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By the authority vested in me by the Senate
of York University I hereby confer on you the Degree
of Doctor of Laws honoris causa admitto te ad gradum.
[ Applause ]
>> Chancellor, Mr. President, faculty and staff,
honored guests, graduates, parents, families,
ladies and gentlemen, welcome to convocation.
Well, graduating class of 2011, you made it.
[ Applause ]
That comes as great news for families, friends and teachers
who supported you in your educational journey.
Enjoy the moment.
I know it feels like you've crossed the finish line,
but actually it's more a threshold.
Graduation marks a starting point, rather than the end
of your academic studies.
Sorry to be the one to bring you the news.
[laughter] I can speak from an experience of 35 years
in educational settings, I can tell you
that education is not something you do,
it is something you live.
Learning never stops, should never stop,
and is not a destination but rather a journey.
Think of it as one big conversation.
The reality is you are now the next generation of educators
with the power to create, to shape,
and respond to the future.
You can help Ontario and you can help Canada manage
and coordinate innovation.
But what is special about you, graduating class,
is your sense of connectedness.
No fear that you're taking the journey alone.
You are the Millennials.
You are the wired generation, born at the dawn of the www
and technology has never been foreign to you.
In fact, technology is part of your DNA; the net, Facebook,
MySpace, Linkedin, YouTube, Twitter, text messaging
and many others I have never even heard about.
[laughter] All the tools, but you know that they're not
about talking at someone, but speaking with each other
in an almost non-stop running dialogue.
It's what you know.
But for the rest of us, my age and older,
you are a generation that has us guessing.
And so as I look out at you and I see the bright smiling faces,
taking delight in your accomplishments,
I can only imagine what it means to you to hear that this isn't
about finishing your studies as much as it is about starting
to learn and to find your place in the world.
Just saying that sounds challenging
because for Millennials, your world is global.
Your circle of friends, infinite.
Your reaction time based on thumb text speed.
Convocation is a launch pad not an arrivals area.
So if you want to know the answer
to the standard long distance journey questing
which my kids used to ask all the time, "are we there yet?"
The answer is, you're off to a great start into a world
where ethnocultural diversity values inclusion
and social cohesion enrich our communities
and strengthen our Canadian identity.
The global impacts are here.
Your classrooms will be global.
I am honored, Mr. Chancellor, Mr. President,
to receive this honorary doctorate of laws
from this university, from York University
and to have the privilege to stand here and to speak.
You see my grandmother would've said I know that child is headed
for better things, and Dean, she would've said better things
than there are in Grenada.
And I know that wherever she is right now,
she's saying I knew you could do it because she said
to me yes you can way before President Obama said that.
[Laughter & Applause]
York as an interdisciplinary university by reputation,
known as the leading research and teaching university
in Canada, provided you graduates with the skills
to become global citizens.
Did I say your classrooms will be global?
Like every graduating class, we expect you
to make a meaningful contribution to society.
I hope you noted the chancellor's remarks
and also the presidents, because by affecting the life chances
of your students, you will make your classrooms,
your educational settings,
a place where equity is a tool for social cohesion.
As a mother and a grandmother,
I ask you to accept my humble perspective that you
as the millennium generation come
with your own sense of society.
Your sense of family is unique.
Friends are everything.
Change is good.
To borrow from Alexis de Tocqueville,
a French philosopher, himself later defined
as an early sociologist, he said
"each generation is a new people."
So let's give you a heartfelt welcome you new people
of the new millennium!
Let's explore how your generation,
you and your students are going
to help make this world a better place for us all.
To me the millennium mindset is powerful.
It's finely wired, it's interconnected,
it's diversity embracing and it comes with a conscience.
Forgive the mass generalizations,
but for discussion purposes here come a number
of generational attributes defining the
[inaudible] mindset.
This is a generation that values the genuine, the real deal,
the sincere, the original.
Your understanding of the power of bundling technologies
in turn creates a mindset for partnering and collaborating.
There is no "I" in your teams.
There is no doubt you are the offspring
of helicopter parents hovering overhead
and explaining your brilliance,
your beauty and your benevolence.
The research shows you're not too keen to move out
and you might as well hang around to inherit the place.
[laughter] Your generation has the world at its fingerprints,
so the reach is remarkable.
[Inaudible] sophisticated,
savvy bunch they tell us minus the traditional barriers of race
and income, thanks to the web.
I admit the lifelong use of communications
and media technologies keep you, keeps you digitally functioning
as a socially engaged [inaudible].
Your vision is captured in a lens on the now;
on your digital camera, your Smartphone, your web cam.
It's a digital view taken in real-time.
It's about outing more than writing the wrongs.
It's a mindset about holding a mirror
up to the world and saying, really?
Does that look right?
Look fair?
Look equal?
Well, do something about it.
The call is to the collective.
The call is for a conscience.
The hope is that you will bring a new sense of conscience
to big government, to big corporations, and to others
who can affect change.
You've been learning but you've also been teaching.
So now we need you.
We need you to teach us how to feed a hungry world,
how to end the tribal violence, how to stop senseless killings
over borders, and how to share the prom-
the planet's resources, and as Canadians,
deal with the global issues that reach us in our communities
and work places and our classrooms.
You are at the forefront of a generation
that could be a movement.
What a great time to be an educator.
You know that parents choose to send their children
to a publically funded schools.
You know you have a responsibility as an educator
to ensure that no child is marginalized, excluded
or disrespectful- disrespected wherever children are situation.
You are armed here at York University
with educational content, methodologies, approaches,
strategies to enable you to respond to the diverse
and challenging classroom environment of today.
You learned that equity does not mean equal treatment
and that equity and inclusion do not mean the same thing.
Give to your students the sense of hope and belief
that would enable them to reach their full potential.
Today we at this convocation agree
that you are the generation of teachers who will figure
out how new technology
as a learning tool can empower your students,
work at removing barriers, and ensure student success.
The call is to you, graduating class of 2011, so go,
change the world one text, one BBM,
one Face Time message at a time.
Congratulations.
[ Applause ]