When we arrived on this campus four years ago, they told us that we were in for a wild ride.
Who could have known, who could have imagined what was coming down the pipe.
That we would come from around the world to Kunshan,
build an international community and develop our identity as global citizens and then this identity
had to endure the challenge of an unprecedented pandemic that scatters all of us across the world.
We learned about global challenges in our sophomore common core class
and got thrown into a real one immediately after. We took on a new and ambitious curriculum designed
to cultivate creative problem solvers and then had to apply every bit of that in our own lives
as we navigated through two-way online classes and scheduled, cancelled and rescheduled zoom meetings,
among many other personal challenges we have in life. We started out on this adventure
together, all of us, not just the students also the faculty and staff and everyone in this community.
It would have been hard enough under normal circumstances as we're all in this for the first
time. But even in the midst of a global pandemic, we still made it through and achieved many many
wonderful things. People called us pioneers and now we, the class of 2022, know what that really meant.
It meant that no matter what challenges came our way, we'd face them with courage and conviction.
It meant that we'd never settle for just being good
but we strive to become great. We were also told that this education would be one of a kind
and we've all come to understand it as we see ourselves transformed profoundly by our time here.
That whatever lessons we learned in class and on campus would soon find them to be necessary
for solving urgent problems in the real world. I must say I'm amazed at the ambitious principles
the guided DKU's establishment, how it inspired and transformed us in our early days together
on campus and how relevant they feel as we navigate through a shared global challenge.
It is because of these experiences so I firmly believe it's necessary to have a
place like DKU in our world right now and that we the class of 2022 are uniquely positioned
to bring in the kind of changes that are needed. And now I want to take a step back
from our immediate challenges and achievements and turn to something that I think truly underpin
DKU's unique greatness. DKU was built to fulfill an ambitious mission to be a truly global university
that is intercultural, international integrative and innovative.
These are ambitions and aspirations that combine to augment and amplify to each
other. Yet it could be easily lost due to the pressure to look like every other university.
We've seen the power of DKU's unique vision in every member of our class. One of my favorite books
is “Finite and Infinite Games” by James Carse playing fine at games is about winning the
familiar battles and achieving success as everyone knows it infinite games has
no clear ending. They're about the drive to always aim for something higher and greater.
DKU taught us to choose to play infinite games. It taught us to not only follow the
rules but to reflect on them and improve them. They tell us to not just see the world as it is but
envision it as what it should be. It taught us to be brave enough to take on the riskier task
of building something new. We could have followed the well-beaten path. In fact the establishment
of this very institution represents the intention to produce the kind of change that's most needed
in the world right now. This has improved especially given what we're going through.
It is always difficult to establish partnerships globally. It takes so much effort for different
parties to come together and produce a unified vision that's greater than that of any one partner.
It is for these reasons that I can confidently say that this place is like no other place in higher
education and that DKU will always be and should always be an unfinished project. Today we celebrate
the achievements of the first graduating class while truly with something even greater
in DKU's future. DKU was born to offer something different to the world especially in a time
of hardships, challenges and uncertainties. If there is any place that we will turn to for the kind of
changes would like to see you will be a place like DKU. A place that radically insists on a path of
cultural diversity and international cooperation in spite of all the forces that tried to divide
us. I have great confidence in dki's future, but if there's one risk it isn't that DKU won't succeed
but the DKU will succeed by choosing to offer the same kind of education that all the universities do,
and in so doing fail to heed to its true calling to ask what the world needs and what DKU
can uniquely offer. Four years is a long, long time. That is 126,144,000 seconds where our
identity has been attached to DKU regardless of where we are in the world. Having come to DKU we've
been bonded as a community that's locally rooted but globally committed. May DKU's vision live
on in all of us, both in those who are here now and in many more to come in the future. Thank you.