Chinese student struck a chord emphasizing humanity during Harvard commencement speech

By MICHAEL CASEY CAMBRIDGE Mass AP A day after her emotional speech at Harvard University s commencement Yurong Luanna Jiang kept running into classmates who praised her message that people should see everyone s common humanity rather than demonize others for their differences Related Articles The Department of Vitality axes billion in clean potential project grants FACT FOCUS Trump s maintains about remedial math at Harvard don t add up Trump s schooling secretary threatens to pull funding from NY over its Native American mascot ban PBS suing Trump administration over defunding three days after NPR filed similar scenario Fox News ICE Boston arrests convicted child rapist living next to playground We re starting to believe those who think differently vote differently or pray differently whether they re across the ocean or sitting right next to us are not just wrong We mistakenly see them as evil But it doesn t have to be this way she disclosed in her address which drew wide applause The message itself if I have to put it into one sentence will be humanity rises and falls as one Jiang communicated The Associated Press on Friday We are living in a very tough time There s a lot of divisions in terms of ideas ethnicities identities This is a time where we can use a little bit more moral imagination and imagine ourselves being connected with one another The -year-old Jiang s speech never directly mentioned the Trump administration nor its multi-pronged attack on the nation s oldest and richest university But she disclosed the turmoil beyond their campus and its impact on her classmates was on her mind as she delivered her speech Students can be very emotionally charged because they care deeply about a lot of issues stated Jiang who comes from China and graduated with a masters degree in masses administration in international maturation When you are emotionally charged and activated it s very easy to demonize another person She mentioned the relentless attacks from the Trump administration on the school s funding and threats to detain and deport people studying in the U S on scholar visas have left her unsettled adding huge uncertainty to her future plans In terms of the plan going forward I would say everything is up in the air at this point Jiang explained who had hoped to remain in the United States for a scarce years but now is open to working in international expansion overseas At this point it s arduous to say what will happen Yurong Luanna Jiang center who delivered a speech at her Harvard University commencement takes a selfie with her college friends Cynthia Luo right and Helen Ji Friday May in Cambridge Mass AP Photo Charles Krupa Yurong Luanna Jiang who delivered a speech at her Harvard University commencement raises her fists while talking with friends Friday May in Cambridge Mass AP Photo Charles Krupa Yurong Luanna Jiang who delivered a speech at her Harvard University commencement smiles while embracing her friend Helen Ji Friday May in Cambridge Mass AP Photo Charles Krupa Yurong Luanna Jiang who delivered a speech at her Harvard University commencement poses at a gate to Harvard Yard Friday May in Cambridge Mass AP Photo Charles Krupa Show Caption of Yurong Luanna Jiang center who delivered a speech at her Harvard University commencement takes a selfie with her college friends Cynthia Luo right and Helen Ji Friday May in Cambridge Mass AP Photo Charles Krupa Expand This week the Trump administration inquired federal agencies to cancel about million in contracts with the university The administration already canceled more than billion in federal research grants moved to cut off Harvard s enrollment of international students and threatened its tax-exempt status Then it widened the pressure campaign suspending visa applications worldwide and threatening to deny U S visas to thousands of Chinese students nationwide These actions resonate with Jiang and her classmates about of Harvard s students are international and China has among the highest numbers The anxiety is real announced Jiang who knows two international students from China who are weighing whether to excursion for work in Kenya and Rwanda Because of the uncertainty of their visas they are facing a very tricky situation she stated They can either go abroad go to Kenya and Rwanda to do their internship and work on poverty alleviation and populace healthcare but risking not being able to make it back to campus safely Or they can stay on campus and do their internships remote It s pretty heartbreaking she continued They wished to help humanity and to see them entangled in politics they didn t choose is hard Jiang who went to high school in the United Kingdom and earned her undergraduate degree at Duke University reported there should be more not fewer academic exchanges between China and the United States Humanity is facing a lot of emergency she stated There are conflicts There is surroundings There are a lot things that not only one country can tackle China and the U S are the two the greater part powerful economies or countries in the world They have to work with each other to be able to combat the problems or the issues that affect every single human being Jiang also defended the importance of international students at Harvard recalling how of the students stood up at the Kennedy School of Administration commencement when the dean Jeremy Weinstein urged how multiple came from outside the United States Then he inquired if they had learned something from their international classmates and bulk everyone stood A lot of us clapped and cheered A lot of us were in tears she stated as Weinstein explained them to look around this is your school Without international students it would be a challenge for Harvard to achieve its mission Jiang disclosed Campus way of life depends on its globally diverse scholar body studying and hanging out together Harvard wants its students to go and change the world and you can t change the world without understanding the world she disclosed You can t understand the world without truly having a personal connection with people from all sorts of countries