Think not of yourselves but of your country and the less fortunate people in it. These were the words of UG’s 2015 valedictorian Sachin Ramsuran as he encouraged his fellow graduates to “make a personal’ sacrifice and stay in Guyana to assist in creating a better life for its people.
Ramsuran was delivering his address at the University of Guyana’s 49th Convocation ceremony which was held at the Turkeyen Campus on Saturday evening. The Faculty of Tech-nology Electrical Engineering graduate in congratulating his colleagues noted that regardless of whatever differences may have characterized their time at UG the fact that they all graduated “implies that [they] share several common qualities such as self-discipline dedication and unwavering adherence to a philosophy of life which guided us in our most difficult times at UG.”
“Life is not deterministic, it is probabilistic, we cannot predict the future but by making decisions which give us the highest probability of being successful we can create the future that we want,” he stressed explaining that the decision to attend UG was one such decision.
“Continue making such decisions, continue sacrificing,” he encouraged.
In his first address as chancellor of the university, Professor Eon Nigel Harris also extolled the virtues of a university education not just to the graduates but to their children and the societies in which they live.
A university degree, he noted, benefits not only graduates themselves but can extend to succeeding generations as a university education has been shown to contribute to longer and more socially beneficial lives.
He stressed however that a degree by itself is not the sole determinant of personal advancement. According to the chancellor his personal belief is that the three ingredients of “initiative, passion and persistence” are necessary for advancement in whatever field one has chosen.
Those with initiative he explained are the “self-starters” the agents of change who are able to work beyond their specific responsibilities. Passion and persistence he said flow from initiative and together will produce graduates who aggressively seek out knowledge using ICT modalities, journals, manuals and other sources of information to be the best at what they are doing. This attitude will also help them to keep current as new knowledge evolves in their field.
“We need a culture in which we actively seek to solve problems, to make processes easier, to seek customers who will select our organization, our country, our region over the rest… go out there and make a difference,” Harris told the graduating class.
1,558 students graduated from the seven faculties of the institution. Included in the graduates were the first ever batch of students with a Master’s of Science in Environmental Management, the Post-Graduate Diploma in Anesthesia and Intensive Care and the Certificate in Industrial Engineering.
Eight of the graduates were conferred with awards for their achievements. Ramsuran was awarded the President’s Medal as the best graduating Bachelor’s Degree student.
Economics major Ashely Bankay received the Chancel-lor’s Medal for the second best graduating Bachelor’s Degree student.
Other awardees were Tiffana Ross of the Faculty of Agricul-ture and Forestry, Ajay Persaud of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Stephen Josiah of the Faculty of Education and Humanities, Saraswattie Bharrat of the Faculty of Education and Humanities, Tristana Gouveia of the Faculty of Social Services and Mark Bastian.
