China is all ears to deaf student's heartwarming graduation speech

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There was a touching moment during a graduation ceremony at Shanghai's East China University of Science and Technology on Friday morning. The audience applauded all the students' speeches, but one earned a longer and warner response than the rest.

As shown by viral video footage circulating online, the speaker opened her address with the words "I am a deaf person, and my sound is a bit abnormal, but I will try my best to enunciate every word, please forgive me."

Speaking with difficulty, the young woman's bravery caught everybody's attention.

Gao Yuye on campus /The Paper Photo

Thepaper.cn identified her as Gao Yuye, 23 years old and congenitally deaf. According to its report, both Gao's parents are deaf and mute. After she was born, her grandma found that she did not respond to any sound. Doctors could not find a cure, and sent her to a rehabilitation training center when she was three.

With her grandma’s support, Gao went to school as a normal child. She was able to complete her basic education through hard work and was admitted to university to major in art and design in 2013.

Gao's prize-winning work /The Paper Photo

During her four years of college life, Gao earned a scholarship and won a number of awards for her work.

She said she now wants to study sign language and art in the United States. After that, she is eying a career teaching art and design to the deaf.

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