Fall Convocation 2019 – Ottawa Campus

Posted on Thursday, October 24th, 2019

The prepared remarks of President Claude Brulé.

October 22, 2019,

 

Thank you.

Good morning, graduates of 2019. Bonjour. Kwe.

 

I am very honoured to have the opportunity to be here with you today.

 

This is your day.

 

On behalf of the Board of Governors of Algonquin College, I want to welcome you — our graduates, your families, and friends.

 

Now, speaking of friends, some of you may have friends and family who cannot be with us here today, but are thinking about you with love and pride. So let me add my welcome to all who are watching this event online.

 

I know that many of you are also joined here today by people who support you — and who have likely helped you in some way as you have taken this journey … Helped you with encouraging words, late-night pep talks, picking up the slack at home (with the children and housework), or maybe even providing an emergency loan – or even better, a grant … or two!

 

So, let’s thank them and tell them we love them.

If you are a family member or a friend of a graduate — please stand as you are able or give a wave so that our graduates and the entire Algonquin community can show their gratitude.

 

Thank you.

 

So graduates of 2019, I want to thank each and every one of you for choosing Algonquin. We know that you had many choices and we are grateful that you chose us.

 

You have chosen well — and you can display your certificate, diploma or degree with a great deal of pride.

 

And speaking of this pride, there is another group of people here today who are very proud of you and your accomplishment. I want to personally thank all our employees — our faculty, staff and administration at Algonquin — for the role that each of them played in your journey. I want to especially thank the faculty for their role in getting our learners to the successful completion of their program of study. Graduates, your teachers have prepared you to be entrepreneurial, thrive on change, develop your capacity to pivot with agility, to take calculated risk and to do so with imagination in order to capitalize on the many possibilities that await you.

 

But before you can know where you are going, you must also know where you came from. You are not just a graduate — you are an Algonquin College graduate — and that is significant in ways that you may not have considered.

 

For example, as one of our alumni, you have studied at a post-secondary institution that has made Truth and Reconciliation a priority. Not only is our College named for the Algonquin people, but the United Nations has declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages in order to raise awareness, to benefit the people who speak these languages, for others to appreciate the important contribution they make to our world’s rich cultural diversity, and to also raise awareness of the consequences of the endangerment of Indigenous languages across the world, with an aim to establish a link between language, development, peace, and reconciliation.

 

At Algonquin College, we have answered the call to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 2015 Report, and embarked on our own journey to discover truth and explore how we might contribute to reconciliation. This began with the addition of leadership at the Executive table, and continued with the creation of our Coat of Arms with significant Indigenous elements. We have also made a tangible commitment to support the success of our Indigenous learners, and ensuring non-Indigenous learners have greater awareness of our collective past.

 

Finally, our own Students’ Association announced in 2017 its pledge of one million dollars over five years to ensure Indigenous architecture, art, and artifacts are permanent parts of our Campus — raising awareness and helping us share Indigenous Knowledge.

 

This has not been the effort of one person or one department. The responsibility to identify our Indigenous connections has been one we have all shared. Today, as you prepare to leave your home at Algonquin College, I hope you will take those connections with you and share them even further.

 

You have also come from a College that believes you have unique gifts to share.

 

To quote from one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman: “The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before.”

 

What are you going to contribute to your community, your country, the world? What are you going to give of yourself, of your talents and your ideas?

 

Graduates, it is now up to you to harness the rigorous polytechnic education you’ve received at Algonquin College to build not only your future, but to also be the architects of our society.

 

Your discipline-specific skills are very important to that blueprint, of course, but don’t forget those soft, essential skills that employers and communities are also looking for. To that end, allow me to cite from a couple of research projects that Google did in this area in recent years, which challenge to some extent the conventional wisdom on such matters.

 

By crunching every bit of Human Resources data since the company’s incorporation in 1998, their studies found that the seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; having empathy toward and being supportive of colleagues; being curious; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; being able to make connections across complex ideas, and possessing insights into others (including others’ different values and points of view).

 

Possessing such qualities not only makes you job ready, but also world ready.

 

Finally, I want you to also remember that you learned your skills at an institution that emphasizes not only the importance of being passionate about your work, but also the importance of being compassionate and being guided by strong values such as our College values of Caring, Learning, Integrity and Respect. In this regard, you must be a catalyst for better things, an agent of change — for the hope and promise of tomorrow. You have received a great education — the best in your field. Now consider paying it forward. To quote Winston Churchill: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give”.

 

Graduates, I hope that your time with us at Algonquin has sparked in you a joy for learning — lifelong learning. As you leave this hall and launch the next stage of your life’s journey, remember that life is a zig zag. Be good and kind to yourself, and don’t expect that your current trajectory will necessarily be a straight line … for most people, it isn’t. Instead, build your life portfolio with a variety of experiences — some from work, some from your social and family activities, some from your hobbies or leisure time. Together, it will create a mosaic that is uniquely you, a rich profile that will take you places you might not have originally imagined, where your passion makes a difference and your tenacity makes you proud.

 

To quote Fred Blackstein, one of our former Board of Governor members who was the Pembroke Campus representative: “Be Algonquin Proud. Make Algonquin Proud”.

 

And on that note, Graduates, I wish the very best success.

Miigwetch.

Merci Beaucoup.

Thank you very much.

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