Good morning

It is a pleasure and a privilege to be able to address you, the Graduating Class of 2024, on this, your day of days, and to share in your success and achievements. I congratulate each and every one of you. You came, you saw, and you conquered, and today, I celebrate this milestone with you.

I also congratulate you, the staff and faculty of the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies, for your guidance and commitment to your students’ accomplishments. I congratulate you, as well, for choosing such a fitting and thought-provoking theme for this year’s graduation — “Resiliency and Excellence: Charting New Paths.” It is a theme which I believe is quite apposite, not just for our graduates and this institution and its students, but also, for the country as a whole.

Resiliency and excellence are qualities that are essential for navigating life and for achieving one’s goals. Permit me to share with this morning, you some of my reflections on these qualities. Let me begin, first, by speaking about resiliency, and by sharing my understanding on what I believe resiliency truly is—and what it is not.

Resiliency is not about putting on a brave face and smiling through every single hardship in life. It is not about passively accepting or enduring difficulties or delays without resistance. Resiliency is also not about avoiding challenges or pretending they don’t exist when they arise. Rather, at its core, resiliency is the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties. It is about being flexible, adaptable and committed to finding ways of moving forward, when it seems like all options have been exhausted. Sometimes, it involves tears of frustration and feelings of anger. Always, it involves a can-do, must-do, and will-do attitude. True resiliency recognises that, while we cannot always control what happens to or around us, we do have control over how we respond inside of us.  Resiliency, I think, is not always something that we are born with – very often, it is learned through experience, struggle and practice.

Now, let us turn to excellence – and once again, let me share my understanding of what I believe excellence truly is—and what it is not.

Excellence is not just about being outstanding or extremely good. It is also not about chasing an abstract, unattainable concept of perfection. Excellence is not limited to academic achievements or high grades.

Rather, excellence is about constantly pushing the boundaries of what you believe it is possible for you to achieve. Excellence is having a commitment to continuous improvement. It is a relentless quest for betterment. It is the aspiration to perform at the level of one’s highest abilities. It is the driving force behind progress and innovation.

Resiliency and excellence share important commonalities. They are both salutary qualities essential for personal growth. They both require hard work and dedication. They both cannot be achieved by wishful thinking or by accident; rather, they are cultivated through experience, practice and conscious effort. More than just traits, they are mindsets—ways of seeing and responding to the world. And perhaps most importantly, they are choices—choices that have the power and potential to shape us as individuals and to determine our future.

When it comes to resiliency and to excellence, I believe that we have, in our graduates here today, perfect models of both.

For example, I am told that you have endured severe disruptions and substantial challenges over the last four years. I am sure that these included the catastrophic effects of COVID. I am also told that almost two-thirds (⅔) of you are female; that the largest age cohort of graduates this year is between the ages of 35 and 50; and that 97% of you have been part-time students. Those are very significant demographics. Although we live in a world that is rightly far more welcoming of female distinction than in times gone by, there remain vestiges of the old boys’ network in our society today. These vestiges can and often do stifle female achievement – yet, two-thirds (⅔) of you who graduate today, are female.  For those who are in the age 35 and 50 demographic, and who have been part-time students, you have likely had to balance the demands of full-time employment and family responsibilities while also pursuing your studies.

It has taken resiliency and an unbending commitment to excellence, for you to get to this point. In spite of the disruptions and difficulties, you persisted. You persevered through late nights, long lectures, and countless hours of study. You chose to commit yourselves to the arduous journey of self-improvement and to perform at the highest level of your abilities. You chose to be resilient in the face of difficulties. And having made that choice, you have achieved excellence at Cipriani College.

When it comes to resiliency and to excellence, I believe that we also have a model of both in  the story of Cipriani College itself—a place that has continually adapted, evolved, and risen to meet the needs of its students and the broader community. Like you, this institution has faced its own challenges, yet has remained resilient. And like you, it has striven to achieve excellence in all areas. I believe that the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies stands as a shining example of what resiliency and excellence can achieve. It was founded in 1966 with the mission of providing trade union training, worker education, and research on labour issues.

