The Cross-Cultural Internship Program (www.theccip.com) set the South Street Seaport Museum ablaze on Wednesday night with the glamorous closing ceremony as well as a new piece of unforgettable memory.

The annually closing ceremony is a crucial part of the Cross-Cultural Internship Program which celebrates both the success of CCIP 2012 and its 5th anniversary. It aims to appreciate the earnest support from the participating hosts, partner institutions and supporters, and of course, the participating students who turn every single idea of CCIP into reality. Earl Christianson Chua Ng, student from The Chinese University of Hong Kong took the role of emcees for the event.

To kick off the wonderful night, Marc Haken, President of the Friends of Cunningham Park, Inc., an honorary advisor of the program, first thanked and praised the students, and delivered a speech to support the program.

The speech-giving and participation of several government officials and representatives highlighted the whole event. Council Member Peter Koo, who is also one of the organizers of CCIP, and representative from District Council Member Mark Wreprin’s Office Veronica Ng were the first to hit the spotlight. They spoke to give their tremendous compliment to the program when were invited by Marc to the stage and sincerely presented a proclamation as to reconfirm the success of the whole program.

Next, representative from Comptroller John Liu’s Office Esther Yang and representative from Assemblyman Rory Lancman’s Office Sergey Kadinsky also gave their speeches, and presented a Commendation and a citation respectively.

Following the speeches from the honorable government officers, Mark Haken shared the appreciation from other officers who were absence Wednesday night with all the participants, including a proclamation from US Senator Charles E. Schumer, a citation from Assemblywoman Grace Meng and congratulation letters from US Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand and NY State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky. Marc Haken presented these appreciations to CCIP organizer, Elizabeth Kay, in respect of her successful work.

Emcee Earl Christianson Chua Ng came back to the stage afterwards and introduced guests who attended the celebration. Invited by Earl, Consul Yuin-Lyn Ng from Singapore Consulate delivered her speech. In representing of the consulate, she brought to students the congratulations and encouragements from afar.

The spotlight was then switched to the host supervisors. Group by group, all host supervisors were invited to the stage. Designed by Zhai Yue, a student form Macau University of Science and Technology, and handmade by Zhai Yue and other students, a pair of beautiful paper-cut birds which full of Chinese features were gifted to all host supervisors. Those gifts represented the thankfulness and gratitude from students to the hosts for providing the precious opportunities to step out a life-changing milestone. Students went up with their respective supervisors and took a group photo for memento.

Vive versa, Thea Goodman from Hamilton Madison House and Gene Eng from GC Eng & Associates, PC, hosts of the program, gave speeches on praising the students for their exemplary effort during the course of the program.

Fu Han, a student from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, then went on stage to give a speech on behalf of all participating students. He spoke about the many things he had learnt throughout the internship and thanked the hosts again for the opportunity they offered. He especially thanked to Ms. Elizabeth Kay and the many other people who had helped organize the program, and the Student Advisory Body who had volunteered to help organize numerous exciting weekend activities.

Without further ado, Assemblyman David Wreprin came into the ceremony, with his humorous speech and a citation from his office. The ceremony was excited by his appearance and speech.

To end off the night, the attendants were treated to a stellar dance performance by some students who had just formed a new dance group only since they got to know each other during CCIP. They worked hard to rehearse the performance during the free time in several exhausted nights. The ceremony was at its peak and wound up with the wonderful dancing show.

The closing ceremony might have marked the end of CCIP 2012, but the friendships forged, the memories, the laughter, the tears and the life lessons learnt are certainly unforgettable. The CCIP spirit lives on.