Tong and Shaun white
Tong Liu is an old face who is as well-known at UMPI as a sailor knows the open sea. Tong Liu comes from Beijing, the capital of China. He came to the University of Maine at Presque Isle to study five years ago. He will get his bachelor’s degree soon in May 2018 with a major in Professional Communication and Journalism and a minor in Business Administration.
Tong is the former president of UMPI’s International Students Club. Also, he is vice president of the campus’s University Times newspaper: he focuses on sports news. He is very proud that he will be the first international Asian student to graduate in the Professional Communication and Journalism program at UMPI. The most significant achievement during his UMPI studying life is that he received the award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Professional Communication and Journalism (2016-2017).
The most prominent reason Tong came to Maine is snow: he cannot live without snow. In China, he built an educational company for skiing and snowboarding. He was the final champion of the OAKLEY Air&Style Rookie Challenge. As a result, Oakley sponsored his snowboarding work in China. “If you cannot find Tong at UMPI, he must be snowboarding,” Nancy Tian, who also comes from Beijing, said with a smile. Tong is her first snowboarding teacher.
Tong’s father works for a famous media company in China and wants Tong to work for an international sports broadcaster. So Tong came to America on a mission to become a journalist and return home with strong English skills. Tong probably will continue and finish his master’s (business concentration) in Maine. He wants to keep his snowboarding business career when he goes back to China. Having additional business skills will be helpful. On the other hand, he would like to work for his father and focus on being a sports broadcaster.
“Best wishes and sincere congratulations on your graduation. May this special day be the commencement of the continued series of upward steps to future success,” Yang Liu, a good friend of Tong, who is a junior at UMPI, said. He gives Tong best wishes for the future. And we all hope Tong can take UMPI’s wings to fly as high as the sky.
