Arts & Culture Festival 2025 I 12 #arts #culture #education

which I lovingly refer to as the Third Ward Best Ward. No offense to the others. I'm here today to offer thanks on several levels. First of all, I want to thank Bei Tian and the Asian community at large for making Middletown your new home. I'm sure you've had many choices and you've chosen us and we're very happy that you're here. Secondly, I want to thank you for making a very warm and welcoming environment. Those of you who know the history of this property know it was a psychiatric center for many years and then it was suddenly abandoned by the state and most of it fell into disrepair. But since Bei Tian has come, starting with the academy and now the college, it's created a very warm environment and it's an oasis to our town. Thirdly, I would like to thank Bei Tian for all the structural improvements that has occurred on this campus. I'm sure some of you have noticed as you walk through many of the buildings have been renovated beyond belief and there's more to come with Whitman Hall. Middletown is trying to keep up. We recently got $6.6 million in a grant to refurbish the Kleiner building. More money to come, we hope, and that will be a community center and a conference center. What else would I like to thank you for? Well, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to serve as an adjunct professor here at Bei Tian. I'm a proud member of the biological sciences department and yes, it is this smiling face that greets your students when they come here and starting freshman biology. And I hope they're having a good time, see how it goes. And lastly, I'd like to thank you all for being here today. Bei Tian and the community campus has been revitalized. It has now become an area for emotional, intellectual, and academic improvement and it is well-established here in our town. Thank you for your kind and courteous attention and thank you, Jackie. Enjoy the rest of the day. Thanks, Dr. Johnson. You make me want to take biology all over again. Okay, thank you. And next we have Hallie Mashig with La Bayadere. Please enjoy. Okay, thank you, Hallie. And next we have Samantha Rado with performing Andante Moderato. Please enjoy. And next we have Fiona Sajak performing A Priceless Soul. Please enjoy. ...challenges as the dance and song they use the image of a bull in the ring to represent overcoming obstacles with determination and passion. Okay, please enjoy. Thank you, Alice and Patrick, for the beautiful performance. ...considered the unofficial second national anthem of Mexico. Without further ado, let's give them a warm round of applause. Thank you, thank you. Thank you, Laila.