尊敬的白春礼院长，丁仲礼校长，老师们，同学们：
大家好！Hey everybody!
我叫Declan Morris, 我是英国人，我是国科大国际学院的学生。
I am honoured to be given the opportunity to speak in front of you all, and to represent the 853 international students from 66 countries at the opening ceremony of UCAS. As this is the start of term I would like to welcome all of the new students and the returning teachers to the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
非常欢迎中国科学院大学的新同学！我的中文萌萌哒，还不能表达下面太长的话，所以我将用英文继续。
For me and I’m sure I speak for the rest of the international students, studying in China is an amazing opportunity. Over the next few months I hope to improve my Chinese, in doing this I hope to gain a deeper insight into the rich history, culture and the local people lives. This will help me make Beijing my new home for the next few years, it will also allow me to explore Beijing, and the rest of China, to see the many wonders it has to offer the curious老外.
But wait, learning Chinese can be done anywhere in China, so why here? Why the University of Chinese academy of Sciences? Maybe it’s because it is the most reputable graduate university of science and technology in China? Or perhaps it’s because it is one of the highest ranked institution in the world? But it’s more than that, and to answer that I ask you to kindly look around you, to your fellow students, to your world renowned researchers and teachers, here we will become a part of something bigger than ourselves and we will all strive to make huge advances in each of our academic fields.
Over the next few years of my PhD investigating anti-icing materials with 王建君教授from Institute of Chemistry. I hope to be a part of some ground breaking science and make my own contributions to the scientific community, I also hope to push my careers further, make strong international connections and learn with some of the best scientists in their field.
During my stay here I am also excited to make some lifelong friends, who stretch across the globe, reaching over religious and cultural differences, because here in our little community we are all 中国科学院大学的同学.
I hope I have the privilege of speaking to all of you at least once, even if it’s a quick 哥们儿，怎么样？Hey bro, how’s it going? I wish you all the best of luck in your academic studies and hope you all enjoy your time here.
Thank you 谢谢大家！
