VSU President’s Commencement Message for CSPC Class of 2023

To the members of the Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges Board of Trustees Chaired by the Honorable Commissioner Aldrin A. Darilag, CSPC President Dr. Charlito P. Cadag, Members of the College Administrative Council, faculty and staff, and of course, the graduating students of this Cluster, parents, guardians, other guests, ladies and gentlemen, a pleasant afternoon to all.

I am honored to be here with you and serve as your commencement speaker upon the invitation of your President and I am humbled to be given this opportunity.

First of all, I would like to congratulate CSPC Class of 2023 (in this cluster) for a job well done. Graduation is a big day for you, your families, teachers, and administrators. Most graduates, myself included when I completed my baccalaureate degree, do not remember the graduation speeches they hear, but one thing they do remember is the feeling they got in the moment. Inspired, challenged, and to some extent really fulfilled in your aspiration to finish your baccalaureate degrees.

But let this be a moment of joy and jubilation. Let this be an occasion where you reflect on the past, celebrate the present, and be inspired toward the future.

Reflections on how you hurdled the past four, five, or even six years of your stay here in CSPC, especially during the pandemic period will help you understand the hard work that you have done, the sleepless nights that you have endured and the tireless support of your parents and guardians in making sure that you succeed in your respective degree programs.

I remember my college days when I was a freshman student at VSU. During the first semester, I had difficulty understanding, particularly listening to a volunteer teacher from England who was teaching us the subject of Economics. As I was coming from a public high school, I found it difficult to understand British English and as a result, my midterm grade was barely passing. But that didn’t discourage me. I studied really hard. Eventually I recovered and improved my grades to maintain my university scholarship. In a class where everyone is so competitive, you really have to do your best.

Your perseverance and diligence have motivated you to succeed and give your best. As a class, your legacy included those things that have set you apart as a well-rounded one - record academic achievement, community service, leadership, and care for others. You are the most precious treasure of your school for you have embodied the prevailing spirit of a victor.

Today is a day of celebration. You succeeded, and now you are here with family and friends to celebrate your significant accomplishment.

Today is also a day of gratitude. A day to give thanks to those who supported you along the journey. This includes your family, friends, and instructors/professors who encouraged you, taught you, and pushed you to explore outside of your comfort zones. None of these would have been possible without their help.

I am aware of your institution’s motto which reads “Pivoting towards excellence and Transformation in Polytechnic education”.

Let me ask you, graduates:

What is excellence? What benchmarks do we use to assess excellence? What makes excellence necessary? How can one achieve excellence? Why strive for excellence?

These questions spring to mind when we say that excellence becomes a mindset. Is it our way of life? How can we demonstrate that we are living the way or culture of excellence even if we are not really conscious of it?

Certainly, I do not have all the answers to these questions but I personally believe in excellence and its power to attract perseverance, embrace opportunities, and shift perspectives.

I'd like to share with you a true story that would motivate you today.

This is a story about Sami Stoner, a blind runner. Maybe some of you have heard this story already but allow me to share it with you again for those who have not heard it.

Sami competed cross-country throughout the season with her new guide dog, Chloe, and is believed to be the first high school athlete in her home state to compete with an animal.

Sami, who had just finished her fourth year of cross-country running, was granted a waiver by the state high school sports association so she could compete with a dog.

The golden retriever puppy who helps Sami through the busy hallways at school also guides her safely across the jogging trails.

Sami and Chloe lag behind other runners by 20 to 30 seconds at the starting line to prevent Chloe from being spiked, but they typically overtake them after the first mile of the 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) course.

Sami claims that running while only having limited peripheral vision is scary. But Chloe stays extremely focused, which has given Sami the confidence to improve her record.

Despite her condition, Sami approaches life with remarkable zest, according to those close to her, and aspires to be a positive role model for other visually impaired people, including a young girl she recently began mentoring.

What drives one person to accomplish so much despite all the odds?

Can we picture ourselves overcoming the challenges Sami has faced?

