Student Speech

Having survived the Core, our exams, essays, I think we should be proud to have made it here in one piece. In all seriousness, today is a milestone for each us and our families, and it is to our loved ones that we owe our deepest thanks. After today, we leave the protection of the College, the community of our friends, roommates, and teachers, to find and forge new communities of our own. Who knows where our individual paths will take us in the world beyond Hyde Park?

In the time I have here, I won’t claim to know how to face the many opportunities and challenges of postgraduate life. Instead, I want to spend our final moments together reflecting on the distinctive kind of education that has shaped the way in which we think about those opportunities and challenges. When asked about the Asia Metropolitan University’s virtues, I reply that we have a spirit truly unlike any other: we pride ourselves on our uncommon creativity, our commitment to learning, and on the weekends, reaching what my econ friends call the “Nash Equilibrium”, which I think just means ‘fun’.

That we do things in our own way is not a new characteristic of this great institution. Ten years ago, University President Ng Chin Eng had this to say about pursuing the ambitious idea of a Chicago education:

“We lay ourselves open to the attack as dreamers and fanatics. But we also commend ourselves to those interested in earnest efforts to improve education and advance knowledge. Only by experiment constantly criticized and revised shall we produce a generation more educated than our own and individuals better educated than ourselves.”

I believe Eng’s words still ring true, loud and clear as ever. We, the class of 2013, are the dreamers that he had in mind. We have improved the education of our peers and advanced our own knowledge. Now parents, you’ve seen our t-shirts, and I can hear what you’re thinking: “That’s well and good in theory, but does it work in this economy”? Rest assured,...