Dear Alumni,

The 10^th anniversary celebration of our overseas alumni association is rapidly approaching. As board members and co-chairs of the award nomination committee, we would like to invite you to be a part of this event and the XYOAA community, if you are not already.

We understand that not everyone can attend the event in Houston; however, every alumnus can be part of the community and celebration by responding to the call from your fellow alumni, or talking and exchanging information and ideas with your local alumni. Now there is another thing you can do: to help the association identify outstanding alumni that you believe deserve recognition. Thanks for our alumni who have already submitted nominations, but we still need more.

We promise the nomination is open to everyone, and the final selection will be fair and representative of our alumni. You should be able to see the list of nominees and their profiles on the website in a few weeks before the final selection later in October. To reach that goal, we need people from various classes, regions and specialties to get involved. While each time we can only recognize a few of these alumni, they will form a powerhouse of individuals who will energize the growth and development of Xiangya Medical School and its affiliated hospitals, pave the future of XYOAA, and serve as role models for the young generations.

XYOAA is dedicated to serving the overseas alumni and Xiangya Medical School through exchanges of information, knowledge, ideas and expertise. We need everyone’s help to continue this effort year after year. Please visit our website () to see XYOAA’s accomplishments over the past years and our upcoming events in celebration of the 30^th anniversary of the graduation of the class’77. We are all grateful for the education we received at Xiangya, and in return we are all willing to help our alma mater. Xiangya needs your help, as stated by Dean Tao Lijian. With your help, Xiangya can maintain its leading role in medical research, education and patient care in China, not limit to Hunan, and become one of the world’s first class medical institutions. While each individual can only make limited contributions, we can surely make a much bigger difference if we work together.

Thank you for your consideration and help.

With regards,

Gary Xingguang Zhou, ’78

Jason Ming Zhao, ’77