EDITORIAL: Accentuating Convocation Counsels to CU Graduates

IN YET ANOTHER colorful commencement ceremony, the Cuttington University on Saturday, June 15, graduated 761 students, awarding them various academic degrees and accolades. Accordingly, the graduands came from the university’s three distinct campuses, and they included 80 from the Junior College, 312 from the undergraduate Programs and 42 from the school of Professional Studies. Nearly 330 of them obtained Post Graduate degrees, quite an impressive number amid Liberia’s brain-drain syndrome. Amongst them was The Analyst’s own Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Miss Deanna W. Seakor, who bagged a Master’s Degree in Public Sector Administration.

BEYOND THE POMP and pageantry of the 62nd Convocation were highly powerfully instructive counsels for the new graduates regarding how they can concretize and leverage their acquired skills and knowledge, not merely in their fields of disciplines, but particularly in solving socioeconomic, cultural and political problems in the world community. Poignant and inspiring was the message contained in the Keynote Address delivered by Country Manager of the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), Mr. Benedict Sorie Kanu, who posited, amongst other things, that a good education offers countless benefits, primarily regarding the quality of an individual’s life and the ease of fulfillment of personal ambitions. He reminded the graduates that an educated person has a potentially better understanding, and that education improves self-confidence. Schooling, he said, helps develop critical thinking.

HE THEN IMPLORED the 761 CU graduands to “believe in yourself, look around you, take a step forward each time, be resilient and steadfast”. He also encouraged them to move on without fear because their future will be brilliant. He said: “Sometimes life will hit you in the head with a brick, but don’t lose faith. Don’t be afraid to face the adversity: It is the hard days, the days that challenge you to the very core that will determine who you are.”

THE AFDB COUNTRY Manager, who is a 1990 University of Arizona’s Masters of Agricultural Economics, did not stop at saying the supra mentioned. He further told the graduates: “Make innovation your mantra. Understand what Liberia needs, learn how to do what Liberia needs, and let your deeds make Liberia a better country. Provide innovative solutions that will propel Liberia to the top of the world. Innovate for a stronger Liberia”.

ALSO MOVING AND exciting a convocation message was that which came from the President of the University, Dr. Romelle A. Horton. In her ‘Charge to the Graduates,’ The CU Prexy said: “To my Precious Diamonds, I offer my most sincere congratulations to each of you…In taking on the rigorous demands of a Cuttington education, and in succeeding, you have accomplished something difficult, but worthwhile, that will stand you in good stead throughout your lives.

“TODAY, HOWEVER, I want to focus on a different kind of challenge: KNOW YOURSELVES – do not be too easily swayed by the noise in the market or by what someone says or does. There is in you something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine, the greatness, in yourself. Nobody like you has ever been born and no one like you will ever be born again — You are the only you that has ever lived; and if you cannot hear the sound of the genuine, the greatness in you, you will spend all your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls – Cultivate the discipline of listening to the sound of the genuine in yourself.” When the stakes are extremely high, when you must rise to the occasion. Rise to the occasion with discipline and integrity. Your legacies may be determined by mere moments in time. These moments may take the form of a crisis, or a window of opportunity that opens unexpectedly, inviting you down a new path with greater responsibilities if you have the courage to choose it. Many years of preparation, hard work, and experience can be tested in an instant. Think before you react – this is leadership. This is greatness.”

  1. HORTON FURTHER admonished his ‘precious diamonds” in the words of William Shakespeare: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” It does not matter how you arrive at those moments, all of us face such moments in our lives—don’t let pride and wanting to show off, define your moment – think before you react…Do not ever forget where you came from – Cuttington and the community from which you came. Give back. You are more than ready for life—Be confident. Be compassionate. And most of all, THINK BEFORE YOU REACT – cause your reaction will show the breadth of your character. Now is the time to dream, to think big, and to imagine and pursue what YOU want to become. What you are now, is God’s gift to you – what you become is your gift to God, Yourself, Cuttington, Liberia and the world!”

THE NUMBER OF the 135-year-old CU’s 2024 graduates, many acknowledged, is historic and remarkable. Besides including the first batch of Dental Therapists awarded degrees in the Republic of Liberia, this year’s graduates have come out under the University’s GII Plan. The Plan, launched two years ago, is reportedly in its full swing, promoting greatness, innovation and integrity. While delivering his Special Remarks, President Horton underscored countless innovative activities that comprised the latter-time academic menu which the graduates imbibed prior to completing their credits.

“OUR GII PLAN of Greatness, Innovation and Integrity is moving and we are not done yet,” he noted rather boastfully. “This year our College of Nursing, at both the Junior College and Suakoko campus, scored the highest marks in CU’s history for reaccreditation, 93 out of 100 points for the Physician Assistant Program, the only BSC program in the country and 92.5 for the Nursing Program.”

FOR US AT THE Analyst, our prayers are with the graduates—all of them—including our own Deanna, so that in addition to knowledge acquired and the invaluable counsels offered from commencement speakers on the portal of their exit from the university, the Lord of Host will direct and lighten their paths so that they ride in high places of the Earth and be solvers of problems, not only for their families, their communities and also for their counties, country and the global village.

INDEED, THE ANALYST wishes them well!

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