Graduation Address

"'Making a Personal Difference,' Ceremony A." (19 May 2004). (UA Case 67, Box 4)

Your Honour, Mr. Chancellor, Mr. President, faculty, graduands, families, ladies and gentlemen. To be recognized by the very institution I had the honour to serve for six wonderful, challenging years is a singular honour. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generosity and exceedingly kind remarks. If only half of them are true, I am a fortunate woman indeed! Today as you have learned is UNB’s 175th Encaenia and it is a privilege and pleasure to become one of the graduates 2004!

Being on the other side of the ceremony however is a bit unsettling. For the years I served as President, I was the one conducting the ceremonies and now suddenly I find myself being the one honoured. Honestly I think it is easier to assume the ceremonial role and maintain relative anonymity. Spotlights have always unnerved me. Nonetheless I am deeply honoured and greatly pleased. Thank you all.

Encaenia is a very special day for us all. In the case of you, the graduating students, this marks the culmination of many years of effort, dedication and devotion to your studies. You have wisely made a significant investment in your future and are paused to reap your just rewards. As a group, we now become part of the body of almost 60,000 alumni with a lifelong and proud attachment to the University of New Brunswick with its rich and colourful history and enduring tradition of academic strength and excellence. Today we celebrate you, our graduates, your achievements and substantial accomplishments and we assure you that you have the ability to do or be whatever you dare. Today you have no restraints, no limits – it is your day and your future. Enjoy it.

My immediate task is to address Encaenia. Years of experience have taught me that the best message is a short one – something you can take with you and perhaps ponder later when the excitement of the moment has waned. Short, simple and to the point is always appropriate!

To do this, I mulled over a host of academic and business topics but instead, I decided to issue a challenge for the future. Specifically I urge you to dedicate part of yourself to making a difference – for other, for the environment, for public policy, for education, for music, or in just about any area where you can make a personal difference. If you haven’t done so already, find an activity or cause about which you can be passionate and involved, something where the application of your time and talent can make a true difference for others. We are all busy people and it is all too easy to attend to current demands and obligations. But this new investment is critical.

Let me set a bit of background for this challenge. Recently my husband, Archie, and I were extremely fortunate in being able to travel to Africa where we visited our daughter and her family in Malawi and went on to spend almost three incredible weeks in the immensely beautiful country of South Africa. It was, in all its aspects, an amazing voyage. It would take me days to tell you about all that we saw and learned. But several examples of people making a difference stand out.

Some seven years ago, our son-in-law and daughter pulled up stakes and moved to Malawi where Dr. Chris Brooks fulfilled a lifelong dream of establishing a medical clinic where local medical facilities are non-existent, to provide often lifesaving medical services for a people with minimal resources and a vast joy of life.

Chris and Heather have done just that by building a clinic in a remote area called Ngodzi on the shore of Lake Malawi where there exists neither running water nor electricity. Through their organization named Lifeline Malawi, they have funded and constructed several clinic buildings including an examination and treatment building where three nurses and Chris, the doctor, offer medical services to a steady stream of patients, many of whose primary illness is AIDS. It is stressful, exhausting and yet exhilarating. They plan to continue and expand Lifeline Malawi. In all respects, they and those who work with them are people who are making a difference. In their case, they have turned their lives upside down to save and improve lives and will go on doing it as long as they are able. I couldn’t do it, but thank God they are!

Then on to incredibly beautiful South Africa where we first visited game reserves that have preserved previously endangered species to the point where elephants, lions, cape buffalo, hippopotamus, and leopards among many other roam freely and in abundance. Magnificent awe inspiring animals roaming freely across the low veldt! While this is now clearly commercially advantageous, the initial efforts to protect the species came from recognition of an environmental threat and a desire to reverse that situation.

But the undeniable highlight of the trip was to be in South Africa on April 14th to experience the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the constitution which extended full democratic rights to all South Africans and to witness their national election being held peacefully and effectively. In all respects, this was democracy in action. People walked many kilometers to their local polling station and waited patiently in long lines and in their best clothes to exercise their hard earned right to vote. These are people who care deeply and were justifiably proud of exercising their vote.

If you had read Long Walk to Freedom, the autobiography of Former President Nelson Mandela or Crying in the Wilderness: The Struggle for Justice in South Africa by Bishop Desmond Tutu and others, you will have a sense of the enormity of the challenge. But until you see what this vast nation has accomplished in 10 short years and the hope and faith they hold for the future, you cannot fully appreciate the incredible achievement. True, far more is needed, but so very much ahs been accomplished and the pride South Africans’ have in their nation and their democratic rights is infectious. (Indeed we Canadians could use a good measure of such enthusiasm about now.) In all respects, those involved in the recent history of South Africa have made a real difference and are continuing to do so. I salute them.

Bringing this back to Canada and New Brunswick, our challenge is appreciably smaller and in my view eminently more achievable. It beings with thinking about ourselves a bit less often (but never thinking less of ourselves) and dedicating a portion of our lives to giving back to others. I promise you that a small initial effort will expand as you learn the joy of making a difference for others. Whether it be working for a political cause, becoming active in UNB’s Associated Alumni (a great thing to do), supporting a society for emotionally disturbed youth, volunteering at a food bank, or supporting an immense number of other organizations that could benefit from your involvement, being to "put back" or "give back" to the very society that has nurtured you – if indeed you are not doing so already. Make it a lifetime habit and experience the joy of making a difference for others.

Thank you for this singular honour. Being an official graduate of UNB means the world to me. I salute you, our graduates one and all and I wish you great success and joy in the future. I am honoured to be amongst you.