“Go and find your purpose in your communities,” was the challenge to 1,300 fresh graduates of the University of St. La Salle- Bacolod who attended the first face-to-face graduation rites at the university coliseum on May 29.
The 65th graduation rites, the first following a two-year lockdown due to COVID-19, were split into two batches to guarantee that the minimum health protocol was observed.
The morning graduation ceremonies drew 810 graduates from the College of Business and Accountancy, who were accompanied by their parents. In the afternoon, another 510 students from the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Law, and Education received their diplomas.
Lawyer Jocelle Batapa-Sigue who was this year’s commencement speaker also delivered 2 separate addresses.
She branded the graduating class the Brave Batch of 2022, referring to them as “graduates of the new normal” and describing them as an unique breed after weathering a pandemic that disrupted the whole globe, halting human activities and changing practically everything.
She challenged the graduates to embrace a mindset of life-long learning – the ability to learn and the capacity to re-learn the important things, to re-skill, to upskill, and to unlearn to learn new methods – as the very core of education.
She also urged the graduates to think about the future and find ways to give back as she encouraged them to find their purpose in the communities where they can give hope to others with integrity, skillfulness, and excellence in everything they do.
