“At this stage, these caps and gowns represent more than academic achievement. They represent potential, possibility, and purpose. While we seize this day for its significance to us individually, let us not stop at the celebration, but let us keep the fire of the achievement burning so that we can take whatever we have learned and use it, not just to build a career, but to build a life – a life of meaning, a life of purpose, a life that matters.”
“The world we are stepping into is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (UNPredictable, fast-changing, and sometimes overwhelming.) But it is also full of promises. The future is not something we wait for — it’s something we must shape.”
“So, let’s do our share in shaping it with courage, with compassion, with integrity. Let us be bold in our ideas, but humble in our hearts. Let us be proud of where we’ve come from and excited about where we are going. And let the words of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke resonate: “there is only one journey. Going inside yourself.”
“Let us trust that journey. Let us honor it. And let us walk together, with heads held high and hearts wide open.”
Cluster III Valedictorian
