Ms. Lisa Kerr, Academic Director of Griggs China, recorded a video to send her best wishes to our graduates.

Foreign Principal Christopher Moses

In his opening remarks, Foreign Principal Christopher Moses reflected on the changes and growth of the graduates and congratulated them on their achievements. "As we gather both near and far, I realize even more the importance of institutions in shaping our lives and supporting our ambitions." "Yet the shared will of a collective endeavor in fact gives us the ability to discover who we are individually, just as our graduates have done at SHBS." "Institutions provide us a perspective greater than ourselves, and in this twenty-first century moment we need perspectives more than ever." "We need patience and fortitude and vision and compassion to navigate such vast perspectives."

General Principal Bowen Chen

General Principal Bowen Chen made a concluding speech: your dedicated efforts to grow up make us truly feel that education makes people better. As he quotes the graduates,

"The most important thing is passion, because only passion can push us to persevere and brave all kinds of challenges."

"Life will find its way. Not all of us will succeed in the same way. Only by discovering ourselves and finding the right way for us will we find the key to moving forward step by step on the road to the future." 

"For me, my community is like a big family, and I love doing what I can to make it better."

"I never miss any school activity that gives me fun. The club activities have inspired my leadership skills and improved my sense of responsibility."

“We are here not to be a certain type of people, but to be our best selves."

Finally, Principal Bowen gave all the graduates two words, "bravery" and "perseverance". He hoped that every graduate will become a better person through hard work and become a Chinese citizen that can blend into and illuminate the world.

General Principal Peggy Zhai

I am both privileged and delighted to express my congratulations to our dearest graduates and their parents. ZWIE has grown in leaps and bounds from its inception for 19 years, changing from “the integration of both oriental ethics wisdom and western scientific spirit ” to “Let the education fit the needs of our children and let the world be harmonious with differences”. On the journey to holistic and inclusive education, ZWIE shows no hesitation.

To explore the optimal solutions of Chinese educational reform is not as easy as it sounds. On the contrary, it needs courage, constant inquiry, practice, reflection, revision and action in a spiral way. Our school may not be the perfect demonstration to new national curriculum blended with international frames but the advocate to embrace the cutting-edge integrated course forming a shared life- long learning community involving our students, parents and school; it is not the desire to move around from one classroom to another but the comprehension towards the respect to the appropriate demands from every single student as well as every family; it is not the English proficiency but the practice of global competency brought to the future when facing VUCA era; it is not the fear to COVID-19, but the responsibility of offering remote education and the mutual understanding between schools and families; it is not 100% assurance about the relationship between various countries, but the wisdom and courage while facing challenges with the education filled with BIG Concepts and BIG Ideas.  

We are expecting the year of 2025, the beginning of AI era, along with a bit concern. A question pops up – what challenges will we face as human beings? Merely learning from books without linking to the real world is not recommended at our school because our students are expected to be the corner stones, the leaders and advocates of human society in the future instead of theoretical idealists stick to rotten books. Our students shall build up their solid academic foundation, strengthen their 21 century skills in order to be life-long learners, international communicators and future creators to offer future optimal solutions.

At ZWA, we would like to have a multicultural community, an encouraging environment; Under circumstance now, our school proposes to establish PTA- Parent- Teacher- Association to form a quality team with all sorts of perspectives striving for forming a life-long learning community; our subject teachers initiatively create our multi-language code and provide students in different levels extra tutorials; Student Dean offers individual academic planning and guides students to choose their own timetables; college admission counselors offers  scientific and systematic career advice to our students. 

The  strong youth leads to a prosperous country; the growing youth strengthens the world.  The educational garden we are taking care of today will be the haven fostering  precious souls to build up the future. Let us aim at the same goals with different background on the journey to excellence.   

Finally I would like to share my motto with all of you: Dream Big, Start Small. 

Principal Teresa Yang

First of all, congratulations to the Class of 2022! Today, you have successfully graduated from ZWA and officially finished your high school career. You will have a new identity--college students! Please allow me to express my sincerest congratulations and best wishes to all of you on behalf of all the ZWA faculty. 

A few years ago, all of you came from different schools, at different times, with different backgrounds. I believe that all of you had a dream, whether it was the pursuit of learning or growth, or the desire for friendship and affection. Your relationships with your teachers began at that moment. 

Some of you graduates have stayed a longer time than me at ZWA, and some of you graduates we met online when the epidemic was at its worst. No matter how we met, I still clearly remember the first time we met, and I remember your best qualities in my heart. Being with you is the happiest time for us during the high school years but today we feel happy and sad together for your graduation. Happy for your new beginning in the universities but sad for not seeing your faces next school year. Looking at your happy smiling and vigorous faces, I believe that all of you will have a bright future after today!

Today, I want to borrow the words of Professor Peng from Tsinghua University and send them to you: “Life is a long journey, so be strong and patient.” Life is a continuous process, which means you will face a lot happy and sad moments in your life. In the future, we will not be together but I hope all of you will stay strong at any moment to keep yourself going! Keep your chin up!

The world is big, all of you are going to different countries and cities, USA, UK, Australia, Beijing, the world is also small, no matter where you go, I hope you can remember: ZWA is the home of your soul and it is opened to you forever. 

At last, let’s congratulate to the class of 2022 again, we wish that all of you have a bright future!

General Principal Mr. Norris Wu

Dear Students, I have a very complex feeling at this moment, joyful, expecting and concerned. Thousands of words in my heart only came out to be a few hopes for you.

1. I hope you will be a person with dreams. If there is a dream, there will be a pursuit, and you will fight for it no matter what challenges you may face. Whenever you encounter difficulties in the future, you must tell yourself that I have to persist, because I still have a dream to realize;

2. I hope you will be diligent, love reading and love learning. Remember that the books you read will show in your character and actions. Moreover, a person who loves to learn will live a fulfilled life and will never feel empty;

3. I hope you would be responsible people. Dream big and undertake the responsibilities of taking care of the world we live in.  

My dear students, how time flies! You are going to leave your home and embrace the big new world. Take our blessings with you. I wish you all the best and have a bright future. May you live a happy and colorful life.

General Principal Ms. Lisa Gan

Dear students, you are leaving Liren today to start a new chapter in your lives. University life is unbelievable, and there will be many challenges. I hope that you will work hard, not be afraid of challenges. Write you own story with you actions! I also hope you would come back often to visit us who will always miss you. In the end, I hope you all have a bright future and always keep your hearts of gold.