Commencement 2019 – The start of a new journey for our graduands
The Department celebrated the graduation of the Class of 2019 at the Commencement ceremony on 17 July 2019. In total, 235 graduates were presented their degrees– 192 Bachelor of Science (Pharmacy), 16 Master of Science (Pharmaceutical Science & Technology), 15 Doctor of Philosophy, and 12 Doctor of Pharmacy. Mr How Ti Hwei (Class of ’95), Country President, AstraZeneca Singapore, was the commencement speaker for the ceremony.
A decade of advice
In his commencement speech, Mr How condensed his advice for his fellow juniors for the next 10 years into 3 virtual envelopes. He presented the first one, to be opened the next morning, and assured students that it is fine to not know what they want at the point of graduation, but at least they should know what they don’t want. In 5 years’ time, his second envelope hopes to remind students to measure success more broadly in at least 3 aspects – profession, relationships and health. Finally, he used the third envelope, to be opened in 10 years’ time, to urge students to “make a difference. He said, “if you haven’t figured it out by then, start thinking about what is your purpose in life”. Drawing on the purposes of himself and some others, he ended his speech with a quote paraphrased from Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The purpose of life is not just to be happy; it is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have made some difference that you have lived, and lived well.”
Commencement 2019 speaker, Mr How Ti Hwei (Class of ’95), Country President, AstraZeneca Singapore
Finding your passion
NUS Pharmacy valedictorian Goh Zhang-He (Class of ’19), delivered a speech where he used mountain climbing as an allegory of the learning journey where both are uphill tasks. He shared about passion and how it is an innate drive which propels us to keep moving forward while climbing a mountain. As he said, “it is this constant endeavour that gives us the resilience, tenacity, and verve to overcome the difficulties that we encounter along the way. It can even mitigate the disappointment of failure.” In his speech, he also reminisced on the rigorous learning journey and gave thanks to his classmates turned friends, families and teachers who have supported him along the way.
Valedictorian of the class, Mr Goh Zhang-He (Class of ’19), delivering his speech
“This is the start of something new—we stand at the beginning of a lifelong journey of discovering and nurturing our passion. We may even become the giants whom we admire.”
– Goh Zhang-He
Zhang-He with his family members
Zhang-He with the Head of Department of
Pharmacy, Professor Christina Chai
Watch a recording of the commencement ceremony below. Mr How’s speech is from 24 min onwards, and Zhang-He’s speech is from 1 hour 57 min onwards.
More photos can be found at the Graduation Party 2019 Photo Album @ Department Facebook.
Article by Ms Ng Shi Ying (NUS Pharmacy staff)