On the occasion of the 16th President University Graduation Ceremony, hosted today in Jababeka (Indonesia), I have had the honour to address this distinguished audience. You can watch my speech in the event recording, available in the following link, from minute 41.40 to minute 51.15:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uit22YMXiGw&t=3007s
Nevertheless, its text follows:
Dear Rector and other leaders of President University. Dear faculty and staff members, dear students, graduates, relatives and friends who have joined us in this memorable event. Distinguished audience:
Firstly, let me express my sincere gratitude to Dr Jony Oktavian Haryanto for the honour of having invited me to address you in this so special ceremony of graduation. It is always special, but even more in the current circumstances, when the pandemic still demands precautions to all of us to stay safe and healthy. However, this exceptionality, together with your generosity and the new technologies, has granted me the opportunity to go back, although remotely, to a higher education institution that is in my memory and heart since I served as a visiting professor there in 2017. It was not a too long period, but I feel it was fruitful. Undoubtedly, this experience was intellectually enriching for me and resulted in a high appreciation for your University, your country and its people.
This short message is particularly devoted to PU' students and its new graduates. Unavoidably, your years in this respected University have left a deep mark on you. Please be always grateful to those who have allowed you to grow as a person and as a professional. Do not forget that PU will be always part of you, a place where you can find support for your career development. Please come back when you can; your simple visit will be a blessing for those who serve there. Feel always part of this educational community.
In this still pandemic time, when everybody around the world is trying to envisage how the post-covid-19 time will look like, I would want to convey to you three messages:
*The first is about uncertainty, which can easily lead us to confusion and paralysis. We live in uncertain times, that is clear, but please do not let fatalism guide you and do not give up influencing your future. Indonesia and humanity as a whole have many big challenges ahead, and this means opportunities for you all. Thinking forward instead of backward, the critical matter is to know where those opportunities are and be prepared for harnessing them. For instance, those that relate to the new wave of technology disruption (the so-called industry 4.0), the mitigation of climate change, the transition to a circular economy, the struggle in favour of sustainability, and so on. Bear in mind, dear students and graduates, that your university is a major ally for gaining the future you are called to build up.
*The second message is about self-resiliency and learning. At your age, do not be too concerned if you make mistakes: if you fall, you will stand up. This is your resilience capacity, which will lead you to become a better person and professional because of what you learned from those experiences. Choose a good mentor to follow, and ask for advice if needed. Do not feel alone: look for the support of others who share the same worries. Do not abandon yourselves to the inertia towards isolation, division and non-sharing.
Resilience has been conceptualised as the “ability to survive or even thrive in times of crisis”, and that resilience is inside each of you. Stop and think for a moment: the pandemic has made things more difficult and tested that ability. However, the result is that you are here today: your dream has come true and you are now a graduate. Therefore, please do not underestimate the abilities you have cultivated during your studies, although this process has no end. Just be aware that your learning agility is essential in the changeable world we live in, and that this level of dynamism demands large doses of creativity and flexibility as well.
*And the third message is about some lessons learned from the pandemic, perhaps discarding old ways of doing things and adopting new ones after questioning our basic assumptions and rules. In this sense, I would suggest, firstly, combining tenacity and humility, since this disaster has reminded us how fragile we are and how limited our capacity of controlling the results of our decisions is. So, listen to others, empathize and collaborate with them. Secondly, show solidarity with your community, help others, do good for them. Finally, put people at the centre of everything you do: things should be done with them to benefit them. In my view, these three core values have gained renovated importance and cannot be absent in our process of learning.
To conclude, take the example of Melati and Isabel Wijsen, the Indonesian teenage sisters who campaigned to ban plastic bags in Bali. In their TED talk in London in September 2015, Isabel said: "One day we had a lesson in class where we learned about significant people, like Nelson Mandela, Lady Diana and Mahatma Gandhi. Walking home that day, we agreed that we also wanted to be significant. Why should we wait until we were grown up to be significant? We wanted to do something now". Their determination was very exciting, isn’t it? Please open your minds and allow this inspiration to reach you.
Thank you very much for your kind attention. Receive my heartfelt congratulations and best wishes. Enjoy this special day and, please, keep dreaming, dreaming big. Afterwards, live your dream. I hope this can help. Bye for now, with Dr Ajay (Chauhan) also in my memory.
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