Chancellor Gordon, honoured guests, members of the Board of Governors and Senate, faculty, staff, alumni … and, most especially, graduands, your family and friends. Welcome.
It is my pleasure today to celebrate your success – to acknowledge the work that you have done, the lessons you have learned and the honour that you have earned by graduating from the University of British Columbia.
I would like to make two points today.
First, I want to address why we have so much hope for you and for your future – why UBC and society at large have so much invested in your success.
Second, I would like to speak to what I believe UBC still owes you. That’s right: What UBC owes you. I want to give you a sense of how committed we are to making you proud of your alma matter and to serving you in the future.
First: UBC has laboured for 100 years to establish itself as one of the top research universities in the world. And while I could point to a host of specific contributions that the university, its faculty and researchers have made to students and to our many communities, it is really you – our graduates – who walk into and around the world as the best evidence of our accomplishment.
People will judge UBC on the strength of your contribution – and standing here today, I am confident that our reputation will improve even more as a result.
For today, you join a global network of 300,000 alumni – people who have leveraged the education they earned here on the unceded lands of our aboriginal forebearers and have spread into the world, to work and discover – to build capacity wherever they go. You — we – all have the capacity to be a part of the solution to global challenges.
As a researcher and computer scientist, looking back at my own graduation, I could not have imagined that my study of mathematical models could one day help improve human health.
But when I started using mathematics to model proteins, it did not take long before I was applying that knowledge to better understand how some diseases and drugs might interact in the cell.
For me it was very exciting to build mathematical models to research challenges that, on the surface, had little obvious connection to math.
For you it may be about addressing income inequity through novel financial instruments – or coming up with a way of thinking about the environmental that gets us closer to global climate change solutions – or creating a new model for social interactions that leads to Internet tools unimaginable today.
The capacity to contribute emanates from every discipline. It arises from the content and knowledge that you have gained. It also comes from the learning that you have experienced, learning that gets at the heart of what it means to be human, that asks us to consider our place in the world and our are relationship to it. These are benefits of an excellent university education. Those are the benefits you take away from UBC and the aptitudes you will need most in your lives and careers.
Employers understand this already.
Look at the numbers: last year, just over 50% of working age Canadians had a post-secondary credential, but more than 80% of jobs for which there are currently worker shortages require a university degree.
So, as I say, society needs what you have; and we, at UBC, are invested in your success. You connect us across town, across the province, across Canada, and around the world. We can only achieve our potential if we do so, hand-in-hand, with you.
But just as we rely on you to represent UBC, you have a right to rely on UBC to continue to improve the value of your degree. We owe you a broad duty of care to pursue and ever-higher standard of excellence in everything we do. And we take a specific responsibility to make available the programs and educational support you will need in our rapidly evolving, knowledge-intensive world.
In what I hope will be the start of a lifetime of learning, know that UBC will be here for you at every juncture, with the support, and the programs you need for ongoing success.
Now, before I close, a moment of thanks. Thanks first, to you, for choosing UBC and for doing the work. You are only here today because you have earned your place.
I also hope that you, in cap and gown, will join me in thanking those who helped you reach this day – the friends and colleagues, the professors and mentors and, especially, the family members who have supported you every step of the way. They deserve our deepest gratitude and applause.
So, now, we send you into the world with hope and confidence. We send you believing in the UBC motto: “Tuum est” – it’s up to you and it is yours.
Take us with you as you go. We will always be proud and ever more ready to support you in all of your future endeavours.