Friday, Dec. 13, 2019 turned out to be a very lucky day for the first graduates of the Class of 2020.
The UNC Asheville community gathered with the family and friends of some 225 graduating bulldogs to celebrate the completion of their college education—but their journey with UNC Asheville is far from over, said Chancellor Nancy J. Cable.
“As a graduate of this institution, it is your responsibility to use the critical thinking and problem-solving skills you developed here to improve our society and the lives of others you will meet along your journey,” Cable told the graduates. “Your education does not end here because learning, as we all know, is a lifelong pursuit.”
Student Government Association President Isaiah Green, a senior management major, addressed his fellow students, encouraging his classmates to go forward with the same attitude that brought them to graduation.
“Where you are right now was not an easy spot to get to,” Green said. “I bet that more than once, you thought of throwing in the towel, or quitting, but something inside of each of you did not allow you to give up. I don’t quite know what that annoying voice is yet, and maybe you don’t either, but I know it is the reason why each and every one of you shouldn’t be scared of this next step, whatever it may be.”
The keynote commencement speech was given by Ameena Batada, associate professor of health and wellness, and recipient of the 2019 Board of Governors Award for Excellence. Batada works with both students and community partners to conduct research to support policy advocacy and evaluate health-related programs. Batada had a few words of wellness advice to offer the graduates—hug someone for more than 20 seconds to release oxytocin, the love hormone, into your body; be sure to move, even when jobs demand that you sit for long periods of time; and remember the notion of “health in all policies,” regardless of the career you end up in.
Batada also spoke on the concept of “now.”
“Just to be clear, I don’t mean that your time is now in a superficial, ‘grab the bull by the horns,’ or ‘you only live once’ kind of way. I mean, your time is now, in the deepest, full and complex kind of way,” Batada said, explaining that this was, instead, an invitation to pay attention. “In each ‘now’ also is the future. It’s a cliche and maybe paradoxical, but now is the future. The decisions you make now will affect your future, and others’. So, choose wisely. And also know that you can learn, with compassion, from any decision. It is good that your life is filled with nows.”
Each “now” is also a product of the past, Batada said, and “in our now, we must seek out and listen to multiple narratives of people’s own experiences, particularly the ones that have been displaced and been made to seem invisible.”
“My sense from those of you sitting out there who I know, and from the many students I have known over the years, is that you already are ‘now’ thinkers and doers,” Batada said. And though the graduates may be moving on from campus, Batada assured them that they would remain an important part of the UNC Asheville community.
“Your questions and contributions have made us better at what we do and in turn have helped to better the lives of students after you. Your presence also is encoded in this campus space,” Batada said. “You are leaving traces that may or may not be measured empirically but that are certainly felt, now, and into the future. We are forever connected.”
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