Chapter 325: The Rapidly Developing Drake Advanced Academy

Drake Senior Academy has been very active recently. As the president and vice president of the student council, Xiao Wei’er and Lilith always secured excellent conditions for all official clubs, even inviting well-known industry professionals from Drake City to guide them.

For anyone they invited, after agreeing on a time, Drake Senior Academy would send out an official invitation letter, provide special carriage transport, and require a complete process.

Accompanied by school teachers, they would give a public lecture that all students could attend, especially those in related majors, for whom it was mandatory. Since each guest was an authority in their respective field, almost every class was overcrowded, and even large lecture halls had to limit attendance. Students had to register and pass an audit in advance to enter each class.

After the lecture, there was a Q&A session for the guest expert, students, and teachers. If lucky, students could even get autographs from these prominent figures.

A simple lunch would be held at noon, followed by a session for the clubs and guest experts in the afternoon. During this time, these professionals, who had already entered society, would give some realistic education to these fledglings who had not yet left the ivory tower. Most of the time, these seasoned veterans would put the students through their paces, providing much amusement for onlookers, but the club members also gained a lot of experience.

Finally, every guest expert who came to the school to share their experience would leave a calligraphy piece in a newly built Message Hall. Below it, the school would record details such as “Expert XX, at XX time, visited our school for XXX,” which served as a form of mutual publicity.

However, it was not easy to have one’s calligraphy displayed in this Message Hall for a long time. Generally, newcomers could have theirs up for a week, those with greater renown for a month, and the calligraphy of active power holders, such as Count Bordeaux or Vice Minister Letkendal, would remain until they left.

Ordinary people, once their time was up, would have their pieces moved to the exhibition halls of their respective departments, or directly into storage, to be brought out again only when these experts made big news.

The entire process was tracked and recorded by reporters from the ancient city, ensuring a prominent mention in the Drake Morning Post the next day. This was a win-win situation and one of the reasons these guest experts were willing to come, as it provided significant publicity for their current careers and satisfied their vanity.

Gradually, a peculiar sentiment emerged in Drake City: anyone who had not received an invitation from Drake Senior Academy and had not left their calligraphy in its Message Hall was not considered a top expert. This greatly frustrated those top experts who had previously considered themselves too important to participate in what they saw as child’s play.

However, if people of similar standing had all visited, and you hadn’t, it wasn’t because your skill was lacking, but rather that your character was looked down upon. It was well-known that Drake Senior Academy stated that all invited experts were carefully selected, and their professional knowledge and personal character were thoroughly vetted before an invitation was extended.

Later, whenever the Drake Senior Academy student council announced that a club in a certain major wanted to invite a guest expert to impart knowledge, they no longer needed to personally go through great lengths to invite them. People would proactively come forward to offer their services, and often it wasn’t just one person. Drake Senior Academy, in turn, had to carefully balance its choices to avoid offending anyone.

Thus, what began as a single guest expert tackling one club evolved into a group of experts ganging up on student clubs.

Some more astute professionals came up with a brilliant idea: guest teachers. They directly listed their names with Drake Senior Academy, pledging to teach two or three professional courses each month, not for money, but for reputation.

This had a significant impact; the list of teachers at Drake Senior Academy expanded by more than a third. This was even after negotiations and streamlining. The guest teachers listed were all over fifty, with the oldest being a woodcarving master nearing his ninetieth birthday, who was brought to Drake Senior Academy by his disciples and grand-disciples.

There was no other way; their school of thought couldn’t compete with others, so they had to bring out their most revered figure to barely avoid being outdone.

And you know what? Some elderly people were not happy living at home, constantly bothered by trivial family matters. But at school, facing a group of energetic, vibrant, and incredibly positive children every day, with all the bothersome issues excluded, they actually became very content.