Valedictory Speech
By Sadia Ashar, Class of 2010
Bismillah -ir -Rahman -ir -Rahim
Honourable Chief Guest, Mr Khushnood Lashari
Members of the board of Trustees,
President, Aga Khan University,
Faculty Members,Distinguished Guests, and
My Fellow Graduates
As Salaam Walaikum and Good Morning!
I feel very proud and honored to speak before you today on this very special and memorable occasion. There is an enormous sense of excitement and I am sure you can all feel it. Today my colleagues and I have received a professional degree from the Aga Khan University which formally signifies that we are a part of the 'community of learners' and 'enlightened practitioners' with a responsibility of bringing improvement both in the quality and relevance of education and nursing in Pakistan.
AKU has helped us broaden our vision through developing the integral skills of critical thinking and reflective practice. The experience of engaging in intellectual, academic and professional dialogue helped us to internalise and make these skills a part of our professional and personal life. Moreover, these skills have made us lifelong learners by equipping us with strategies to better understand and build on our strengths as well as working upon our weaknesses.
Our academic years at AKU provided us with a rich learning experience through learning from a group of faculty members having expertise in different subject areas. These teachers modeled innovative and creative teaching and learning approaches that are indeed helpful for us in our professional lives.
Apart from learning from faculty members we also learned from a diverse group of friends. The diverse people of our batch belonging to Pakistan, Syria and Kenya each one brought a unique knowledge and quality with him or her. We were very open to share our knowledge with each other any where and at any time. For example, one can recall the experience of sharing critical feedback on the assignments, reading together in the library to understand a concept and working together in groups to accomplish assigned tasks. I can never forget the arguments in which we at times got involved during group work. These constructive arguments challenged each ones ideas and helped us to reflect more critically upon our current practices.
During our journey we also shared joys and sorrows with each other. Standing here today, I can recall the times of happiness when we celebrated our birthdays, when one of our classmates became a father, and when two of our friends got married. We all celebrated these happy days together by cutting cakes and sharing sweets. We also stood by each other during the unpleasant days when two of our classmates lost their loved ones in their family. There was always a healthy exchange of visits between the Institute for Educational Development and School of Nursing. Infact, SON students at times participated in IED's elective courses. This shows a strong bond between different entities of the Aga Khan University.
Ladies and gentlemen, we experienced these times as during our study our home was Aga Khan University. We used to reach AKU early in the morning and work till late to cope with endless readings and meet the deadlines of our assignments. I must appreciate the efforts of the institution which facilitated us throughout our studies by providing us with a resourceful library, computer facilities and resources, social area for serving lunch meal and tea, medical facilities to the students, transport facilities and hostel facilities for international and outside Karachi students.
We have completed our studies after a great rigor. We all have a responsibility in front of us to bring a positive change in the educational and health sector. It is our duty to raise the standards of our country through bringing creativity, innovation, passion and devotion in our profession. This will help us produce great humans and effective leaders who can deal efficiently with the present disorder of the country.
On behalf of the class of 2010 I reassure you all that we will effectively apply the learnt skills of critical thinking and reflective practice in our profession in order to help the community by reaching out to the less privileged. We will also bring improvement in the educational as well as health sector by serving people with care and preparing our young generation to become effective leaders of tomorrow.
In the end I would like to thank all the facilitators, AKU staff, our families and friends who provided us continuous support and facilitated us during the journey of our study. We thank you all for your kindness, care and support, without which it would not have been possible for us to be here today!
Thank you all once again!
Good Day and Khuda Hafiz.
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