orillia CAMPUS CEREMONY

Saturday, June 9, 2012

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Class of 2012, we are here today to celebrate achievement.

We are here to celebrate your achievement.

For most of you, it has been a long road to get here.

This achievement has been the result of hard work, determination and sacrifice.

Sir Edmund Hillary, the New Zealand mountain climber and Antarctic explorer, renowned for being first to successfully climb Mount Everest, famously said that, “It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”

Your achievement today has been the result of conquering yourselves and the obstacles before you.

There have been moments when you faced the most fragile of human emotions and you have not given yourself up to vulnerability and self-doubt.

You have achieved.

One of my favorite definitions of achievement states that it is “something accomplished, especially by superior ability, special effort, great courage, a great or heroic deed.”

You are not here because of a heroic deed.

You are here because of many heroic deeds.

Heroic deeds that were sometimes small and unnoticed by those around you or even perhaps by yourselves, accumulated over several years, imperceptibly woven into your lives,

into your minds and into the very essence of your being. 

You have achieved.

In some ways, you are not the same individuals who came here several years ago, looking to learn and wanting to succeed.

You are transformed.

And in today’s rite of passage, we celebrate that transformation; we celebrate that achievement.

The achievement of your industry, the dedication of your spirit, the determination of your will.

You have fulfilled the motto of your alma mater, Ad augusta per angusta — Achievement through effort

You have achieved.

As Lakehead grads and alumni, you are surrounded by achievement and poised to grow further.

As students of Simcoe County’s University, you have demonstrated how adversity is not to be feared, but confronted and overcome.

These are the things that shape you, that mould your lives, and that make your achievements possible.

Lakehead students are achievers in many ways.

How?

You are committed to their communities.

You are committed to their fellow citizens.

You are committed to the highest standards of excellence.

You are committed to Achievement.

Five years ago, Simcoe County succeeded in breaking new ground to build itself a university in Orillia.

Since then, our University has grown from 100 students to 12-hundred students.

From 25 graduates after our first year to today, when Lakehead Orillia is graduating 350 brilliant minds — each poised for further growth and greater success.

We continue to break new ground, grow and succeed as a University.

Having completed Phase One of our expansion plans, Simcoe County’s University now boasts two locations.

With the construction of our cutting edge, L.E.E.D.-approved facilities, a new cafeteria and our brand new, 271-bed residence.

Seven hundred of our students took out YMCA memberships in the first year of a new partnership.

That accomplishment earned this campus the prestigious 2012 Student Affairs and Services Association Award for Innovation.

This university knows how to grow and succeed.

Our university continues to break new ground, grow and succeed through our wonderful faculty.

We owe to them, the diversity of courses and programs offered and so Simcoe County’s University continues to grow and serve its community.

This year, Dr. Doug West introduced “Humanities 101,”a groundbreaking program providing access to university-level education for people facing financial barriers other challenges.

With considerable community support, the success of Dr. West’s program culminated, last month, in a moving graduation ceremony for 25 ‘Humanities 101’ students.

Dr. Thamara Laredo’s also servers her community.

With a new, weekly summer lecture series, ‘Summer of Sustainability,’ she invites the public into the classrooms to discuss environmental sustainability issues with experts from Lakehead and other universities.

Our university continues to break new ground, grow and succeed through our students.

For the first time at this campus, students are enrolled in a Master’s program — with Master of Science in Biology students, Sheri O’Connor, Debbie Balika and Steve Allard breaking that new ground.

Touching the community around them, 25 of our Education students designed Jurassic Park 2012 — a conference for over 200 of Simcoe County District’s gifted, grade 4 to 8 students, who came to our campus to be paleontologists for a day.

Because of Lakehead students, those children enjoyed an extraordinary experience of growth and success. 

Like our promising students, graduates, faculty and alumni, this University continues its astonishing growth and success!

Thanks to the existence of Lakehead Orillia, our university is leading the province in so many ways.

Through this campus, the word is getting out across southern Ontario of the wonderful achievements happening at Lakehead University.

As a promising sign of how rapidly your university continues to grow, the nuxmber of applications to Lakehead Orillia from Barrie and Newmarket have each increased a spectacular 40%!

Among our peer institutions in Ontario, Lakehead is first in research intensity, with eight Canada Research Chairs.

Lakehead ranks number one in our category in total research funding with an annual funding of over $22M. 

We are number one in Growth in Research Intensity among Ontario Undergraduate universities

Lakehead’s research ranking for the Social Sciences and Humanities Grants in our category has increased from12^th place in 2001 to 1^st place in Canada in 2011. 

We now have nine Canada Research Chairs and are recruiting an additional three.

For the 4^th consecutive year, the employment rate of our graduates exceeded the provincial average.

And, just last week, I was privileged to introduce Professor Lee Stuesser, Lakehead University's Founding Dean of Law. 

In 2013, we open our doors to the first new faculty of law in Ontario in over 43 years.

This university knows how to grow and succeed.

Parents, you will be happy to know that within two years of graduation, almost 95% of Lakehead students have found employment, one of the highest averages among Ontario Universities.

Simcoe County’s University continues its astonishing growth — providing new opportunities

and enabling more people in this area to grow, to succeed, to achieve.

This university represents the growth of this community.

And this community continues to grow with us.

Lakehead Orillia’s graduating class of 2012:

We’ve watched you develop.

You know success.

You will continue to achieve.

Let me close by saying to each of you…

You, our 2012 graduates…

As you step into your next adventure, Lakehead goes with you.

Together… We… Will… Achieve.