In his first official duty as Mount Allison’s newest chancellor, CBC’s Peter Mansbridge offered some inspirational advice to the graduating class of 2010 on Monday, urging them to use their university degrees to achieve more than just a high-paying salary at a top-level job.
“You have been privileged to go to a great university in a great province and in a great country. But are you the kind of person who will recognize that, who will never forget that? And who, aside from the great work I know you will accomplish in your chosen profession, will search for ways to give back to your society and to your community?” asked Mansbridge as he addressed the 400 students during Monday’s morning and afternoon convocation ceremonies.
Mansbridge, chief correspondent and anchor of CBC’s The National, encouraged the graduates to turn all of the time, energy and money that was spent to get them to graduation day into an even greater investment.
“So many of us are looking to you to become, in a way, heroes. Quiet heroes. Believe in your country and give it something. Don’t just take.”
He advised the students to truly learn who they are and to decide how they want to live their lives.
“Are you going to read about poverty on Native reserves and turn the page? Are you going to see homelessness in our cities and keep on walking? Are you going to watch a news report about a run for cancer research and change the channel? Will you listen to complaints that all governments are corrupt and wasteful, and just not silently in agreement? I sure hope not.”
Mansbridge said heroes can come in a number of forms and the students themselves can decide which causes to support and which injustices to fight.
“Today is a big day. You’ve justified the faith so many people had in you. Feel good. Feel terrific. And chase that feeling for the rest of your life. You can re-capture it every time you do the right thing.”
Mount Allison president Robert Campbell said he feels a closeness and a kinship with the graduating class of 2010, since he also came on board with the university in 2006.
“I have been fortunate and blessed to have had so many personal opportunities to see ‘up front and in action’ how talented you are, how hard that you have worked, how creative you can be and just how accomplished you’ve become,” said Campbell.
This year’s valedictorian Fraser Harland, an honours political science student from Camrose, Alta., said ‘hope’ is what will unite the students as they forge ahead on their different paths.
“We find hope in our most trying challenges, in our deepest fears and in our most profound sorrow,” said Harland.
He insisted that remembering the university experience should not only be about recollecting achievements but should also acknowledge the immense challenges that each student has faced.
“The personal qualities that matter most like perseverance, dedication, and compassion are developed in front of great obstacles - >and it is here that we can see bright glimmers of hope in our challenges.”
Harland also spoke about finding hope through facing fears, whether it be personal troubles or global crises.
“Without fear, we could not hope for a world that is safer and more peaceful, more cooperative and more just. We could not hope that we may find a way in which we personally may contribute to such a world.”
He also acknowledged that hope can also be found in the sorrow and sadness in saying farewell to the people and places of Sackville and its campus.
“It is inevitable that we will face new and unknown challenges, that we will fear for tomorrow and the uncertainty it may bring, and that we will face great sadness in leaving Mount Allison,” he said. “But it is my wish for you that you can do so connected to hope - that you may find hope in these most unexpected of places.”
Students in science and commerce received their degrees during the morning ceremony, while students from arts, music and fine arts received theirs during the afternoon convocation.
Mount Allison also bestowed honourary degrees to six Canadian leaders on Monday - Graydon Nicholas, Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick and First Nations advocate; Heather Reisman, founder and CEO of Indigo Books & Music Inc.; David Sobey, chairman and CEO of Sobeys Inc.; Rev. Brent Hawkes, senior pastor in Toronto and equal rights advocate; James Keith, professional educator and former Mount Allison chancellor; and Samantha Nutt, founder and executive director of War Child Canada.
