The opening ceremony of the 18th Foreign Language Festival of ZUCC and the final of the 13th English Speech Contest ended successfully on the evening of October 22. The theme of the contest was “The 40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening-up”. Contestants were required to talk on “Reform and Opening up: a Personal Perspective” and to explore the impact of the 40 years of reform and opening-up on the life of undergraduates of the millennial generation. The guests present at the speech contest were: Liu Chunxiang, Secretary of Party Committee of the School of Foreign Languages, Zhao Zhiyi, Executive Deputy Dean of the School of Foreign Languages, and Hong Lingmin, Director of the student affairs office of the School of Foreign Languages. Fifteen students gave brilliant speeches with confidence, arousing endless applause from the audience. Each student has their own unique perspective and opinion, be it cultural, political, economic or historical, there was never a lack of appeal to contemporary youth in their speeches. Contemporary college students are the backbone of the times and creators of the future. The future reform and opening up is in the hands of contemporary youth! At last, Wu Siyu and Pan Sheng won the first prize of the contest with high scores of 88 and 87.9 respectively.