GRADUATION SPEECH 2018

His Excellency, President of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Honourable Ministers, Mayor of Kyrenia, Dear Guests and Graduates,

Welcome to the 32^nd Graduation Ceremony of Girne American University.

We are honoured by the presence of all visiting families and guests from all around the world on this special day. In a very short time, nearly 1.500 of our students, who will be granted their diplomas tomorrow, will take their first step towards becoming graduates by crossing this stage. As the GAU Family we are honoured to be sharing this excitement with all of you. Thank you for being with us.

As we approach our 35^th education year in these days, our university, the first university in the TRNC, continues to spread the education torch it carries to people as far as possible by reaching beyond its geography. Today we are proud of the level of education we have reached that spreads over countries and continents.  Today our students graduate from a world university as individuals who can adapt to the globalizing world. Despite our short history of 35 years, today you can meet a GAU graduate in almost every country around the world. This is a real source of pride for us!!!

Girne American University devotes each Academic Year to a thought or a theme. As you know, we have declared 2017-2018 Academic Year we are about to complete as the “Year of Innovation”.  

The theme of this year is the mission we want to give to the students we are seeing off. Now I’d like to address our graduates:

Today, the benefit of university education is not only that it provides a profession. In fact, university education has a greater mission. It is to raise individuals who can look for ways to leave a better, more beautiful and more peaceful world to future generations!!!

I want to share Gandhi’s words with you to shed light on your future life as GAU graduates: Be the change you want to see in the world.

We always say it is hard for humans to change themselves…

Actually, education, and learning proves just the opposite of this discourse. If we manage to change ourselves, we can also change our habits and preferences. We can reconstruct our expectations. Undoubtedly, the education you received at GAU has already started this process of change in yourself. Each of you can also project this change in yourself by focussing on the frequency that can change the world. When you believe in your own change, you begin to see its reflections of your dreams in our world and in your own life.  When you graduate from GAU, this journey of change you started here is the first stage of your lifelong learning.

 As long as you continue to learn, you will continue to change and have the ability to direct the change in the world in the future.

Choose to be innovative, transcendent and productive individuals in the future. I’d like to invite you to challenge the problems to confront in your life from today on.

I’d like to remind you that, 34 years ago, this innovative approach, thought and vision was what made our university you graduated from today. Since then, we have always reconsidered our role in higher education and constantly renewed ourselves. We should remember that our innovative perspective is in fact a feature that sets us apart from other universities. I hope that you will never lose this perspective and that you will continue to think bigger and more creatively.

I extend my best wishes to all of our graduates, and I wish them good luck in their journeys. God bless you all!!!

Thank you,

Serhat AKPINAR

Founding Rector