Class 20 of the Graduate Program of the Department of Earth System Science (DESS), Tsinghua University, won the honor of “Advanced Graduate Student Collective of Tsinghua University” in the academic year of 2021-2022.

Class 20 of the Graduate Program of the DESS, Tsinghua University, consists of 26 doctoral students in ecology of diverse backgrounds, including 15 party members, 2 activists and 9 students without party affiliation. Faced with the diverse needs of students, DESS Graduate Class 20 actively carried out diverse activities through the new mode of “Rubik’s cube” multi-dimensional integrated collective development, guided by the idea of Party building and prioritizing moral education. Through professor-student dialogue, peer support, physical education and aesthetic education, we are building DSS Graduate Class 20 into a “magic cube”.

How to build the class collective into a "harbor" where students can relieve their pressure has been the focus of the class work since its inception. Through the new mode of “Rubik’s cube” multi-dimensional integrated collective development, organizing activities with “520” characteristics is  the solution to this problem. "520" comes from a "romantic commitment": meeting at 20 o'clock every Friday night to carry out activities together. The students of DESS Graduate Class 20 deem each activity as a small piece of the Rubik's Cube, and takes each dimension as a side of the Cube. In this way, from a piece to a side and from a side to a cube, a multi-dimensional integrated form of building the collective of “DESS Graduate Class 20” has been developed.

Group photo of DESS Graduate Class 20 at the time of enrollment

   Ideas for activities with “520” characteristics

Guided by party building and prioritizing moral education

At the organizational life meeting every semester, during the session of criticism and self-criticism, students always mention the problem of insufficient theoretical study. Therefore, DESS Graduate Class 20 has summed up the approach of "promoting learning through examination". The Party branch defines the key points of study, and at each organizational life meeting examinations are organized to help students identify the deficiency of theoretical study. From the initial results of failure for many students to the present stably rising average score, the exam question bank of the Party branch is expanding, and the theoretical knowledge reserve of each party member is gradually rising. By "reading original works, studying original works and understanding fundamental principles", party members of DESS Graduate Class 20 lead other students to combine independent learning and collective learning and make common progress.

In addition, how to realize the connection between "promoting learning by examination" and "promoting doing by learning" is also a question that the DESS Graduate Class 20 has been exploring. In the light of the practice of doctoral training, DESS Graduate Class 20 has adopted the approach of combining ideological study with professional study. For example, while studying the history of the party, DESS Graduate Class 20 organizes a collective study of department history and earth system science knowledge, and holds such activities as competitions on knowledge about the department history. In addition, DESS Graduate Class 20 has visited Shanghai, Weihai and other places to study revolutionary history of the party. At the same time, the class has also visited and investigated local practice bases related to earth system science, boosted the understanding of national strategies, and enhanced the love for their specialty, thus ensuring that everyone has a sense of fulfillment in organizational life to the greatest extent and developing ideological consensus.

The DESS boasts a rigorous academic atmosphere. DESS Graduate Class 20 actively shares relevant academic consultation, and encourages students to actively participate in academic activities such as "Noon Canteen", "Qingxin Lectures" and "National Prize Sharing Meeting". Discussions and exchanges around major national strategic decision-making issues such as "carbon peaking” and "carbon neutrality" have improved the students' sense of faith and mission in research on earth system science. In the past year, many cases of interdisciplinary academic exchanges and cooperation among students emerged in DESS Graduate Class 20, who leverages the collective strength to promote interdisciplinary research and collision of research ideas. Students participated in the publication of many high-quality papers, including 13 first-author papers and 22 second-author or co-author papers, which solidly demonstrated the outstanding academic performance of DESS Graduate Class 20.

Students from DESS Graduate Class 20 actively share their research progress.

DESS Graduate Class 20 also pays close attention to guiding students to cultivate their awareness of career planning. At the beginning of the academic year, the class committee learned from a questionnaire that students had an "information gap" in terms of employment, lacked a platform for exchanging information about employment, and had different needs. Therefore, DESS Graduate Class 20, with the "520" meeting as the carrier, provides diversified internship and employment services to different students. According to their employment intention and information demand, activities are held at least once every two months through employment sharing, alumni interview and dialogue, grass-roots unit internship and other forms to basically meet the students demand for information on employment.

Sports and art education

DESS Graduate Class 20 fully carries forward Tsinghua University’s sports spirit, initiates outdoor sports in "520" special activities, and build teams of table tennis, badminton, snooker and running. In addition, fun group activities such as throwing sandbags and Frisbees are also students' favorites. These low-threshold, quick-start and interesting sports not only relieve students’ pressure in study and life, but also enhance the solidarity of the class. The reward for reporting attendance in the activity groups also enhances the interest. At present, over 90% of the members of our class participate in these physical exercises.

Art education activities, such as the selection of "the most beautiful work station", watching movies on holidays, and drawing maps of the campus road network, enable the students to "discover, appreciate, and create beauty", help them experience the existence of beauty in a down-to-earth way, and integrate art and beauty into their lives.

 Colorful sports and art activities of DESS Graduate Class 20

Education through labor and volunteer activities

Seeing that the labor awareness in the class needs to be strengthened, DESS Graduate Class 20 has carried out special labor education activities such as trimming vegetables for a canteen on campus and cleaning public spaces, when the temperature dropped sharply in Beijing to 10 degrees below zero. After two hours' work, the students' hands and feet were freezingly cold. This challenging experience brought the students a better understanding of the hardships that workers in the canteen undergo for preparing food and the necessity of  the "Clear Your Plate" campaign. After the activities, all the students said that they had been educated, hoped that labor education activities would be carried out regularly, and expressed their willingness to recommend the activities to students around them.

Students of DESS Graduate Class 20 are also frequently found in special volunteer activities such as the celebration of centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the Beijing Winter Olympics and nucleic acid testing, as well as activities in the department such as recruiting new students for summer camps and orientation for new students. In the Beijing Winter Olympics that has just concluded, Liu Shigan, a student from DESS Graduate Class 20, participated in the air quality assurance project, applying her solid knowledge in this discipline. The Zhangjiakou Ecological Environment Bureau and the Beijing Ecological Environment Monitoring Center specially sent a letter of thanks to the department. Zhang Yutong and Li Miao took an active part in volunteer services such as the performance of the Winter Olympics pacesetters and external liaison, and their services lasted for over 300 hours.

DESS Graduate Class 20 will continue to carry forward Tsinghua's tradition of "being both socialist-minded and professionally competent and developing in an all-round way", learn from each other's strong points and constantly make breakthroughs to realize the common growth of individuals and the collective.

Written by Class 20, DESS Graduate Program