With the autumn winds bringing in the fragrance of osmanthus, the season of harvest has arrived in the blink of an eye. As our returning students came back to school and new students joined our community, the 2022-2023 SHBS Fall semester started.

On August 31, all teachers and students attended a grand opening ceremony held in the school auditorium.

Before the ceremony began, elaborate videos were presented on the screen, which covered classroom learning, school activities, and the commencement etc. Everyone was impressed by the rich and colorful daily life of SHBS and the happy faces. Teachers, students and parents entered the auditorium before it officially started.

Then, two groups of students presented very impressive singing and dancing performances. "Sneakers", a dance show, created quite a stir in the audience with its youthful rhythms. "If we may", a melodic ballad song, won a bust of applause from the audience.

The opening ceremony, which was co-hosted by Chris, Foreign Principal, and Ms. Irene Ma, began after the warming-up shows were over. First of all, Chris introduced our school’s faculty team to all the students and parents. He said our faculty team had grown even stronger, and boasted so far the most diverse backgrounds and expertise. Thus, he encouraged students to feel free to ask for help when they meet with problems.

Next, on behalf of all the teachers, Mr. George Caballero, spoke on the stage, and Ms. Chloe Chen translated for him. Talking of the importance of “role model”, he urged himself to set a good example for the students, and encouraged everyone to learn from role models --- teachers and parents who set examples for their kids. He also told students to always keep “Dignity, Honor, Respect and Integrity” in mind, because those are the values which will allow ourselves to become role models for others. He reminded us to always do what is right, what is good and what is morally acceptable even though it won’t be easy to do so.

Representatives of students also delivered wonderful speeches.

Bruce Feng told us, "As students of an international school, we should have global vision and pay attention to the current events in the world. Living in an era full of uncertainties, we should know about the challenges we face, and make changes accordingly."

As a representative of the newcomers, Olivia Huang encouraged everyone to "choose our own life, pick our own path, and be our best selves".

Pamela Pan shared with us how she gradually found her own goal and direction despite her fear and anxiety. She inspired us with her own experience to build self-confidence and not to be timid when facing opportunities. She told us that even if we fail, it’s nothing to be ashamed of and as long as you make your efforts, you will be rewarded.

Finally, Jack Hua, representative of the 12th graders, gave some of his advice to the younger students: "I hope that pre and 10th graders will make the best of their plentiful time and make a good plan for their college application in advance. I hope that you will do well in your studies as well as participate actively in extracurricular activities and explore yourselves. I hope that 11th graders will seize their time and ask for help in time about their college application. I hope that we, 12th graders, will do our best in the final sprint of our high school years so that we will live up to what our school has expected of us and to our own efforts in the past 4 years." 

The awarding session is always the highlight of the opening ceremony. Students were amazed at the variety of scholarships, ranging from the Wen Hui Scholarship worth 1,000 yuan to the Founders Award worth 20,000 yuan. Students stepped onto the stage amid the applause to get their awards and take group photos. As our 12th graders proved to be particularly outstanding last year, our school also added one Distinguished Founders Award to the list, and solemnly presented a scholarship worth 30,000 yuan to Hanxiao Cai. We hope that everyone will learn from him and follow the example he has set for our students. Of course, the prosperity of our school also owes a lot to parents’ help and support, so representatives of parents also received their awards on the stage.

Finally, Principal Bowen Chen, gave us a speech which benefited us a lot. He hoped that students could "discover" at least the following four aspects through their own continuous learning and practice: 1. Learning is one’s own responsibility. 2. Find your dreams and set goals in life. 3. People are different from one another. 4. Cultivate your own interests and strengths. In terms of "how to better discover yourselves", Bowen suggested four ways: 1. Learn how to make choices in practices. 2. Practice with faith. 3. Improve through self-reflection. 4. Devote yourself to a great cause with gratitude. He stressed that only by "discovering" ourselves and fully developing ourselves can we discover a bigger world, have deeper thinkings, a bigger vision of ourselves, mankind and the universe, and can we make a more realistic plan for ourselves and better improve ourselves so that we may become Chinese people who can blend in with the world and illumiante it.

The opening ceremony was successfully concluded in a burst of applause. At the beginning of the new semester, may teachers and students keep making progress and achieve their own goals.