14
UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 6TH DECEMBER, 2015
ENERGY
UWI GRADUATION CEREMONIES 2015
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND EDUCATION
HONORARY GRADUATE
DR MARJORIE THORPE
Equality and inclusiveness
“Sustainable development is people-centered development. It is pro-poor, pro-jobs, pro-women
and pro-nature. Equality and inclusiveness are its defining principles. This being so, I would argue
that your particular areas of study, the Humanities and Education, give you (men and women
alike) an advantage should you choose to accept a lead role in what is essentially a transformative
and humanizing endeavour. But I would go further and suggest that as relative newcomers to the
seat of power and influence, women have the opportunity, indeed even the responsibility to bring
a new lens to bear on our seemingly intractable problems; to advance different strategies, and to
be strong advocates of measures that would promote the more humane, the more civic-minded
society we all claim we wish to see established.
We cannot deny that women in leadership roles do still find themselves at times constrained by
persistent anti-feminist attitudes… attitudes most vividly expressed in the themes and images of
our calypsos and folktales.”
“My decision to abandon legal studies to
pursue my passion was a pivotal point in my
journey towards uncovering my Truth. And it was
by no means an easy decision to make. Growing
up, I felt an overwhelming debt to my parents to
succeed. I felt like I owed them for all the sacrifices
they made, as they gave up the comforts of all
that they knew to move to Trinidad and Tobago
over 20 years ago, with limited education and no
English-language skills, to work immensely hard
and give my sister and me the life we know today.
Yet, if I never faced the fear of disappointing my
family by following my aspirations, I would not
be standing here today as the Valedictorian of this
Faculty. I would have never discovered my love
for my second major: linguistics. I would have
never gained all the crucial values that the Faculty
of Humanities and Education has bestowed upon
me. And I would have never found the sense
of satisfaction, fulfilment and happiness that I
experience each day pursuing my field.”
HONORARY GRADUATE
DAVID RUDDER
VALEDICTORIAN
LILY KWOK
That Leap
FOR FULL ADDRESS, PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT:
