Optimism Attitude for UMAHA Graduates to Defy Pandemic Pressure

Transkrip sambutan Doktor Christine dari Philippine

My most-esteemed officials of the Universitas Maarif Hasyim Latif,

Rector: Dr. Achmad fathoni rodli M.Pd

Chairman of Maarif Hasyim Latif foundation: Ir. Ahmad Makki M.MT

Academic Vice Rector: Prof. Dr Rusiyono M.Pd

Cooperation Vice Rector: Dr. Nuning Nurna Dewi MM.

our Guest: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Didin Wahidin M.Pd -Director of Student Affairs. The National Research and Innovation Agency of the Republic of Indonesia

our faculty and staff, our graduating students and their parents, good morning.

Today, we celebrate and recognize our the success of our graduating students – our future information engineers, industrial engineers, visual communication designers, mechanical engineers, computer engineers, managers, entrepreneurs, accountants, and legal scientists

looking very dignified and majestic in their academic costume – an official symbol of scholarship in your University.

I see faces of joys, of hopes, of excitement… But I know in your hearts, you also feel anxieties, doubts, and uncertainties.

Those were the same with what I felt 18 years ago, when I was in the same occasion with what we have now.

I felt happy, because finally, I am about to graduate.

I was full of hope, that soon I can find and job and pass the board examination.

Energized and excited, in the new segment of our life, that we can have a career, earn a living, and help our families.

However, it might be a bit different this time. There is a lot of questions, of uncertainties in the future brought about by internal and external factors.

Personally, you might be thinking, if you are really prepared to face the world and spread your wings. After this ceremony, you will go on job hunting, but at the back of your mind, you have apprehensions on where you can find the jobs that you want when a lot of people have lost their jobs because of the current global crisis that we have now.

My dear graduating students, fear not. Be confident; because you have been prepared well by your University.

UMAHA has provided you quality education, not just by word of mouth, but in the real sense. Always look back and put into practice UMAHA’s vision, be part of \”Making UMAHA as a superior, modern university in developing science, technology, art, and culture based on the Islamic values ​​of Ahlusunnah wal Jamaah and having an entrepreneurial spirit\”.

You are promised a ray of sunshine, it’s time to make your own rainbow. What you need is just a ‘positive mindset,’ and to show the world what it takes to be a graduate of UMAHA.

And I’d like to quote Mike Finley when he said \”Having the right mindset is critical to graduation no matter at what age you decide to take the leap. The mindset? You must acquire the right mindset that places you in the right frame of mind to make the right decisions, which will lead to the right habits, eventually leading you down the right path as you grow beyond where you are right now.\”

Dream. Believe. Make it happen.

To dream is FREE, but to make it happen is a different story. It takes determination, hard work, and clear directions to take us to our ‘dream destination.’ But even if sometimes, fate may fail us, we have to strategically adjust our sails, redirect our path, to put us on the right trail.

The theme of your graduation “Optimism Attitude for UMAHA Graduates to Defy Pandemic Pressure’ describes well the UMAHA Brand of Graduate.

How can you then perform your role to be the voice and arm of an adamant and meaningful future? As UMAHA graduates, you become ambassadors of our alma mater. You show the world (or your respective workplaces or agencies) the culture and brand of what it is to be a graduate of UMAHA – a professional with a strong work ethic, dependable, responsible, results-oriented and a team player, with of course the passion, commitment and loyalty to service. As we enter the workplace, we are confident that we have imbibed the 21st century skills, the 6Cs – critical thinking, communication, creativity, culture, connectivity and collaboration.

Indeed, ours is a great responsibility and accountability. It is necessary that we elicit good impression, so that employers will always continue in profound anticipation for UMAHA graduates to fill up their vacant positions and join their companies or agencies. If we fail to uphold this trademark or culture of excellence, we deprive the future UMAHA graduates of chances and opportunities.

Dear graduating students, the diploma you will be receiving in the next few days is a prize for your hard work and determination which will be your entry credential so you will get a job. But do not just settle for less. Be a lifelong learner. We live in an era that of constant transformation – from industry 1.0, we are heading towards 4.0, and it calls for a lot of adjustments, so we must live with it. Capacitate and continuously update yourself so that you will become irrelevant.

Even as you look back and rejoice over your accomplishments, the future will always tug you forward. It urges you to be more responsible in making stronger, more focused commitments that will turn your “what ifs” into “why nots.” Loaded with your passion and hard work, you will surely continuously make breakthroughs that will reshape the you\’re your country is trekking.

True enough, you are still journeying the road to our goals.  Indeed, for people with dynamism and lofty goals, the finish line seems always to be just down the road and around the next sharp curve. You must then should continually make key decisions at major crossroads and fine-tune your route as unexpected and unforeseen challenges will likely to emerge.

The realization of all your achievements demanded very substantial investments in money and efforts, all of which could not have been made possible without the care, concern, and support of your parents and your professors. The success and achievement you have now belong to all of us who chose to dedicate ourselves and contribute your education.

I remain thoroughly convinced that our capabilities have been tested and proven during some of the most challenging times in lives brought about by the pandemic. At times, we feel like to falter or give up, and yet we are still here, we continued to hang on and we will continue to survive.  The road to our success is not smooth for all of us, but the joy of the travel is in staying in this journey—and having to survive with the aid of such exceptional, committed and tireless companions at our side. 

In the future when you become engineers, office staff and businessmen, look at yourselves as leaders, not mere managers. Management is just about getting things done, while leadership is anchored in paving the way to achieve your institutional vision – your future. Illustrate transformational leadership Develop more leaders, who see their profession and career as a passion and a mission, not just a job.

Our future nurses, information technologists, public and business administrators, I would like to share an insight by asking you to ponder on these selected lines from Arundathi Roy’s creative work, “The Pandemic Is A Portal,”

Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality.

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.

We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

My dear graduates, keep your optimism to march forward. The pandemic shouldn\’t stop us to live your dreams.

Thank you very much and I wish you all good luck in your career and chosen endeavors.