It was all smiles on 13 July, 2009 when the first crop of international students of MA. in Global Business Journalism program graduated. After two years of hard work, it was time for the graduates to put away their notebooks for gowns. It all happened in the company of their beloved ones and professors.

A total of five GBJ international students graduated this summer.

Paul Wong who spoke on behalf of his fellow graduates captured the mood of day well when he said, “We are here to celebrate what has been I believe for all of us, the most fruitful few years of our lives, not only academically, but the friendships we forged and the lifelong memories we shared. We will cherish this forever.”

The graduates’ journey started in fall 2007 when Tsinghua University in Beijing and the Washington, D.C.–based International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) launched the Global Business Journalism Program at Tsinghua, one of China’s most prestigious universities. The two-year master’s degree program, taught entirely in English, aims to produce top-quality journalists who can analyze international business and China’s place in the global marketplace.

The other partners of the reputable program include the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which supports other ICFJ international journalism fellowships. The largest initial contributor was the then financial services provider Merrill Lynch. Bloomberg, the financial news service, and the accounting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu are the other founding sponsors. The funders invested in a state-of-the-art journalism lab at Tsinghua that includes ten Bloomberg terminals that have subscriptions to international media outlets. The sponsors also host interns from the program and contribute in other ways. Merrill Lynch, for example, worked with Tsinghua to publish a glossary of financial terms and acronyms that will help Chinese and international reporters communicate using the same language.

Li Xiguang, the executive dean of Tsinghua’s School of Journalism and Communication is on record of having said, “The overall goal of the program is to create a cadre of top-notch business reporters and editors, who can produce clear, balanced and insightful coverage of China’s markets and the global economy.”

Indeed a new cadre was born on 13 July.