Some 1605 students graduated on Saturday from the University of Guyana Turkeyen’s Campus and were urged to remain and serve their country.
On Saturday, thousands of family members and friends crammed the University’s tarmac for the 48th Convocation Ceremony. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, Education Minister Priya Manickchand and Health Minister Dr Bheri Ramsaran.
The best graduating student for the 2014 class was a Business Management student who secured a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 4.0. An elated Joel Samuel Joseph was presented with the President’s Medal for being the best graduating bachelor’s degree student.
In his valedictorian speech, Joseph told the gathering a story of when he was in his first year at the university.
He related that he was a mere three weeks into being a university student when he lost his calculator in a massive classroom. He said he had asked the lecturer that day to make an announcement about his lost calculator. The embarrassment was endless, he said, and so he made it his primary focus not to be remembered as the boy who had lost his calculator in the first year.
His motivation pushed him to maintain a high GPA and saw many long nights on the campus studying.
Joseph advised the government to ensure incentives are in place for graduates in order to encourage them to stay in Guyana and make a contribution. He also stated that Guyanese should accept responsibility for Guyana’s future development and make their contribution.
Ambassador Irwin La Rocque, Secretary General of CARICOM, congratulated the graduants on the successful completion of their degrees and urged them to remain in their country and serve their people.
He said, “You have worked hard and you have earned your reward, however, as you bask in the glow of this day, I invite you to think of today not as the end of something but as the beginning of something…it is a turning point,” he said.
He stated that the graduates were among the less than 15 % in the region with a university degree.
Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Jacob Opadeyi told the graduants that their education at the university was highly subsidized by taxpayers through the government and therefore they owed their people gratitude by contributing to the development of Guyana through their newly acquired knowledge.
He urged them to ensure that this learning at the university would not be the end of their pursuit for education. “It is your hope that this additional qualification that you have earned will propel you to higher heights”, he said.
Natural Sciences student Dave Umar Sarran received the Chancellor’s Medal for being the second best graduating Bachelor’s degree student while Soyini Ashaki McPherson of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences was awarded the Council of the University of Guyana Prize for the graduating student who attained at least a ‘Pass with Credit’ and made the greatest contribution in other areas of the university’s activities.
