Graduation Success 2022 | What an Extraordinary Year
What an extraordinary year it has been for our year 13 graduates. Despite the disruption caused by COVID-19 and the uncertainties around exams and face-to-face teaching, more than 50% of our graduates are holding offers from the world’s top 20 universities. Furthermore, we have yet again managed to gain offers from all the G5 universities in the UK. There is one offer from the University of Oxford, one from the University of Cambridge, 5 offers from Imperial College London, 10 from University College London, 6 from the University of the Arts London, 12 from the University of Edinburgh, 1 from Carnegie Mellon, 1 from New York University, 2 from the University of Toronto,3 from the University of British Columbia and many, many more.
It has been a unique year in which our pupils have received the College’s first offers from the top universities in Korea – SNU and KAIST. These universities are notoriously difficult to get offers from, so we are delighted for these pupils and their families. We have also received our first offer from the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) ranked second in the world behind MIT. We are so pleased that once again, Wellingtonians go on to study a wide range of subjects at university – a testament to the broad education and the excellent teaching and learning that they received at school.
Our pupils will be going on to the next phase of their education to study subjects as diverse as Hospitality, Biochemistry, Film-Making, Pharmaceutical Science, Creative Music Technology, Fashion Design, Computer Science, Aeronautical Engineering and Applied Maths and Comparative Literature. The breadth and quality of these offers is testament to the hard work and perseverance of all pupils, parents, teachers, and university counsellors here at Wellington College in Tianjin. Every year 13 pupil has benefitted from a bespoke programme of support throughout the application process, focused on the needs of the individual and ensuring that they all have access to their ‘best fit’ university destinations.
The graduation ceremony on the 27th May was moved online at the very last minute, but we soldiered on in true Tianjin style, unphased by the change. Senior School pupils were joined online by our guest of honour, Dr Joseph Shumway, Chief Medical Officer from the United Family Hospital. There was music in addition to the speeches and presentation of the graduation certificates. Rose, Nicole, Kaiser and Stephan sang a very moving rendition of ‘A Million Dreams’ from The Greatest Showman and there was a wonderful video from Tony of his final A Level piece, bringing together his drawings and paintings inspired by his love of old films and Charlie Chaplin.
Joy Qiao, the Founder and Chairman, was unable to join us in person this year, but sent us a moving video message where she addressed the difficulties that our graduates have been facing this year and she offered some encouraging and motivational words for the 2022 graduates. She read a very famous speech made over 100 years ago by Theodore Roosevelt: “I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.” This certainly sums up the way that all pupils and staff at Wellington have handled the COVID situation this year and really shows how we all live by our values.
We hope that all our graduates will be happy and successful as they embark on their unique journeys, and we wish them all the best of luck as they move on. Remember: Once a Wellingtonian, always a Wellingtonian.