COMMENCEMENT SPEECH

COMMENCEMENT SPEECH

Good evening, my name is Andrew Amuna, and I am honored to bring greetings from The Graduate School.   

Celebrations at milestones are always important, and we are in a privileged position where we get to celebrate our achievements at this august university twice. This time with the benefit of having our parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, professors, and loved ones, some of whom might have traveled from different parts of the world, here with us in person to celebrate the journey so far. To all loved ones, we thank you again for your love and support, and we would not be here today if it had not been for you!

Class of 2020, I am sure all of us here might have noticed the uniqueness of our graduating class. 

• A graduating class that had to quickly adapt its learning techniques from the classroom to online learning and finally to a combination of both. 
• A class that did not get the chance to walk and receive their certificate when they finished their program. 
• A class that graduated during a pandemic that made it more difficult to find jobs and celebrate their achievements. 
• A class that has two commencement ceremonies held in their honor.
• Finally, a class, at the time of the in-person commencement, is not oblivious to the workings of the outside world, with some of us having finished our studies over a year ago. 

We sure do know how it is going after completing our studies. Whether everything is moving smoothly, going okay, or not going as we planned. But I will urge you to keep on keeping on and always remember our journey at UNC Charlotte was also not always easy and graduating today is no mean feat. So anytime things are not going as we planned, we must reflect on everything that has led us to this point and look forward to the future with optimism because once we have done it before, we can do it again.

Hopefully, we have found our purpose and mapped out our career path, but if not, purposing our hearts to be of service should be our de facto plan. Let us continue playing to our strengths and making an impact wherever we find ourselves by building our community and building each other up. As a reminder, let us not forget three lessons we learned here:

• Diversity of any kind is Strength.
• Life does not always go as planned. We would have to adapt.
• In the most challenging times, we have our family, friends, and community to lean on. 

Thank you, UNC Charlotte!

Congratulations, Class of 2020! I wish you all the very best in your future endeavors. Thank you!