That was 58 years ago. Since then, the College has grown from strength to strength, evolving into a tertiary education institution and becoming a driving force in advancing social justice, promoting decent work, and contributing to the development of the local and regional workforce.

Take for example your curriculum, which has continued to evolve in tandem with the changing needs of the workforce. Today, the College offers a range of full-time and part-time certificate, diploma, associate, and bachelor’s degree programmes across multiple disciplines – including six (6) different types of Bachelor’s Degrees; three (3) different types of Associate of Arts Degrees; and four (4) different types of Associate of Science Degrees. What started as a two-year diploma in Labour Studies has grown to include one-year certificates, short courses, and specialised programs in Industrial Relations and related fields, and even the integration of education and training in co-operative studies into the curriculum in 1972. In February 1996, this institution underwent a name change which reflected its expanded mission and offerings.  

These achievements – and the pursuit of a new and evolving path for Cipriani College -could only have been attained through a commitment to resiliency and excellence. It was made possible because of this institution’s willingness to adapt to the changing economic and educational landscape and its commitment to providing the best possible educational products.

It seems to me that there is a beautiful alignment between the resilience and the excellence that have characterized your journey as graduates, and the resilience and the excellence that have characterized the College’s journey. Each, it seems to me, reflects the other.

Indeed, I find it especially fitting that this institution bears the name of one who could be said to have embodied both resiliency and excellence and whose life and legacy helped pave many new paths. The College is named after Captain Arthur Andrew Cipriani, the “champion of the barefoot man.” A man who dedicated his life to advancing many progressive social and political causes. A man who chose not to accept difficulty or ignore injustice, but rather committed himself to finding new ways of besting every challenge that came his way. He was an individual whose advocacy and service ran the rails of excellence as he consistently worked to the benefit of all.

I believe that, having graduated from this College, this is the kind of example that you should all now follow. Your resilience and your commitment to excellence have taken you to this point, and you deserve every ounce of congratulations for having got to this point. But life will never be without its challenges and difficulties. They hobble all of us. What was required to overcome the challenges and difficulties you faced during your period of study at the College, and to achieve the excellence that you rightly celebrate today, is precisely what will be required to navigate the challenges and the difficulties that lie ahead. You will need to press on when it seems impossible to do so. You will need to pull your heads above the water when the very weight of your own body is dragging you down. You will need to strain towards the light, when all around you is darkness. You will need to fight, and never surrender.

If you do this – when you do this – I promise that you will begin to approach excellence. You will achieve your personal goals and you will rightly reap the rewards of your resilience. I say that you will ‘begin to approach’ excellence because, as fulfilling and as rewarding as achieving personal goals can be, true excellence also involves contributing to the well-being of others. ‘Giving back’ is an indispensable element in the ecosystem of excellence – it shores up the broader community, and makes it possible for others to rise, as those who have given back have risen. It creates a self-sustaining cycle of increasing levels of capacity-expansion, which ultimately leads to improved circumstances and opportunities for the whole society. Captain Cipriani not only understood this – he lived it.

My plea to you, our graduates, is for you to understand what Captain Cipriani understood, and to live what Captain Cipriani lived – a life of resilience born through single-minded dedication; and of excellence born through giving back at the level of your highest abilities. When we give back at the level of our highest abilities, the entire society prospers. This is why I said, at the start of this address, that the theme of “Resiliency and Excellence: Charting New Paths” is quite apposite, not just for our graduates and this institution and its students, but also, for the country as a whole.

I am grateful for the example of resilience and excellence provided by our graduates today. I am grateful for the example of resilience and excellence provided by this College. And I am grateful for the examples of resilience and excellence provided by all those who choose to give back to our country at the level of their highest abilities. In my gratitude, I imagine what would happen if the entire nation adopted a mindset of resiliency and excellence. Not only would we be able to address and overcome every challenge that comes our way; we would become unstoppable.  

Graduates, faculty and staff of the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies, our nation would do well to learn from you. I encourage you to continue embracing resiliency and excellence, and to continue charting new paths ahead. I encourage you to continue blazing trails of excellence in every sphere of endeavour.

I extend my heartfelt congratulations to you once again and wish you all the best in your journeys ahead.

Thank you.