JANICE G. ALISON
Bachelor of
Science in Elementary Education
UNO-Recoletos Batch 2014 Summa
Cum Laude
4th Placer, August 2014 Licensure Examination for Teachers – Elementary Level
*This Valedictory Address was delivered
during 68th COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES last March 22, 2014.
“Teachers open the door, you enter by
yourself”. This is a famous Chinese proverb that entails a lot of meaning for
us. Today, embarks the end of our
journey in college, but a fresh start to begin a career.
Setting first our foot in
this institution, gave us a feeling of assurance that we were all in good
hands. We were assured of having that kind of quality education, embedded with the Augustinian Recollect style of education, which completed the equation, in order to produce optimally-developed
graduates, that we are today.
In behalf of all graduating
students, it is with great pride, honor and privilege, that I
was given the chance to express our heartfelt gratitude to you, our dear
parents and families. It is because of you, our parents and families, who have
chosen this University to be our training ground for us to learn wisdom, develop our skills
and hone us with the UNO-rian core
values; it is because of you who have sacrificed so much for us, that we are receiving our
diplomas today. If not because of your sacrifices, even, depriving yourselves
of your own needs, just to support our education financially despite of many
adversities.
To you our dear parents and
family members, we may not always have the chance to tell you how grateful we
are for having you as our parents, but, deep within us, you will always be valued.
Fellow graduates, let today’s ceremony be a strong
reminder of how great is the love of our parents and families for
us, on how they prepared the way for us to be strong and be ready for whatever challenges we shall meet in the
future.
Whatever life brings us in
our journey, we are assured that it is because
the journey of our lives is not just about the destinations we have
reached. Our wisdom, education, and personal growth come from people we meet,
the paths we choose to follow and the lessons we have learned along the way
were highly influenced by our parents and the significant others in our lives.
Words are not enough to say
thank you to you, not only because
of all your efforts to make us receive our awards and diplomas
today, but more so for the love,
devotion and care you have endowed on us
all these years.
Fellow graduates, let us continually give importance to our parents; because in each and
every moment of our lives, as we were busy growing up, we have forgotten,
that they are also growing old.
Our experiences with our
mentors may sometimes be painful, but
our elders tried to do their duties in their commitment and their desire to
give what’s best for us. In their
aspiration to provide us opportunities and challenges for us to excel in
our own field, to attain our own interest and
work in our own pace; sometimes, forgetting that we are all diverse
individuals. Our mentors serve as our parents here in this University,
sometimes, hurting us in the process, so we will be able to see the light of
rightness; they provide us with all the
necessary information that we need to know but at the same time, they coupled it
with an eclectic approach that will best suit our diversities.
Our teachers are our heroes
because they helped us realize our
dreams, they have bridged the unfolding of
what’s inside us and they have awakened
our hunger for intellectual knowledge. To you, our
dear teachers, a million thanks, because without you, we can’t be what we are
right now.
Indeed, along with our parents is our
University, and our respective colleges-
who provided us with the opportunity to
make our dreams turn into reality. It is through the guidance and supervision
of our ever supportive, Religious and Lay Administrators, Deans, Faculty members
and support staff that strengthened our characters, making us proud Uno-r
graduates today. Dear administrators and
teachers, you have paved the way to make
our personal and professional dreams come true.
Moreover, our experiences would not
have been complete as it should be, if these
were not shared by other people and with
our friends. They say, people come and go, you’ll never know who’s with you and
who’s not. Let us value the people who walked with us in this journey in our lives, let us cherish them like gems in jewelry boxes.
To all of our friends and
classmates, all of us, we do sincerely thank each one of you - for the genuine
friendship that you’ve shared with us for
four long years, even five years for the
graduates of the Engineering programs; maybe shorter or much longer for the
Graduate School and the College of Law. No
matter how long or short is our stay in our Alma Mater, Im sure, we have beautiful memories to remember by.
All of us have reasons to thank
all our
friends and batchmates from other colleges, because we have shown our
oneness as students of this University-
the company, time and friendship, smiles we show to one another as we
meet at the lobby, the oratory, the University Park- these will always be worth
remembering.
I know also that you are
one with me in believing that all these things will not be possible if not for the grace of our Almighty
God. He deserves all the glory and honor for He is the author of our lives and
the sole provider of our knowledge. Indeed, God works in mysterious ways; sometimes,
we can’t comprehend the way He did nor question His will in what has happened
to us during our student days; though, if we have the heart that is patient
enough to listen and the mind that is willing to understand, we can see what God
has wanted us to be.
I just hope and pray that
as we leave the portals of our dear Alma Mater, we will always have that kind
of character that defines a true UNO-Rian- competent and capable to continuously reach for excellence.
In behalf of all graduating
students 2014, we praise the Lord for giving us significant people in our lives
who inspired us not to walk in step with
the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of
mockers; but for us, to delight in the law of the Lord, UNO-rians who have
imbibed the core values taught to us hopefully, for us to have developed a
strong prayerful life, one who can meditate
on the law of God everyday.
