Yunnan University (YNU) student He Yongqun is recognized during a national video conference on entrepreneurship on May 13. She was the only entrepreneur to be selected to deliver a speech. [Photo/ynu.edu.cn]

Yunnan University (YNU) student He Yongqun was recognized at a national video conference on entrepreneurship on May 13 by being the only entrepreneur to be selected to deliver a speech. 

At the conference, it was stressed that more efforts should be made to help college graduates find jobs, start businesses, and cope with their working environment.

The student, surnamed He, was a YNU student who graduated with an MBA in 2018. 

She won praise from Sun Chunlan and Hu Chunhua, both vice-premiers of China’s State Council, as well as Zhang Guohua, vice-governor of Yunnan province, for her entrepreneurial successes and commitment to poverty alleviation. 

While He was pursuing a master’s at YNU, she founded a company for raising porcupines and helped residents living nearby find jobs at the company.

Her company provided jobs for 106 locals and offered training to more than 3,400 locals on how to raise porcupines. 

In 2016, He Yongqun secured a silver medal at the  third“Creating Youth” National Entrepreneurship Competition and was named “young leader of poverty-relief efforts in rural areas” by the Diqing prefecture committee of the China Communist Youth League.

In 2017, a movie based on He’s stories was produced by the Central Committee of the China Communist Youth League and a media company. He was also selected as one of China’s top 100 entrepreneurial college students.