As the tense final exams came to an end, and the winter sun illuminated WHUers’ way home, a colorful winter vacation began. Among all the meaningful practical vacation activities, the return visits to their alma mater could be a special one.
To participate in this practical social activity, four to ten students from across different colleges formed a team. This task was relatively demanding, requiring members’ communication skills, teamwork spirit and the capacity to design engaging presentations to show the study environment and life in WHU as well as the confidence and competence of WHUers to the younger high school students of their alma mater.
Given the current epidemic prevention and control policies, some schools became stricter in the control of off-campus personnel’s access to their school. As a result, several teams had to give online presentations or utilize live streaming to achieve a better result compared with previous activities. The team visiting Chibi No.1 High School was one of them.
Team members discussing details of the presentation
With a total of ten members in the team, the leader, Xu Le from the School of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering of WHU, distributed all the tasks wisely and boosted the morale greatly. As a responsible team leader, he did his best to coordinate the whole activity. He also gained a lot of practical experience, such as assigning tasks according to each member’s strengths and preferences, as well as communicating with the school to achieve better results.
When it came to the concrete steps to deliver an appealing speech with sufficient content, members from the copywriter group searched loads of information online including the admission lines and enrollment numbers of WHU in the past few years. Members also introduced WHU’s preponderant disciplines and the beautiful landscapes of East Lake and Luojia Hill.
Students watching the video attentively
Apart from preparing textual materials, members brought many souvenirs with WHU’s popular symbols like cherry blossoms to their high school alma mater. To fully convey their encouragement and care, they also wrote greeting cards to the youngsters. Indeed, no matter how much time passes, studying hard is always worthy of praise, and the process of pursuing dreams is romantic and meaningful. The inheritance of spirits to fulfill brilliant aspirations through solid actions is just the reason why the practical activity is special.
Abundant and brilliant souvenirs prepared by the team for the activity
This well-prepared activity received lots of warm responses from teachers and students. After the presentation, over 30 students joined the QQ group set up for answering questions about WHU. The school also published a notice on its official WeChat account to advertise the activity.
When asked about the impact of this activity, Xie Tianxin, a student from the School of Urban Design of WHU, was very excited to share her unique experience with the activity and the process of learning to make a PowerPoint presentation. In addition, she also accumulated more public speaking skills and became calmer and more confident when speaking on stage in front of a lot of people.
During this chilly winter, WHUers had a variety of practical activities, and the smiles on their faces could certainly warm the cold weather. Although the winter vacation has ended, WHUers will always be enthusiastic about meaningful activities to expand their horizons. Of course, there will be more surprises in the future!
Photo by Li Sirui
Edited by Li Hefeng, Qin Zehao, Cheng Shiwen, Zou Xiaohan Sylvia and Hu Sijia
