The University of Guyana (UG) graduating class of 2019 has two Valedictorians: Shane Rampertab and Karishma Narain.
Rampertab and Narain, students from the Faculties of Natural and Health Sciences, respectively, were each able to accomplish a 4.0 Grade Point of Average over their years of study.
Speaking at this morning’s convocation Rampertab, who now holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology, told those gathered at UG’s Turkeyen Campus that he was humbled to be able to share the honour with Narain.
He stressed that his accomplishment was not because of any special skill set that he personally possessed but a product of the enabling environment which he was lucky to have been provide by his family and friends. “I had more than enough to achieve what I did,” Rampertab noted.
Acknowledging the struggles several of his classmates had to overcome in order to graduate today, Rampertab congratulated them for their commitment and urged them to hold themselves and all of Guyana to a standard.
He stressed that with the burgeoning oil sector set to transform Guyana’s development, UG graduates have the “responsibility of ensuring [development] is done right; to the expectations [they] have of society.”
“We cannot allow ourselves to fall victim to corruption. We cannot fall into the trap of nepotism and favouritism,” he said, before adding that to root out corruption graduates must say “No, this is enough! This stops with us!”
Rampertab stressed that while it is easy to say corruption is rampant and believe it is useless to do something about it, Guyanese cannot afford to be complacent as that breeds stagnation, which is counterintuitive to development.
“We are the ones who have to be proponents of change if we want to see a change. No promises. No more expectations… It is not enough to sit idly and complain. We need to be pioneers of our future,’ he concluded.
Narain, who will graduate this afternoon with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), is expected to address her classmates from the faculty of Heath Sciences as well as those from the Faculty of Social Science and the School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation.