Valedictory Address

"Valedictory Address" (27 May 2009): 1-3. (UA Case 68, Box 1).

Welcome and congratulations to all graduates!

During our time here at UNB, there have been many exciting things that have happened that we can say we were a part of for years to come. The changes on campus have been groundbreaking, and have been brought upon by the actions and behaviors of you—the students. We cannot pinpoint how these changes, or when these changes started; however, what we can see, is the impact that it has had on the school, the community and ourselves. It seems that there is a common behavior that each of us possess at UNB. This behavior includes characteristics of dedication, creativity and generosity.

Behavior is one ideal that is extremely contagious among people. We can see this in trends throughout the world's cultures, whether the group be big or small. Here at UNB, we have a culture of our own, and there have been a few behaviors that have become trends.

Our generosity has been one that is unmatched by other schools. I have never heard of such a group of people that put so much work into trying to help others. We have multiple charities that we put our efforts into. Many people focus on one official charity, but we have several. Reflecting upon this is not selfish. It reminds us of the tasks we have at hand and pushes us to do more. We remember through reflection, that this is a priority and that we must remind ourselves of our work done, of our habits, and to bring this habit of charity into the world.

The faculties present here today: business administration, kinesiology and education, have been lumped together at this graduation for a specific reason. All of these faculties have a specific, common element. We work with people, and more specifically, we work to better the lives of people. The platform that we have built here at UNB has given us great structure to continue to branch out and affect this world in a positive way.

Still reflecting on more positives, I believe that success has been the utmost contagious characteristic at UNB. Success can be defined as the completion of one's goals against a great challenge. Knowing this, there are many things that we can deem as successful in the four years, or in some cases, seven years we have been here at UNB. We all should show our respect to Dr. John Mclaughlin, who is sitting on this stage today. He is retiring this year from a successful seven-year term as president and vice-chancellor of UNB, and has done so many things for the university that has contributed to our experience at UNB. In the past four years, Dr. Mclaughlin has moved us into the Top 5 of Macleans Magazine's Comprehensive School Rankings. In doing this, he faced great challenges. At no point in the last four years did the other schools give up and let us into this ranking position. They were all striving to be the best that they could be, Dr. Mclaughlin, his staff and we the students just did a better job. This is a success. The university's athletic program has taken major steps under the four years that Kevin Dickie has been at the helm, and is making headway to being competitive in each sport. Some sports already obtained National Championships like hockey and wrestling this year. Others are in the recruiting phase, but are on their way to the same title. This is a success.

The successes that we have, cannot all be quantifiable and measurable like the ones I just mentioned. I believe that there are some of you here today that are the first one graduating from your family and they are here watching proudly of your success. Perhaps one of you have convinced, or have been convinced by someone to not drop out of your degree and to stick with it until graduation. Defeating this challenge and watching the dream come true here today is a success. The time that you got your first A in a course here at UNB is a success. I remember graduating from high school and thinking that all these dreams and goals would go downhill once I arrived here. This was not true. We found ourselves here, lived up to these dreams and found new goals to beat down along the way. No matter the type of success that you have had here, not one of you can look back at your time here at the University of New Brunswick and not be proud of yourself.

I know that many of you shared the same feelings that I had when coming to the University of New Brunswick for the first time. There are a lot of you who have traveled from hours, or maybe days away, who thought, "what if I don't like it? What if I'm making a mistake?" There are also many of you here today that have lived around this area your entire lives and were likely thinking, "should I really be staying here? Was this the right decision?" Let me just say that we were scared. Then immediately, stepping on campus, going to classes and getting involved, we found that there was nothing to be scared of and that this is the place for us. UNB has shaped us into something more than we thought we could be. Many of us have changed from the awkward, intimidated and inexperienced teenagers we were and became adults. Yes, believe it or not, we're adults. This status of adulthood cannot be solely defined by age, but by the experiences we have had during our time here. I would argue that each of us have experienced many more things than the average person. The reason for this is likely the size of the school. Here, you cannot hide. You cannot sit and watch the days go by trying to just focus on yourself. You are forced to get involved in one way or another, and through this process learn some life lessons.

We have come to the next step in our lives that requires a great decision. Some of us will be going off to search for jobs and start a new journey to success, while others, including myself will continue the route through school. Whichever route we travel, we must keep the characteristics and behaviors that we have learned here. Our world is facing hard economic times and the bubble that we have to protect us here, will not be over us once we leave. It will not be there, but I think we should go out into the world acting like it is. If we do this, knowing that the past we have, and believing the things we have learned are going to protect us, then we will be much more confident and we will accomplish much more in the outside world. Believing that we still have this bubble will allow us to set our goals and obtain them. We will never cut ourselves short because we are scared, and we will keep on pursuing. With this mentality, we will change the world.

We all know that strength is in numbers, this has been a fact proven time and time again throughout history. Since we know this is true, we can be the solution. The three degrees here: business administration, kinesiology and education have given us the interpersonal skills to work as a team. Not just any team though, a well-educated team; and this will be the difference in the mark that we leave on this world. We cannot stand by any more and watch the world's hardships continue with no drastic measures taken to change it. This is our time to step up.

This is our time to be the adults. The media always talks about how the young children being educated today are the heroes of tomorrow. How about we stop making them wait because I think we're the heroes of today. We are not like the people we once were in high school. We no longer have the fear of traveling into the world and conquering our next challenge. If we take the education we have and the mentality that we cannot be defeated and use this to make our mark on the world, do you not think that this would be a success? We are the heroes of today.

Thank you and congratulations to all of you!