Message to the Graduates (Advance,Unite and Reach out)

by Randy Tudy

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62223880@N00/

Advance, unite and reach out.  These were my introductory words when I spoke this afternoon for the opening remarks of the Alumni Acceptance Ceremony for the graduating students of our college and graduate school departments.  Let me share to you my points.

Advance.  Graduation is a testament that students excel in their chosen course.  If not, they would not be able to make it.  They might not be all Cum Laude awardees but they are all winners for achieving their dreams.  Moreover, graduation is also called a commencement exercise.  It means to begin.  Graduation is not the end as what students would say “thanks, it’s finished.”  Commencement means beginning a new life.  What does it mean?  It means excellence in their field.  They are trained and formed in school so that in the field they will excel and perform of what is expected and even go beyond.  Graduates are agents of excellence.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22177648@N06/

Unite.  One of my inspirations as a post-graduate student before were my classmates.  I was inspired and motivated to go on because we had a good bonding with each other.  In other words, I found a community.  I found a family.  I suppose all students experience this in one way or another. A school is really a community or big family.  After leaving the portals of their alma matter, graduates are called to bring the experience of a community to their family, workplace and society.  In other words, they are called to become builders of community.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/67318348@N00/

Reach out.  The last words of the priest during the mass are “Go in the peace and the love of Christ.”  It is the commissioning part of the mass.  Graduation or Alumni Acceptance Ceremony is actually a commissioning event, hence, a commencement exercise.  As graduates, who are formed according to the vision, mission, goals and values of the school, they are called to reach out to others especially the least, the last and the lost.  Graduates are called to be agents of God’s love and compassion to other people in need.

I ended up my talk with these words, “Give justice to the blessings God has given you.”