THUNDER BAY CAMPUS CEREMONies

June 1-2, 2012

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2012 Graduands, 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 favourite 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. 

But as Lakehead grads and Lakehead alumni, you are surrounded by achievement 

Our students have proven that challenge and adversity are not to be feared but must be confronted and overcome – these are the things that shape your character, that mould your lives that make your achievements possible. 

Earlier this year, Lakehead student Nick Lounsbury proved this when he helped save a man who fell in front of an oncoming train at Union Station in Toronto. Nick chose not to be a bystander, not to be an observer, and jumped onto the subway tracks risking his own life to rescue him and offer comfort and first aid. 

Lakehead students are achievers. 

They are committed to their communities, their fellow citizens, and to the highest standards of excellence. 

A team of Lakehead University students showed their commitment to their community in a different way. Student members of SIFE won an Entrepreneurs First! grant from the Business Development Bank of Canada for their innovative project to provide support and programming for existing and prospective Aboriginal entrepreneurs in Northwestern Ontario. 

Geology student Steven Flank also attracted national attention for the most outstanding honours thesis from the Volcanology and Igneous Petrology Division of the Geological Association of Canada. Steven received the organization’s bronze Léopold Gélinas Medal. 

Lakehead students are in the vanguard of whatever are they choose. 

Our very own Thunderwolves Nordic Team his year pushed themselves to their physical limits and both the Men’s and Women’s Squads won the Team and Individual Titles at the Canadian College and University Nordic Championships in Quebec. 

You have achieved.

The 2012 Alumni Award winners exemplify the achievements of Lakehead grads in diverse areas of endeavour including mining, journalism, and anthropology. 

Michael Friscolanti Senior Writer for Maclean’s Magazine and Matthew Tocheri a Physical Anthropologist who works at the Smithsonian Institute, are this year's Young Alumni Award recipients and rising stars in their highly competitive fields 

Jamie Sokalsky the Chief Financial Officer of Barrick Gold and Philip Walford the President of Marathon Gold are the recepients of the Alumni Honour Award for their outstanding contributions to mining and exploration as well as for their contributions to our community and to Lakehead University. 

You have achieved. 

But our students and alumni are setting new standards in achievement not only because of their own inner strengths and talents but also because they have inspiring role models and mentors. 

Lakehead faculty are scaling new heights and their achievements are being celebrated on the national and international stage. 

Dr. Aicheng Chen has just been honoured with the Canadian Society for Chemistry’s Keith Laidler Award for his revolutionary contributions to electrochemistry and nanotechnology – an award whose past recipients include a Nobel Prize winner. 

Dr. Chen is conducting incredibly complex work to help people across the globe by developing water purification treatments, facilitating solar energy production, and even fighting diabetes with a new generation of glucose sensors, among other things. 

Another Lakehead researcher, our very own Vice President Research, Dr. Rui Wang, made headlines this year when the results of his major breakthrough in the study of hydrogen sulfide gas was published Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America - one of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals. Dr. Wang's research will be used to create lifesaving interventions for diseases such as strokes and heart attacks. 

This focus on how research can help people continued with the work of Dr. Mary Lou Kelley who won the 2011 Award of Excellence in Hospice Palliative Care in September. 

Dr. Kelley is a passionate advocate for the dying and their families and has become the first university-based researcher and educator to receive this award which usually goes to clinicians. 

You have achieved.

Earlier this week, I was able to introduce Professor Lee Streusser, Lakehead University's Founding Dean of Law. In 2013-14 we will be opening our doors to the first faculty of law in Ontario in over 43 years. 

Among our peer institutions in Ontario, Lakehead is first in research intensity, with eight Canada Research Chairs, second in student-faculty ratio, and second in graduation rate. We are also well respected in the employer community. In fact, for the fourth year in a row the employment rate of our graduates exceeded the provincial average. Parents, you will be happy to know that within two years 97% of our students have found employment, of the highest averages among Ontario Univrsities. 

We are proud of the opportunity we provide. 12% of our students are aboriginal and nearly 60% of our students come from the first generation in their family to receive a university degree. Three-quarters of our engineering graduates and over 60% of our Business Graduates started as College Transfer students. Lakehead is opening new pathways and enabling more people to achieve. 

You have achieved.

One of the astonishing achievements of this university is that 60% of you graduating today are, like me, first generation Univesity graduates. 

This is an astonishing achievement. 

This year, we started the Achievement program in which students as young as 10 will be given program support and be eligible for tuition support when they too come to Lakehead. 

And they too achieve. 

Today we celebrate your achievement.