It's Over!

Over the weekend, 523 names were added to the prestigious list of Monash University graduates.

“You have reached an important milestone in your lives. Congratulations,” Monash University Chancellor Dr Alan Finkel told graduates.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ed Byrne, when addressing the audience, announced that according to a New York Times survey, Monash University had the highest graduate employability rates among Australian universities.

He was referring to the NYT’s survey of hundreds of chief executives and chairmen from leading companies in 10 countries who were asked to select the top universities from which they recruited. The list (http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/10/20/education/20iht-SReducEmploy20-graphic.html?ref=education), which displays the top 150 universities, ranks Monash an overall 47.

“The most important measure of graduates’ success is that the creativity and compassion instilled at Monash University will be important traits that will carry you forward.”

Later, Prof Byrne said he believed that Monash University was a top pick for employers because its graduates were well-rounded, capable, adaptable and had good moral judgment.

“Our graduates know how to stand on their own feet and think laterally and fluidly. They also value community service,” he said.

Inspiring Graduation Speeches

The morning ceremony saw 285 graduate from the School of Business. Alumnus Mr Leonard Ariff, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of CCM Duopharma Biotech, gave the graduation speech.

Julius Wong Ling Tze is helped with his graduation robe before going on stage to receive his scroll. 

Chancellor Dr Alan Finkel and graduation speaker Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir.

He took the audience through an interesting journey – moving through the decades and down memory lane as he reminisced the 70s, 80s, 90s and the 2000’s.

The 70s, he said, were characterised with social progressive values such as political awareness, increasing role of women in the economy, opposition to the Vietnam War, Mao Zedong’s passing, and Margaret Thatcher’s appointment as Britain’s first woman Prime Minister.

The 80s, Mr Ariff recalled, saw the AIDS pandemic surface, opposition to Apartheid, the birth of Donkey Kong and Tetris, while Duran Duran and Prince ruled the pop charts, and shoulder pads were part of fashion.

Of the 90s, he said: “Closer to home, we experienced the first South-east Asian economic crisis in 1997 … and technologically, we began to see the advent of cell phones and wider usage of the World Wide Web. I remember in 1995, being asked to write a paper to my company’s Board of Directors to justify the provision of hand phones to the staff.”

In the 2000s, the advent of 24-hour “live” news coverage captured the aftermath of natural disasters such as the Boxing Day Tsunami, Cyclone Nargis, Black Saturday Bushfires and man-made disasters like the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre.

Mr Ariff said that he had laid out the differences of the decades to show how different the environment he grew up in was, compared to the present era of the graduates.

Quoting Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway, he said: “‘You’re not going to get far in life based on what you already know. You’re going to advance in life by what you’re going to learn after you leave here’.”

He added: “All I am leaving with you has been staring at you throughout your time at Monash, and that is the motto of Monash University which reads ‘Ancora Imparo’ which is Latin for ‘Still, I am learning’.

Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, daughter of former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and Board Member of non-governmental organisation Sisters In Islam, delivered the graduation address in the afternoon session, which saw 238 graduates from the Schools of Arts and Social Sciences, Engineering, Information Technology, Medicine and Health Sciences, and Science.

Datin Paduka Marina stressed the use of common sense and good judgment, which she said, today, seemed difficult to come by.

“If we use our common sense, backed up by hard facts, then we can make good judgments on what is best for us. But if we insist that we have nothing to learn from others, that somehow Malaysians are a unique species of humans in the world, then, we are bound not only to make mistakes, and to make them in the costliest ways, but to constantly repeat them,” she said.

Datin Paduka Marina advised graduates to use the two organs that would serve them best: “One is your head, the one you have filled with a lot of learning in these past few years and which you can still input with more because learning never stops and your head or brain always has room for more.

“The other is your heart, which will tell you whether something is right or wrong, as long as it is not polluted by greed and selfishness,” she said.

“If you trust these two organs, then you will not only make yourself successful and happy, you will also make your fellow human beings successful and happy,” she added.

Later, Datin Paduka Marina said she was slightly afraid that young people would not be fully prepared for the outside world.

“Our young people watch tv, everything looks easy, (like) becoming famous by not doing anything much. I am a bit afraid our young people will be disappointed.”

 Graduation speaker Mr Leonard Ariff took graduates through a journey through the decades. 

To graduates, she had one more piece of advice: “Be prepared. The world is a lot tougher. Facing the toughness builds strength and character.”