Take a moment to look around you and let it sink in.
What you see surrounding you is a testament to perseverance, self-sacrifice, hard work, and sleepless nights – but in totality and very much in reality, a desire to succeed.
In Trinidad and Tobago, approximately 10.1% of the population holds a bachelor’s degree or higher, an alarming but instructive statistic. We are now a part of that very same percentile, a unique group preparing to enter a world that is ill prepared for us, however, as the past three or four years have taught, it is our responsibility to pave a pathway to our own success. We have been granted the opportunity to develop our knowledge so that we may embrace that world and develop it in turn, the opportunity to raise that statistic higher and build a better community.
I am sure we can all agree that this journey has in no way been easy. Exiting a pandemic that shattered the normalcy of teaching and learning, while trying to navigate the organized chaos that is university life and actually making it to this moment is an achievement that definitely deserves celebration.
The challenges have been varied and led to experiences we can all treasure.
For example, from navigating exceptionally advanced course material to navigating how to tell your lecturer that your Wi-Fi dropped at 11:59pm on the night it was due.
From figuring out your way around campus in year one and establishing core friendships in year two, to every final year’s two least favourite words, “group work.” These moments are the memories that allow us to cross this stage with more than a piece of paper.
One thing that I have learnt, and it is advice that I will always share, is to embrace all opportunities that come your way and immerse yourself to the fullest. My time here, outside of academics, has been immensely rewarding. Serving on the Guild and its sub-committees for 3 years, being involved in clubs, working with the DSSD and being Peli the Pelican… yes…. I was Peli the Pelican, has allowed me the chance to fully experience university life and opened avenues that I would have never anticipated.
Graduating class of 2025, we exist as an impactful force that is not to be downplayed nor ignored. We are not merely the upcoming workforce in society, but rather we are the product of two faculties that will be the future facilitators of formulating fact from fiction.
We are not just graduates of the Faculty of Science and Technology; we are the future biotechnologists, chemists, and physicists who are tasked with solving the critical problems of a developing society. We are the future analysts, programmers and coders who will shape the technological direction of the future and embed humanity into artificial intelligence. We are the future actuaries and mathematicians, that must make sense of data not yet explored.
In a world where climate change, mismanaged resources and biodiversity loss peaks at the point of crisis, we are not just graduates of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture. As a matter of fact, we are the graduates of the only Faculty of Food and Agriculture across the entire UWI landscape, a group of strong, intelligent, resourceful and, now more than ever, dangerously essential persons that are 100 times more than farmers. We are the upcoming agribusiness experts and policymakers that must figure out how to boost critically underdeveloped natural industries to ensure sustainable yet productive development. The future dieticians and soil scientists that will combat the issues of food security and wastage to reduce import bills and bring up a healthy population. We are the future climatologists, first responders, and urban planners that will build and influence the development of literal cities and address the growing concerns of sustainability to protect a world for others to succeed in. The graduating cohort of this FFA are the ones driving society by placing roots in the soil, knowledge on the plate and success in the pocket. That sounds like more than just farmers to me.