Minister Silveria Jacobs’s Address at the 18th Commencement Exercises at the University of St. Maarten June 16, 2012 Westin Resort & Spa.
It is an honor for me, as your Minister of Education, Culture Youth and Sports Affairs to address you at this your commencement ceremony.
This evening I will focus on this word Commencement.
Today marks:
• The commencement of your Life as someone who has fulfilled a dream, reached a goal, taken a bold step towards the achievement of your ultimate goal
• The commencement of your career in the field you love, and are dedicated to excel in, leave your footprint in
• The commencement of your next level of studies as you endeavor to research, study, dialogue, analyze, hypothesize, summarize, apply, synthesize and evaluate more than you’ve done to earn the degrees you have even now earned, as you yearn to KNOW more.
Today marks your commencement, because you have perceived who you want to be,
believed it to be possible,
and
achieved it through hard work, dedication and determination.
To Graduate signals the end,
TO COMMENCE signals a beginning.
Again the next step is totally up to you, the success of your next endeavor depends for 90% on you!!!
The Government of your Fledgling Country, St. Maarten, would like to pledge at this time to do all within its power to help you to achieve whatever your next goal may be.
We also pledge our continuous support to USM so that it can grow to be a University – not just with community college status – but a University our students, as well as students from abroad will clamor to attend.
This is indeed a lofty goal, A University on Tiny St. Maarten which will firstly serve the needs of its people, and its community and also the extended region and even the world.
Our MOUs with renowned Universities around the world continue to increase to also afford our students the opportunity to experience University life outside our beautiful shores. We hope to be able to entice their students to want to experience ours as well.
TOGETHER WE CAN!!
With accountability, cooperation, and hard work, we can make USM and therefor its students as well as St. Maarten Proud.
COMMENCE your new life after this ceremony with pride that you have achieved it right here at home, amid the struggles, and challenges you’ve faced each day. A hard won fight is more valuable than one in which you’ve won each round without much competition.
It proves your character, stretches your intellectual muscles, and gives you a sense of achievement.
Congratulations CLASS of 2012