out series of seminars, social researches, cooperative study and field studies, where they were given the opportunity to learn about new thinking pattern and viewpoints.

Representative of foreign participants, Wardah Binti Haji Mohammad Ja’a far, a 2nd –year student from the University of Birmingham made a speech about her unforgettable experience in China. In her touching speech, she expressed her heartfelt gratitude about this program which gave foreign students a good chance to make new friends and learn more about China.

Ms. Tracy Wells, Assistant Director for Career Service of Academic Administration Division in the University of Oxford also gave a high appraisal to IYLP and extended her thanks to the organizing committee. She commented that IYLP was an excellent platform for participants to learn together, share together and grow together.

Finally, Konrad Krawczyk, representative from the University of Oxford extended his wishes to IYLP’s outlook. He looked forward to the success of the next program and hoped that all the participants of this year could share with friends about what they had learnt in the program, making the program better and better.

IYLP is initiated by Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, which aims to build up a platform for cross-culture communication and cooperative research among university students, under the spirit of “Sharing Enhances Cross-cultural Understanding, Research Promotes Wise Decision-making”. It is also a platform attracting distinguished students and professors from elite universities like Oxford and Harvard to share experience and communicate opinions. This year’s program has made great progress on the scale and quality of the activities with two new partner institutions—Beijing Normal University and the University of Birmingham—joined the program. It will continue to serve as a good opportunity for students to broaden their horizons and to enhance their cross-cultural understandings.