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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 4 NOVEMBER, 2018
GRADUATION 2018
Five accomplished people
received honorary degrees
from The UWI Campus at St Augustine this year
in recognition of their significant contributions.
They are
Mrs Paula Lucie-Smith
of T&T, pioneer
in adult literacy teaching (Doctor of Law); the
Honourable Hubert Ingraham
of The Bahamas
for his accomplishments as a politician (Doctor of
Law);
Mr Shivnarine Chanderpaul
of Guyana for
his achievements in the sport of cricket (Doctor of
Law);
Mr Winston Bailey
(Shadow) of T&T for his
creative calypso compositions (Doctor of Letters);
and
Professor Dermont Kelleher
of Ireland for
his contributions to medical research (Doctor of
Sciences).
Three of the honorary graduates gave feature
speeches at this year’s graduation ceremonies, sharing
some of their experiences and giving stirring words
of advice and inspiration.
‘Politics should not dictate
education policies.’
Mrs Paula Lucie-Smith
came out strong with
her unflinching statement that politics should not
dictate education policies. She said as a child of
independence, when she left university she was fully
engaged by the powerful vision of nation building. So
she taught in state-run schools; but she soon left that
path because “politics invaded to erode the integrity
and quality of the nation’s institutions and made our
efforts futile.”
She noted: “students continue to enter secondary
schools barely able to read, and exit five years later with
the same low literacy, but now with an entrenched
feeling of being outside of society. Anger pervades
our secondary schools; anger wrought by extreme
frustration…. Without provision for those with no
aptitude for literacy, universal secondary education is
destroying trust in our schools, and eroding belief in
the value of education. Our schools no longer engage
people.”
She then turned to the example of Finland,
which had an underperforming education system
in the early 1970s. They embarked on a long-term
policy to develop professional educators, and then
turned over the decisions to the teachers, taking
politics out of education, she said. Today, “Finland is
rated among the highest in the world in innovation,
entrepreneurship and creativity,” she said.
She asked why people always look to government
to lead and bring positive change, saying it is time
we in T&T build alternatives that are independent of
government. She said: “ALTA is one such alternative –
so it can be done.” She closed by urging the graduates
to “be that small, determined group who will not give
up.”
‘Learning plus performance is
the foundation of success.’
The Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham
gave graduates
some pragmatic advice: he said a degree is just an
indicator of one’s potential, and its worth needs to be
demonstrated in the real world. He said: “Know that
your degree is a guarantee of nothing. You must now
leverage all of what you have learned at The UWI
with real life experiences, to create real value in the
world. Learning plus performance is the foundation
of success.”
Ingraham next meditated on the benefits and
dangers of digital technology. On the one hand, he
noted it enables collaborations that can genuinely
improve human lives, from better businesses to
connected healthcare providers to remarkable
distance education opportunities. On the other
hand, he commented that “individuals, nations and
regions of the world have become more disconnected.
Increasingly, we retreat into silos of race, gender, class,
nationality, religion and politics. Knowledge is now
more abundant and easier to access, but wisdom,
somehow, seems diminished and harder to embrace.”
Ingrahamspoke of the vulnerability of small, open
economies in the Caribbeanwhich depend on tourism
or agriculture or hydrocarbon resources, and which
are “highly susceptible to external shocks both natural
andman-made.” He said graduates should be mindful
of the region’s problems of low economic growth,
high unemployment and significant government
indebtedness, and should be prepared to contribute
to addressing these problems.
He encouraged the graduates, saying: “I believe
that you are gifted, knowledgeable, astute and driven.
Collaborating with each other and with those now
seeking to address our many challenges is our best
path to producing just the solutions we require for
future success.” He advocated a path of genuine public
service as a means of both personal satisfaction and
helping to improve the lives of others.
‘Keep asking questions.’
Professor Dermot Kelleher
urged all Medical
Sciences graduates to value “the academic method
of questioning and researching all that you do, using
the literature and evidence to determine what is best
for your patients – a process of constant questioning.”
He urged students to always remember and be
proud of where they came from, bearing in mind
that many others may not have had the opportunity
of a higher education. He reminded them: “You all
have had the most wonderful gift from your parents
and from The University of the West Indies – the
gift of education, and more importantly, a medical
education.”
A man who clearly loves his job, he called
medicine “the most magical of professions. It’s a life
where no two days are the same and where every
day when you wake up, you know that your life is
dedicated to improving the human condition. It’s
a life where knowledge, intuition and compassion
combine.”
He reflected on why people may choose a career
in medicine, and believed that the most important
reason is to help improve the lives of patients, of
communities and of our world: “This journey through
medical school, as it turns out, is never about you— it
is all about serving others.”
He also emphasized the need for doctors to
continually learn, and to be generous with this learning
and pass it on: “You must continue to push yourself
to learn every day from every patient encounter and
from every new role you take on. Continue to build on
your skills, to acquire new knowledge, and remember,
remember, remember to serve as a true mentor to the
medical students who come after you.”
For full speeches of all
2018 UWI HONORARY GRADUATES
please see our online edition
Wisewords fromhonorary graduates
By
ShereenAnnAli
Shereen Ann Ali
is a freelance writer, culture journalist and publications editor
Mr Winston Bailey
Mrs Paula Lucie-Smith
Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham
Professor Dermot Kelleher
Mr Shivnarine Chanderpaul
