COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES
Greeting from the Associated Students
Whitney Diver, AS President 2007-2008
Good Morning,
On behalf of the over 8,500 students of Sonoma State University I would like to welcome the graduates, their families, friends and loved ones to the 2008 Sonoma State University Commencement.
On a more personal note, I would like to congratulate you, my fellow graduates, on a job well done. Graduating from college is no small feat and all of you should be very proud of everything you have accomplished.
Each generation faces challenges as they stand on the edge between the world of education and the global community. Generations before us have risen to the challenges posed to them as they embarked into their lives after college, not it’s our turn. How will our generation respond to our challenges? How will our leaders, teachers and luminaries answer the questions posed to our generation? Will our state, our nation and our communities be better off with us as leaders?
As a graduate I feel like I am constantly asked “How has Sonoma State affected you?” or “What impact did Sonoma State have on you as a person?” Today I want to ask you “What impact will you have on our world?” Will you make your community a fundamentally better place? Will you encourage those around you to do the same? And will you inspire those around the world to follow your lead?
I have spent four years with all of you as classmates, friends and colleagues and I can tell you, without a doubt in my mind, that we are up to those challenges. We will leave our communities better off then they were left to us, we will rise up to meet the challenges of our world and face them as leaders, as thinkers, as teachers, as moms and dads, as students and as life long learners.
Today we ceremonially leave this college environment and walk into a world full of conflict, fear, war and crisis. Yet our vision of the world is rooted not in fear, but in hope. We embark into this chaotic world asking ourselves – how we can serve each other, how we can contribute to the least among us, how we can give ourselves to our fellow person. That is how Sonoma State has impacted us, and that is how we will impact the world.
I thank you for four great years and for wonderful experiences, friendships and memories and I wish you luck no matter where life may take you.
Congratulations Class of 2008!
Morning Ceremony Student Speaker
Amal Munayer
How life fly’s by so fast
How summers break like perfect glass
How rapidly these years of our life raced right before our eyes
These years went by with accomplishments won like a prize
How you open and close your eyes
And see that we’re all grown up now,
Things change so fast.
But how?
Past, Present and what we hold is cherished
Comprehension is like gold and silver
You quiver and shiver at the littlest things
When everything’s behind you
When the things ahead are saved for a day that has come
A day that loaned for us to be there
And seize what should be seized
And seek what is seen
And do what has to be done
One step at a time
One by one
Day by day
We all can race time and the world can be ours
Marhaba hehellha wa halan ya jama. Hello and welcome everybody.
As college students we have all dealt with numerous hardships and
difficulties, and so, making our achievements should be celebrated.
Just as we all entered college that first day stepping on the lush
Sonoma State University grass, not knowing where it would have led
us, now we enter the world with that same type of fear wondering if
we are ready for that new journey in our lives?
I can recall the first day of classes my freshman year, parking my car for the first time, felling I was first learning to walk again, but now, as a cool college student. Smiling to everyone thinking ‘I wonder who will I be my new BFF?!’ I was so exited.
I feel very confident to say that I am not graduating form an ordinary university; this is a uniquely intimate university.
I have learned my lesson. You can’t do quite studying in the middle of the quad. Everybody seems to know everybody! I find myself having to hide in duck ponds near the art building or in the Native American plant garden.
Sonoma State is also filled with leadership opportunities. I have been privileged enough to have been an Educational Opportunity Program leader and teach my own student initiated course. I was also the VP of SJP on campus. The club consisted of me and the one other Palestinian person.
Since I can remember Sonoma State has been getting a lot of heat for not being diverse enough. Yea I can think of times were I might have felt uncomfortable being a woman of color, the first one in my family to go to college, low income, speaking Arabic at home, having a refugee family…. It would seem that all the odds are against me. However I have triumphed here. I was nominated Woman Student Leader of the Year and awarded as the Mover and Shaker of Sonoma State. I know that diversity is not only about skin color is about the difference in people. When I look into the crowd I see diversity. I see different shapes, colors, sizes, zodiac signs.
You know I am a Taurus myself. We are earth signs. Standing here I
feel that were right in the center of the earth, right here, where
the sun kisses your face more often then the rain hits the ground.
We have all the earth tones and elements right here.
Being earthy is part of the culture here at Sonoma County. I have learned
to be organic. Eat an organic tomato, it will save a life, hug a tree;
lead a baby duck back to its mother pond. Drink some wine, its good
for you.
This semester as my last semester of my senior year as I am walking around campus I notice myself thinking ‘I am going to miss that tree’.
Now I crave more of this intellectual experience
I am graduating with a double major in psychology and American Multicultural studies. And now planning to start my graduate degree at another university were the air is not going to have a hit of cow and everybody who walks past me wont be wearing flip flips everyday of the week.
I will also miss the faculty, staff and professors we have here at Sonoma State University. They have encouraged me to learn more about my ethnicity and what it means to be a Palestinian American woman in the United States. They have always believed in me and my potential to be somebody.
I will miss being able to chit chat with our Social Science Dean,
Elaine Leader or talk to the university president Ruben Arminana in
the commons during the employee appreciation dinners .
Have a beer in the Pub or if we really wanted to be fancy have lunch
at the University Club.
I have learned the technique of Blending school, work, friends, and family responsibilities. A journey you can probably trace in my planner. Which was always with me like a third arm. If it’s not in my backpack I feel naked.
Most of us can say that…
The friends we have made here have given us the gift of understanding.
These wonderful faculty staff and professors have handed us their guidance.
The struggles we have gone through have awarded us with discipline.
The happiness hours have assisted us in learning the true meaning of
enjoyment.
Our cries have trained us in finding necessary patience.
Our joys have taught us excitement.
Our anger has brought us compassion.
Through all of these qualities we have gained vital insights so we
may face new experiences
This day, May 24 2008 will soon go down in history representing the
years that cuddled all of us though our education.
Now we can enter the world with profound confidence and strength.
We are all so proud of each other and ourselves for the impressive
work we have accomplished.
This is not only a graduation from a university; this is the first
step to being the person of our dreams. This is a graduation toward
our new lives. We have all developed to be magnificent people.
With this diploma as proof in our hands we are obviously ready to take
this huge leap toward our new life.
Now we can ‘walk it out’
And Take our ‘two step’ down this stage
And ‘lead back’ in comfort
Again, I want to express my thanks to all, for coming to our 2008
senior class graduation.
Thank you, parents, teachers, guests, and, most of all, the Creator.
Suckrann. Khatic-oum
Yea, by the way, one question, what is a SeaWolf?
