On the morning of September 9, Henan University (HENU) held an opening ceremony for the 2023 freshmen at Zhiyi Stadium on Jinming Campus. The opening ceremony was attended by the University’s leaders, such as Keping Lu, Suojiang Zhang, Zhen Tan, Yuchen Miao, Xiangdong Zhang, Liang Qiao, and some heads of functional departments. The participants also included teacher and student representatives, as well as all undergraduate and graduate students in the class of 2023. The ceremony was broadcast online. The opening ceremony was presided over by Vice President Zhen Tan.

At the ceremony, President Suojiang Zhang gave a speech titled “Following the Dream and Living Up to Youth” as the “First Lesson” for the new students of HENU. He said that entering a university was the most important turning point in a person's life, thus students must get ready to welcome new challenges in the level of higher education. He also shared three insights. First, students should have a dream and establish long-term goals. Second, students should work hard with confidence and conduct sophisticated learning to improve themselves under the guidance of their dreams. Third, students should strengthen the body and mind, and pursue excellence and good virtue in the process of realizing their dreams.

Professor Yunhe Li from the National Key Laboratory of Cotton Bio-breeding and Integrated Utilization spoke as a teacher representative, encouraging new students to improve their self-awareness, make good life plans, and cultivate innovative spirit.

Later, Zhiliang Jiang, a 2020 undergraduate student majoring in clinical medicine at the Medical School, and Shiyu Yang, a 2023 graduate student majoring in drama, film and television study from the College of Chinese Language and Literature, spoke as student representatives, encouraging the new students to study hard and make their future.

Keping Lu, secretary of the Party Committee, presented the flag to the head of the military training regiment. With the flag waving, the military training for the 2023 freshmen officially began.