Advice to Graduating Class

It gives me great pleasure to congratulate the graduating class for their hard work. Today we join their families and friends in celebrating their achievements. You now join an exceptionally talented and influential group of the School of Pure and Applied Sciences students who graduated ahead of you and are in the Nation’s workforce. The School has postgraduate Programmes and offers relevant degree courses at Masters level which you are welcome to join. As you embark upon and progress through your careers, I urge you to always remember why you chose your respective fields and the sacrifices that you made. This is my message to you: As you make career decisions, be sure to embrace all possible opportunities that offer you a job or, better still, enable you to create a job for yourself and other people. We encourage you to be inspired by Bob Shaye who upon graduating with a Bachelor of Laws degree founded a movie production company. Shortly after, he ventured into production of low budget movie hits like ‘Nightmare’ and went on to produce world-famous movies such as ‘The Blockbusters’. Strive to rebrand and repackage yourself with continuous training and adoption of new technologies to keep climbing up the economic ladder. You owe it to yourself to do what you love and to earn the amount of money you cut out for yourself. In all these endeavours, keep your faith in God. In some circumstances, your faith in God shall be the only hope that will remain when everything else becomes challenging. Pursuing ambitious goals will take a lot of your energy, so don’t waste any energy and time in controversy. Make a decision to like the people because you need all sorts of people to buy your products and without them, you cannot be in business.

If you live by practicing ethical standards, you will inspire confidence in others and feel proud of yourself. All you have is your reputation, and you shouldn’t trade it for anything. You can always get another job or another client, but you can’t get another you: Your family and friends are your greatest source of strength. Indeed, you would not be here today without the love and support of the people closest to you. One of the greatest challenges you will face is balancing your personal and professional lives. At the end of the day, your impact on the world is greatest through the people you love. You matter more to them than to anyone else. They will be forgiving, but don’t make them forgive you too much. Your successes will be sweeter, and your disappointments will be easier to bear if you have the love and support of family and friends. I give special thanks to parents, spouses, children and friends of our graduands for their patience, understanding, sacrifices and support, both moral and financial - during these challenging, but rewarding, years at the University. Although their guidance, comfort and encouragement certainly will continue to be sought and appreciated in the years to come, you can rejoice in your new status in society. You are now a graduate of the highest institution of learning. Relish the shared feeling of pride in what your degree has accomplished and the abundant opportunities ahead. In the coming years, I would ask that you do not forget the School of Pure and Applied Sciences of the University of Embu. I encourage you to not only give back to the University by supporting our activities, programmes and scholarships but also by keeping us updated on the many achievements you will experience in your careers and personal lives. We will always take great pride in your achievements.