On the evening of March 10th, 2023, the final competition of the Top Ten Best Students of South China University of Technology (SCUT) for the academic year 2021-2022 was held in the 108 lecture hall of Qingqing Literature and Science Building. After a fierce competition, Jian Zhanqiang, a 2020 undergraduate majoring in environmental engineering, was awarded the honorary title of Top Ten Best Students by virtue of his excellent academic performance, outstanding competition results and rich social experiences.
Figure 1. Top Ten Best Students final site
Jian Zhanqiang, a probationary member of the Communist Party of China, is a 2020 undergraduate majoring in environmental engineering in the School of Environment and Energy. He was honored as the Excellent Volunteers of Students in Action of Guangdong Province in 2022, and Excellent Student Cadres of South China University of Technology in 2021-2022 academic year. He was also awarded as the Excellent Student Cadres, Excellent Youth League Cadres, Star Volunteers of South China University of Technology. He was No.1 in moral, intellectual, cultural and physical evaluation in 2021, and had ranked top one in intellectual evaluation for two consecutive years. He has been recognized as the Advanced Individual in social practice for two years in a row, receiving a national scholarship in 2021 and a second-class scholarship in 2020. He has acquired one international and one national awards, two national honors and two provincial honors respectively. Besides, in student work, he has held four student positions at the same time, shouldering important responsibilities and winning seven university-level personal honors.
Learning and Researching in a Poised Manner
He always believes that as a student, one needs to maintain good study habits and learning attitude, listen carefully in class, think and communicate with teachers actively. Among the 43 required courses in his two academic years, 27 courses hitting 90 or higher (62.79%) and 42 reaching 80 or higher (97.67%), with a percentage-weighted average point of 89.36, ranking 2nd in the major (4.26%) with a GPA of 3.85. In addition to his major, he also studies Law to broaden his knowledge and improve his thinking skills. Although he has less spare time and more pressure on his study, he takes the motto of follow your heart and tide over the difficulty when one can only wear straw sandals and firmly believes that only through down-to-earth study can he master the real skills. Therefore, he has risen to the challenges, allocated his time reasonably and completed the study tasks of each course with high efficiency and quality.
He has maintained good study habits and passed the CET4 and CET6 in his freshman year with a high score. In order to improve his foreign language skills, he participated in English writing and speech competitions, and won the second prize in the 4th PuYi Translate National College English Writing Competition and the third prize in the school-level preliminary round of the 2021 “FLTRP·ETIC Cup” National English Speech Competition.
In his spare time, he is keen on participating in mathematical modeling competitions to improve his ability to analyze and solve problems in practical applications. His progress is evident from the Winning Prize in the Guangdong Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling in 2021 to the nomination for the Finalist Prize in the MCM Competition in 2022. In addition, he also won the second prize in the school-level of the 5th Guangzhou Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling, the second prize in the 2022 Guangdong University Student Mathematical Modeling Competition, and the third prize in the 2021 (2nd) Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau Financial Mathematical Modeling Competition.
In terms of scientific research, he has actively participated in research projects and completed the SRP project Exploration of New Principles for Water Treatment Depth Technology with excellent completion.
Figure 2. The final
Gathering Strength to Give a Helping Hand
As the secretary of the Youth League branch, Jian Zhanqiang has led his class to participate in more than 10 activities such as the Environmental Protection Costume Competition and achieved excellent results. He has also led the league members to actively participate in the Youth Learning learning activity of the Party history with high completion rate, which was often listed in the Huagong Youth tweet. He has carried out activities such as branch assembly and league organization meeting, which were recognized by the School and the University, as the branch was rated as a five-star branch and won the honorary title of May Fourth Red Flag Branch, and Jian was also awarded as the excellent Youth League Cadre of South China University of Technology in 2021.
Figure 3. Organizing the group meetings as the secretary
At the same time, Jian has also served as the head of the Youth Volunteer Department and the captain of the Green Wish Service Team. He has rich experience in planning activities, holding many volunteer activities around the theme of environmental protection, such as public-welfare environmental protection class in the community, Qiming material organizing activities, old book recycling and distribution activities, etc. Through volunteer activities, he has wielded power of the School of Environment and Energy to promote environmental protection in the society, inspiring more people to care about environmental protection issue. During this period, he received a letter of appreciation from Qiming School in Guangzhou for the teaching materials for visually-impaired students, which was highly appreciated by the society. Thanks to his efforts, the department was awarded the title of Excellent Department in 2021, and he was also awarded as the Outstanding Student Officer of the Charity Group in 2021-2022.
Figure 4. Jian Zhanqiang participated in volunteer service activities
A Pioneering Model
In terms of study, he always believes in teaching is part of learning, as he has not only discussed with classmates and answered their questions, but also participated in the School’s academic support activities, explaining the preparation methods and knowledge points of calculus to students before the exams. At the same time, he has joint the School's academic support volunteer team to answer questions for students on the E-class platform both online and offline.
Besides, he has been an academic volunteer in the Academic Affairs Office for two consecutive years, and has carried out many study exchange activities. During the winter holiday, he organized an academic self-discipline activity for one-hour study online every day, with more than 1,400 participants and 17,000 times of attendances.
As a member of the School’s epidemic prevention and control reserve team, he took the initiative to serve as the second-level leader, uploading information and making sure that every student would push it through, which allowed him to immediately go into battle when the epidemic prevention and control was needed. During the holidays, he has been committed to participating in community volunteer services, including community visits for environmental protection, book organization in community library and many other services. Jian has also taken part in the Good Holiday activities for a second straight year, sending warmth to children in need in his hometown. So far, he has accumulated over 440 hours of services on the iVolunteer platform and has been awarded as the Star Volunteer.
During the winter break, he participated in the 14th social practice activity for promotion in the Alma Mater, and served as the captain of the Zhongshan area, completing the work brilliantly. At the opening ceremony of Guangzhou No.2 Middle School Nansha Campus in 2022, he was invited as the representative of outstanding graduates to share his experience and methods of studying in senior high school and university.
Figure 5. Jian Zhanqiang shared at the opening ceremony of his alma mater Guangzhou No.2 Middle School
Down-to-earth Efforts Towards the Dreams
In two summer holidays, he participated in the Students in Action, and was the team leader in the 2022 event, organizing volunteers to carry out environmental science research activities in Qingyuan Yangshan, serving more than 1,300 people in the offline activities, with more than 10,000 online followers, which was reported by the Guangdong Society of Environmental Sciences and Shanmei Yangcheng. It has gained wide attention and recognition in the society. His story about environmental protection was published in the 9th issue of Environment and Life in 2022, and his youth is sure to shine in the environmental protection practice.
Figure 6. Jian Zhanqiang published Students in Action campaign in Environment and Life magazine
Since Jian Zhanqiang entered the University, he has always been strict with himself, as he has learned and worked in a pioneer, diligent and conscientious manner. He not only outshines other in studies and pursuit of progress, but also in responsibility, as he has shouldered numerous student activities and volunteer services, dedicated in environmental protection with concrete actions, which has been widely recognized by his classmates, teachers and the society. Jian has played an exemplary role as a new generation of students in the School of Environment and Energy. In the future, he will continue to stay true to his aspiration, focus on scientific research and serve as a leading role model, so as to contribute his own efforts to the environment and the target of Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality!
(Photo and text: Liu Yuejin, Jian Zhanqiang; Preliminary review: Lv Xiaoting; Final review: Wu Honghui)