Good evening Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, members of the University Council, distinguished guests, colleagues, graduates, families and friends.<\/p>\n
It is an honour and great pleasure to deliver this evening’s Occasional Address, and I thank Curtin University for the invitation to speak to you.\u00a0 I also acknowledge that we meet here this evening on the traditional lands of the Nyungar people.<\/p>\n
Graduation ceremonies are a highlight of university life.\u00a0 They are both a time of pomp and ceremony \u2013 when we don the formal attire of academic dress and partake in ceremonial rites of passage \u2013 as well as a time of celebration.
\nWe celebrate the achievements and successes of you, the graduates.\u00a0 We publically acknowledge that each and every one of you has met the scholarly and academic requirements for admission to the degree for which you are entitled.
\nAt the same time we recognise that many, perhaps most of you have, at some point, overcome difficulties to be here this evening.\u00a0 These difficulties will have been wide and varied \u2013 be they study related, of a personal nature, or otherwise.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, by being here at this evening’s Graduation Ceremony you have demonstrated an ability to accept challenges and overcome the difficulties encountered along your journey through university life.\u00a0 This evening we celebrate your accomplishments.<\/p>\n
However, you should bear in mind that graduating from university is not an end in itself.\u00a0 Rather, it is a beginning.
\nThe skills and attributes you have developed and honed during your studies here at Curtin stand you in good stead to embark on whatever journey life presents to you.\u00a0 But, having demonstrated an ability to survive the ‘university experience’, you must never forget to continually adapt \u2013 to refine and enhance the skills you have developed in a lifelong learning context.\u00a0 I will return to this theme in a minute or two.<\/p>\n
Graduation ceremonies are about more than you, the graduates, however.\u00a0 By gathering together this evening we have the opportunity, indeed an obligation, to acknowledge and celebrate the sacrifices made by the loved ones \u2013 friends and family alike \u2013 who have supported each and every graduating student.<\/p>\n
These sacrifices may have been financial, emotional, or of some other personal nature.\u00a0 Nevertheless, each sacrifice has been a critically important and unique contribution to each graduate’s university experience.\u00a0 Without these sacrifices being made, I’m sure that many graduates would not be here to tonight.\u00a0 On behalf of Curtin University, I thank all those who have supported, most usually in the background, the members of this year’s graduating class.
\nI now turn my attention to looking forward.\u00a0 A few minutes ago I mentioned the phrase ‘lifelong learning’.\u00a0 I know that this is a phrase that each and every graduating student will have heard on numerous occasions.<\/p>\n
Utilising ‘lifelong learning’ skills is one of the nine fundamental attributes that all Curtin students are asked to demonstrate before they are deemed ready to graduate.\u00a0 Ensuring students practice and enhance their lifelong learning skills is a priority task for all University staff.\u00a0 The goal is ensure that you, the graduating class of 2010, have the skills to adapt to an uncertain future.<\/p>\n
What exactly ‘demonstrating lifelong learning skills’ actually entails can be a challenge for many people to articulate clearly.\u00a0 I’d like to take this opportunity to offer one simple piece of advice to all graduates.\u00a0 I contend that by following this advice, most other things are more likely to fall naturally in to place.
\nMy advice is, in whatever path you choose, in whatever journey you commence as you leave Curtin, “follow your heart”.<\/p>\n
Do what you enjoy doing.<\/p>\n
In this way you’re much more likely to do what you’re doing well.\u00a0 And if you do it well, doors will open and opportunities will present themselves that you may have never dreamed of.\u00a0 In other words, you’ll be applying what you already know to new and exciting contexts \u2013 and thus engaging in lifelong learning.<\/p>\n
If I may be so indulgent, let me use my own life experience as an example.<\/p>\n
I am the Head of the Chemistry Department at Curtin University.\u00a0 I never had a career plan to be an academic, let alone an academic leader, and certainly didn’t devise an explicit program of career decisions to get to where I am today.
\nI enjoy my job immensely.\u00a0 Others think that I do a good job.\u00a0 I have little firm idea of where my career will take me in the medium-to-long term.\u00a0 But, I don’t really worry about this because I am having fun, and when I have fun I know that things will pan out.<\/p>\n
So, how did I get to where I am today?\u00a0 I am a geek!\u00a0 Always have been.\u00a0 Probably always will be.\u00a0 I love chemistry.\u00a0 And that’s about all there is to it.<\/p>\n
When I was six years old I remember going down the street with my mother and grandmother with excitement.\u00a0 I vividly recall standing in front of the shop window of our country town’s small toy shop.\u00a0 In the shop window was a large Salter’s Chemistry Set.\u00a0 Unfortunately, you can’t readily purchase chemistry sets of this type nowadays due to safety concerns.\u00a0 But, in the early 1970s they were relatively commonplace.<\/p>\n
I don’t know what attracted me to the chemistry set in the window, but I really wanted it.\u00a0 On my seventh birthday, my grandmother gave me the set I desired as a birthday present.\u00a0 Over the years my mother grew increasing exasperated when, as the complexity of the chemistry set grew, she would find me “borrowing” the kitchen cutlery and crockery to become key parts of my latest “volcano” reaction or rotten-egg-gas generating experiments.\u00a0 For some reason, Mum never wanted the gear I borrowed back in her kitchen!<\/p>\n
I studied science and maths in high school because I loved chemistry.\u00a0 I enrolled in a science degree at university for the same reason.\u00a0 I had no idea of what type of job I wanted at the end of my studies, I just loved chemistry.
\nThe enjoyment I gained from my chemistry studies opened doors that I would never have imagined existed.\u00a0 As a third year university student I worked on an enjoyable research project under the supervision of a young academic.\u00a0 My supervisor had started his academic career that year having undertaken his Ph.D. and postdoctoral studies in the United States.<\/p>\n
The next thing I know, I’ve looked into my options, sat all the entrance exams, and found myself studying for a Ph.D. in Chemistry at Stanford University in California.\u00a0 I enjoyed research and found myself then undertaking postdoctoral research studies at Yale University.\u00a0 This certainly wasn’t a plan \u2013 it just happened as part of a journey!<\/p>\n
Towards the end of my postdoc I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life \u2013 other than it had to involve chemistry.\u00a0 I decided to give academia a whirl.\u00a0 I don’t really know why (other than being familiar with the university research culture), and was certainly prepared to get a job, preferably involving chemistry research, in the “real world” if I didn’t like it.<\/p>\n
I had the enviable dilemma of having to decide between Lectureship job offers at two leading Australian universities.\u00a0 To this day I’m convinced that the offers I had were a direct result of my enthusiasm and passion for what I do.
\nIt turns out that I loved academia!\u00a0 On top of being able to pursue my research interests, I found that I loved teaching chemistry to undergraduates.\u00a0 And, because I enjoyed it, I think that’s why I found that I was really quite good at it.\u00a0 I worked my way through the academic ranks, and found myself moving to Curtin to become the Head of Chemistry a little over 12 months ago.<\/p>\n
I’ve told you that story to illustrate that by following your heart, doing your best, and enjoying yourself along the way, good things can, and do, happen.<\/p>\n
I encourage you all, as you graduate from Curtin this evening, to choose your own path based upon what you enjoy doing.\u00a0 Each and every one of you has the potential to stand here in the future and tell tomorrow’s graduates how you succeeded by following your heart.<\/p>\n
I wish you all the very best in your future endeavours.\u00a0 Curtin has prepared you well to achieve great things and to become the visionary leaders of tomorrow.\u00a0 The next step is up to you.<\/p>\n
Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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