Abstract: "Chinese college students of the year" are typical representatives of excellent college students. Through the text analysis of the exemplary deeds of college students of the year in the past 10 years, it is found that their growth path is characterized by firm faith, hard work, self-improvement, optimism, unity of knowledge and practice. These characteristics provide enlightenment for the exploration and cultivation of excellent college students in the new era. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the education of ideals and beliefs, inject the "calcium" of students' life-long sustainable development spirit, improve the quality of resource supply, create a high-quality environment that matches the growth demand of students, activate the driving force of independent growth, pay attention to special student groups, and deepen the balanced development of "all staff growth and diversified talent development".