동서대 자매대학인 PNU는 국립대학으로 100여년의 역사를 가진 명문대학이다.

또한 학생들에게 꿈과 희망을 키워주는 일도 중요하다. 여러분의 친절한 말 한마디와 격려는 학생들의 인생에 큰 영향을 미칠 수 있다. 여러분이 만들어내는 희망의 물결은 멀리 멀리 퍼져나갈 수 있다.   

졸업생 여러분과 가족, 교수들의 미래에 행운이 함께 하기를 빈다.

필리핀 노멀대 졸업식 기조연설 전문보기>>

Philippine Normal University Graduation Ceremony Speech

Hello and thank you. I’m Jekuk Chang, President of Dongseo University in Korea. It’s a great honor for me to deliver this year’s Commencement Address at the National Center for Teacher Education. I would especially like to thank President Ester B. Ogena of Philippine Normal University for inviting me to join in this momentous event. Also, I would like to congratulate all of the graduates. I wish you the very best as you enter into professional society.

Actually, this is my first time visiting the Philippines. I must say I’m really impressed by how nice everything seems. In Korea, the winter was cold this year, so being in a warmer climate is a pleasant change. This tropical weather is also good for growing fresh fruits, which I have happily been eating a lot of at my hotel. Did you know that fruits from the Philippines are expensive in Korea? When I was young, which I guess is now quite a long time ago, we used to give bananas as gifts in Korea whenever someone wasn’t feeling well. I have to admit that my friends and I sometimes pretended to catch a cold just for those treats. Of course, we had to be careful not to oversell our illness, because we might end up in the doctor’s office taking much worse tasting medicine than bananas.

The Philippines has long been like a brother to Korea, and we really appreciate this close relationship. Thankfully, when the Korean War broke out in 1950, the Philippines sent troops. Their great bravery and sacrifice helped South Korea remain a free democracy. At the time of the war, our GNP was only about 60 dollars per capita, but Korea has since undergone large-scale developments. Now it belongs to the G20. This growth has depended in part on the preservation of our democratic freedoms, and for that we have always felt grateful toward the Philippines. In fact, there is a UN Cemetery in my neighborhood. Koreans often go there to pay respect to the many fallen heroes from the Philippines and from our other friendly ally nations.

Dear proud graduates:

Let me congratulate you again with all my heart, for yours is a truly outstanding achievement. I know it wasn’t easy, but you met the challenges, and successfully completed your university studies. You deserve to be proud of yourselves.

I believe the decision to enter Philippine Normal University was an excellent choice. PNU is a leading institution with over 100 years of distinguished history and tradition. But more importantly, PNU is known throughout the Philippines as the best university for fostering exceptional teachers. It’s said that the fate of a country depends on the education of its people. Strong education creates strong prospects for a country, whereas weak education can cause calamity. Since teachers are primarily important in this regard, your professional lives can directly influence the fate of your country. It is you who will train the country’s next leaders, and this gives you a lot more responsibility than graduates in many other disciplines.

As you start on your career paths, I would like to offer you three helpful pieces of advice.

First of all, you should maintain a strong sense of purpose.

You might ask yourself: Why was I born in the Philippines? Why did I pursue an education major at PNU? Why should I be chosen to teach? The answer to all of these questions, I believe, stems from your sense of purpose. By this I mean that each of you should feel a calling toward that which you do best. Your individual talents should guide you in reaching your goals. Indeed, a sense of purpose is a very powerful asset: it can enrich our lives with meaning. But when it’s missing, even our best efforts can seem worthless. Many people who fail to achieve their dreams do so largely because they lack this crucial sense of purpose.

How do you know whether you have one? It’s simple. People with a sense of purpose get excited about their work. Their hearts beat faster and their minds race to discover new possibilities. They take pride in performing their daily tasks. And both their personal and professional lives are filled with passion and enthusiasm. For these people, new doors open without even having to knock.

Let me give you an example. Two young American men graduated from the same university. They started working at the same hotel in their hometown. They had hoped to greet the guests, but they were instead assigned to clean the more than 200 toilets in the hotel! After a while, one of the men started thinking himself: “Why did I get a college degree just to clean toilets?” And a short time later, he quit. In contrast, the other young man always did his best to work hard and to stay positive. This was because he had a dream. He thought to himself: “One day, I’ll have a hotel of my own. And when that day comes I should understand all of the hotel’s operations, including its general maintenance.” This dream caused his heart to pound and pushed him ever forward. Does anyone know who that young man was? It was Mr. Conrad Hilton, founder of the world-famous Hilton Hotel chain.

Another good example is that of Psy. You probably know this Korean singer because of his song ‘Gangnam Style.’ Maybe you’ve even tried the “horse dance” from his video once or twice. Something you might not know is that Psy is from a rich family. His father was a successful businessman. In Korea, wealthy parents usually want their children to attend elite schools and take elite jobs like judges or doctors. Psy knew, however, that this path wasn’t for him. So rather than following his parents’ advice, he began thinking hard about what excited him most and about what he could do best. He decided to be a singer. His parents were shocked, and they urged him to stop wasting his time practicing. But Psy didn’t give up! And one day his perseverance helped him become an international superstar.