If the answer is "no," then we should take Sami's experience as a lesson and aspire to excel at what we do. As Aristotle said:

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

This story shows how much we can accomplish if we put our minds to it. I want you to remember 6 points that we can set our minds on to achieve excellence:

1. Ask yourself if this is the best you can do. Whatever level of excellence you currently perceive, there is always room for improvement.

2. Ask yourself if this is the best you can be. Many people fail because they are comfortable with mediocrity and no longer see the need to strive to be better.

3. Concentrate on one task at a time. Stay focused on your tasks. Everything is achievable if properly managed and organized.

4. Pay attention to the details. Complete a task while exhibiting a thorough regard for all areas involved, no matter how small.

5. Critically look at criticism or feedback. Has anyone criticized you or your work at school? Yes, we all face this one. Whatever we do, there are always opinions of others who may not agree with you. Listen!  It could be an opportunity to get closer to excellence by making (sometimes) small adjustments. Take criticism as something to push you up and not bring you down. As Winston Churchill aptly said and I quote” You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.

6. Do it Again! Make it a routine.  As long as you have taken the time to learn from previous mistakes, there is nothing wrong with doing the task again. To aim for excellence stems from our choices. If you choose to excel, you are determined to excel.

I put this as a challenge to our dear graduates, the Class of 2023 as you embark on your next journey. This brings me to the next point, “Be inspired toward the future”. I know that your generation is very different from our generation years ago. You live in a time where almost everything is at your fingertips. You thrive in a period where access to information and the creation of content for information is readily available and doable. Some of you may even feel entitled but Class of 2023, I’ll tell you “Stay Focus”.

Continue to focus on developing a strong excellent-driven mindset. It is certain that you are going to fall sometimes from left to right and you may even fall back. Sooner or later after your graduation, you will step out into a bigger arena where the realm for error is small, and sometimes you gotta bleed and cry for excellence. It won’t be easy. 

There are endless possibilities out there, all you have to do is to step your way in. Whatever your purpose, whatever you’re pursuing, whatever your dream is, I want to encourage you to go and see it and make sure you excel. Don’t settle anything for less.

I would like to share with you my story after my graduation from the university and my path toward becoming the President of Visayas State University.

Right after obtaining my BS in Agricultural Chemistry, I was hired as a Research Assistant at the same school and after 10 months of working at the young age of 19, I was granted a British Scholarship to pursue my Masters in the University of London. I was really scared because that was my first trip abroad and because of the uncertainties. But I was determined back then to continue my study. I was not really sure if I was destined to work in the academe but I took it as a rare opportunity. It was a door opening. Maybe it was a sign presented to me to work at my university thereafter. I had good memories in London including my frequent visits to the British Museum which is just the next block in the university. The point is probably because I was young and eager to explore and see the beautiful places in England and the best educational system in my field not to mention to see in person “London Bridge and Buckingham Palace” and of course the motivation to grow professionally, I took the challenge.

Fast forward, after I completed my Masters's degree and returned to VSU and worked for five years I took another challenge of studying for my doctorate in Japan through the Japanese government scholarship. This was a new challenge for me because of the new language and culture but at the same time, I took it again as another opportunity to grow.

The knowledge and skills I learned in the UK and Japan and the experience to work with people as a team prepared me and enabled me in my present work. I tell you there are so many trials and hardships along the way but as I said we must endure all of this. Just be truthful and work for the good of the many. Stay focused on what you can do and where you want to be. There is no success formula out there, you can create your future if you wish to. Just as what we are doing now in our state universities and colleges we can frame and create our future if we wish to. If we have the will to do it, we can start now and look forward to what we can achieve.

Finally, I hope that today's celebration will serve as a breakthrough for us to pursue excellence. Learn from your mistakes, grow from your mistakes, and become unique but never quit. Don’t stop moving forward! Never forget that Excellence is achievable and can become your habit.  

Again Congratulations Class of 2023, congratulations Chairman Darilag and CHED, and congratulations to President Cadag for bringing this pool of talents who will become our future movers in our country.

Maraming salamat and Mabuhay po tayong lahat!

[This speech was delivered by VSU President Edgardo E. Tulin to the graduating class of the Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges (CSPC) on June 5, 2023, during their 38th Commencement Exercises.]

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