"A Promise to Keep" - Address to Fall Convocation - October 2013

Graduating class; parents; family; friends, faculty:

I now have the honour of being the first to address this distinguished class as alumni of the University of Waterloo.

With your hard-earned degrees in your hands, and a swelling pride in your hearts and ours, we now send you Waterloo Warriors out into the world, to bring the spirit of this place with you wherever your lives may lead.

In the fleeting moment it took you to cross this stage, you became alumni of the University of Waterloo.

Soon, an important realization is going to set in.

Your degree is not only an honour for you to boast, but a promise for you to keep.

Because there is a certain expectation that comes from bearing a degree from the University of Waterloo.

People know Waterloo has been ranked Canada’s Most Innovative University for 21 years – and they know that’s because of the quality of our people.

They know this place is a world leader in providing an innovative university education, and that our students and graduates are intelligent, broad-minded, hard-working, entrepreneurial – restless to make the world a better place.

And they’re going to expect you to exhibit these qualities.

Because you have proven, and today we have certified, that you possess them.

There are few things in life so precious  as the dignity of high expectations.

As alumni, you are not alone in bearing the promise of your potential.

163,000 of your peers have gone before you. They live and work in 143 countries around the world; they’re organized into alumni chapters and online communities; they share your devotion to this place; and they’ve got your back.

Connect with your peers in person through your local alumni chapter. Or reach out to a University of Waterloo global ambassador, who can help you adjust to your new surroundings in the city or country you may one day move to.

Make your connection to your alma mater a part of your life.

Look for opportunities to partner with your fellow alumni in civic organizations, and in the work place, and in endeavours to create positive change wherever you happen to build your life.

Honour the words of a great poet, and make this a world  “Where tireless striving  stretches its arms toward perfection.”

On behalf of the entire University of Waterloo family, which spans the globe and in so many ways leads the world, congratulations to the fall class of two thousand and thirteen.