UPP@NCSU Graduation Celebration

On Saturday, April 23rd, UPP students and staff gathered at UPP Advisor Lindsay’s house to celebrate all of our graduating students and their achievements over the past academic year. It was a day full of food, games, laughter and friendship.

Traditional Summer Cookout

Thanks to Lindsay’s partner and his father, students and staff were able to enjoy delicious grilled food in a traditional American summer cookout in the backyard. Upon arrival, one student promptly asked, “What will we be eating?” and when the question was answered with “hamburgers, hotdogs, veggie skewers, grilled corn, chips, and fruit,” his response was “traditional American food,” which was precisely the point. We wanted to give the students another taste of traditional American food to celebrate their first year studying in the US and to prepare them for any future summer cookouts or football tailgates they may be invited to by American friends.

Graduation Ceremony

During the ceremony, many great announcements were made including the option for students to extend their time in UPP with UPP+ for any additional upcoming semester terms they would like, including this summer!

A UPP Recap

We began our ceremony with a recap of the entire year, showing pictures of some of the fun experiences they enjoyed such as ziplining in Asheville, visiting Duke University and the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, jumping on trampolines at Defy Raleigh, exploring Charleston, and more. Students watched excitedly and commented on some of their experiences throughout their time in UPP.

The UPP Graduates

When a student starts UPP, they begin to accumulate UPP Points for every event, advising meeting, module, and activity they attend.  The points determine the students’ status with UPP upon completion of the program.  This year, we had seven students graduate with Honors and nine students who graduated UPP, totaling sixteen UPP@NCSU graduates for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Songtao Scholars

As part of our UPP Graduation, we awarded 5 students between both NCSU and UNCG with Songtao Scholarship awards. 3rd place: Yazi Wang, UNCG. 2nd place: Xiaohang “Ray” Wang, NCSU and Yizhe Li, UNCG. 1st place: Ziye “Luoson” Luo, NCSU and Yue Zhang, UNCG.  The Songtao Scholars Program honors students who embody UPP’s goals of becoming culturally competent global citizens, fully engaged learners, and continuously evolving leaders.

Paper Plate Awards

Superlatives, or Paper Plate Awards as Lindsay calls them, were awarded to all students and staff recognizing fun “achievements” such as “Most likely to wear all black” awarded to Zekai Zheng and “Most likely to make the most American friends” awarded to Richard Li. The students enjoyed hearing all of the superlatives and guessing who would win each Paper Plate Award. Laughing about some of the silly superlatives was a great way to end our year in UPP together.

Learning How to Play Golf

At the end of our ceremony, we walked students across the street to the driving range of a golf course so they could learn how to hit golf balls with golf clubs. Early in the spring semester, a couple of students mentioned that they were interested in learning how to play golf and shared that it was a sport they had never tried before or seen played before. While it was not easy at first, the students got the hang of it and fell into a rhythm of setting the ball, standing in proper position, taking a practice swing, and hitting the ball! One of our students reflected on this activity and said “I think golf was meant for me. It is relaxing and calms me down.” He even said that once he became a UPP Student Leader this coming academic year, he would love to bring the new cohort of UPP@NCSU students to learn how to play golf, too.

We are so proud of our UPP students. It was a privilege to work with them and witness their growth and maturity over the past academic year. We wish them much luck in their studies at NC State and encourage them to drop by our offices to let us know how they are doing!