In 2020, Covid-19 has affected hundreds of millions of people. In order to enhance efforts to prevent the spread of the disease, as required by the Ministry of Education (MOE), the Open University of China (OUC) recruited volunteers for this purpose, and sent eight teachers (Wang Jia, Gao Hui, Tu Chenyang, Wang Di, Wang Yu, Zhang Huiguang, Zhang Jingzhuo and Yang Jianliao) to work in the office of the MOE leading group dealing with Covid-19.

The eight volunteers worked with great passion and professionalism, and were brave, dedicated and practical in taking up their responsibilities. Their outstanding performance has been recognised by both the MOE and the university. Wang Jia was named Excellent Communist Youth League Member (MOE) and Excellent Communist Party Member (OUC) in 2019. Tu Chenyang was named an Excellent Communist Party Member (OUC) in 2019, Wang Yu an Excellent Communist Party Member (OUC) and Advanced Individual Fighting Covid-19 (OUC) in 2019, and Zhang Huiguang an Advanced Individual Fighting Covid-19 (OUC) in 2019.

The epidemic is a major public-health emergency that has spread quickly and over a wide range – the most severe such event since the founding of new China. Innumerable volunteers have emerged to fight it with courage and resolve, and OUC faculty have also realised that they have a personal responsibility, as educators, to take part. After a notice was issued by the university, the eight volunteers signed up, and with the support of their families and leaders rushed to their posts and became involved in helping control the epidemic within schools, putting into action the original mission of the Communist Party. Among the eight volunteers, two were born in the 1980s and six in the 1990s, and Zhang Jingzhuo and Yang Jianliao were newly hired in 2020. All of them have said that they feel lucky to have been selected by the MOE, and honoured to feel trusted by the OUC. They also feel proud as Party members, and promise to apply what they learned at the MOE to their work at the OUC, devoting their youth to its development.

The eight volunteers were brave in taking up their responsibilities, worked with dedication and efficiency, and remained on the front lines, contributing their youth and strength. Their work is a model of the spirit of Party members in the OUC system, and of the value OUC youth place on politics and conduct.

By Yi Xin,OUC