How about each of you? What sort of passion do you feel? I’m sure many of you will become teachers. And I wonder: Are you already thinking about how to inspire your students? You’ll soon be their source of guidance and encouragement. This will enable you to help them become the confident and able leaders of your country. But before they can begin to lean on you for support, you must build your own strong foundations. This can most easily be achieved through a sense of purpose in both your personal and professional lives.

The next piece of advice I’d like to give is to strive for self-improvement.

We live in a world undergoing big changes. According to one recent study, the lifespan of current knowledge is only about 5 years. This means that much of what you’ve learned at university could become out-of-date in the near future. For this reason, we should always seek to learn new things. Graduation should not be the end of your studies. Rather, it should be the beginning of a new approach to learning.

As you know, attending lectures is just one way among many to acquire knowledge. Reading is another, and I encourage all of you to continue reading regularly long after you leave the university. Books not only offer us insight into the world around us, but they transpose us to distant locations and introduce us to unknown friends. I hope that as educators you will help to preserve the valuable tradition of reading. Also, I urge you never to become lazy about learning. If you do, others may become lazy as well. Eventually, this laziness can pose serious problems at many levels of society.

Our world is also witnessing big changes in IT, networking, and communication technology. In the past, academia had an almost complete monopoly on knowledge. Gaining access to that knowledge involved high costs of time, tuition, and effort. Today, by contrast, anyone connected to the Internet through a PC can quickly, cheaply, and easily uncover a wealth of information. Moreover, this increased connectivity has enabled people in all parts of the world to connect and collaborate with each other in previously unimagined ways.

An example of these changes can be seen in the case of Encyclopedia Britannica. For roughly 250 years, following its introduction in 1768, Encyclopedia Britannica was generally considered to be the repository of all human knowledge. When I was young, our home had an Encyclopedia Britannica set, which quite uncommon due to its large size and cost. Sometimes our guest would notice it and say things like, “Wow, your family must be very intellectual.” To be honest, the books usually just sat on the shelf. We never read most of their 75,000 entries.

After a long history, Encyclopedia Britannica announced in 2010 that it would stop printing new editions. What caused this shift? I think you already know the answer. The Internet changed the way we access information. In particular, Wikipedia was established. This user-created site has over 4 million entries in English and many more in other languages. Encyclopedia Britannica could not compete with its free, convenient, and extensive contents.

Of course, to some it may seem as though we jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. Whereas we once lacked easy access to information, we now face a constant information overload. This has made knowing where to look for new and reliable facts as important as remembering the facts we’ve acquired. In other words, the know-how and know-what of the past are giving way to the know-where of the present and future.

Let me give you an example. It involves a father who shined shoes in the basement of a large building. Whenever the father would come home, his son would ask for help with his math homework. In elementary school, when the questions were like 2 plus 2 equals 4, there was no problem. The father had know-how for that level of math, so to speak. But in high school, the math homework got harder and eventually exceeded the father’s know-how. He really wanted to help, so he began thinking of possible solutions. Soon he came up with the idea of asking his customers about their work. One customer he met was an accountant, so the next day the father visited the accountant’s office and offered to shine his shoes again, this time for free. In return, the accountant gladly explained the math homework. That evening, the father very proudly went home and helped his son. What’s the moral of this story? It suggests that know-where together with a bit of creativity can do the job of know-what and know-how.

My last piece of advice involves nurturing hopes and dreams.

When you become teachers, you’ll be responsible not only for imparting knowledge to your students, but also for helping them develop their own strong sense of purpose. I believe this essentially involves nurturing their hopes and dreams, for hopes and dreams can help us face great challenges and overcome great difficulties. I think you all know of Martin Luther King Jr., the African-American Civil Rights Movement leader. He lived in an era of severe discrimination but accomplished a lot in the struggle for equality. Famously, he proclaimed “I have a dream,” and these words gave hope to many African-Americans living in despair. Against a backdrop of seemingly inescapable darkness, his words carried the promise of a bright future.

As a global society, we have come a long way in improving equality. However, it’s still quite easy to look around and see people who face serious obstacles. This is especially true for our small, privileged, and now highly educated group. In earning a university degree, you have set yourselves apart as leaders. But you must bear in mind that leaders have important duties to fulfill. I would like to suggest that one such duty involves sharing your talents with those in need.

How can you do this? There are of course many different ways, but as teachers, it’s important for you to provide students with the skills they’ll need to succeed in our rapidly changing world. I believe this involves nurturing their hopes and dreams. Your kind words and encouragement, your inspiration and support, and your continuing commitment to them can have a huge impact in their lives. It can cause their hearts to beat a little faster when they think of their own futures. And since their futures are linked to your own and to that of your country, the ripples of hope you create can have a far reaching effect. It’s said that people who dream big achieve big things, while those with only small ambitions accomplish little or nothing at all. Today I hope you will set your hopes and dreams high. In this way, big things may follow for you and for your country.

Dear proud graduates:

This is a momentous day filled with honor. In closing, I would like to ask you to show gratitude to the professors who taught you sincerely, to your parents and family who helped you on your long academic journey, and to your home country of the Philippines. I genuinely hope you will one day share your good fortune with all those who helped you to be here today. May god bless you!      

Thank you very much.

Jekuk Chang (President, Dongseo University)