May I know invite Lindsey Barnes to give her vote of thanks on behalf of the students.
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Hello and welcome
My thanks firstly to the committee who selected me to give this 2013 graduation ceremony vote of thanks speech
it is indeed a great honour
I would like to begin also by giving thanks to our host for today's ceremony Pro Vice Chancellor
I would also like to thank the Faculty of Business and Law and the graduation team... for organising this event in which we participate today
Within this department there are certain members of his team that I would like to thank personally for their help throughout
Dr Pinder Young, Dr Petrovic, Dr Zhang, Dr Gourlay, Dr Juanchich and Mrs Carol Strong
On behalf of all of us in this room I would also like to thank our enablers
the people who have allowed, encouraged and pushed us to be able to graduate today
Of course these people are different for all of us and maybe our parents
our partners or our lecturers but one thing we all have in common however is that
without them we would not be in the wonderful position that we are in now
To all of them I thank you
Finally I would like to thank our peers, for me I thank you for sharing this experience with me
and for creating an environment in which I can grow safe in the knowledge that you are always there to help
whatever the situation maybe.
Please join me in a round of applause for all of the people that I have discussed
as well as for all of the people that are too numerous to mention but are no less influential for this reason.
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From the day that I sent in my application to Kingston University and now having completed my Masters degree here
I was convinced that I could not and should not have pursued it anywhere else
When writing my cover letter for the application I wrote that I was sure
that holding a degree from Kingston Business School would be a cast iron guarantee to future employers of my abilities
I have not been disappointed
It has been remarked to me on many occasions by several of my international peers that Kingston University was their only choice
due to the reputation that it holds both within and outside of the academic community worldwide
The friends I have met inside and the contacts that I have made outside are now invaluable to me in both my personal and professional life
Indeed the position that I now hold thanks to an advertisement placed on my study space by my organisation
illustrating how the two elements of education were being combined perfectly
I feel that it also illustrates how well respected Kingston University is
when many businesses approach it directly to recruit new employees
As we all know the new batch of students who have already taken on places this year have much to do as did we when we were in their positions
For many of us this time last year we had just taken our first exams
and we were waiting on the results on the first of many assignments to come
having spent the Christmas period frantically trying to research as much information as possible
This however was only the beginning and we probably should have relished only having three simultaneous assignments
I can testify that I say to the case writing six four thousand word assignments in seven weeks is no mean feat
But we expect when taking a degree at any level that this would not be easy and nor should it be
however there are other times when a ray of light shines through and we recognise the importance of the fun factor
A fond memory that I'd like to share with you which has thankfully been reminded to me by my classmates and friend Owen Seven
involves one of our lecturers Doctor Mark Farmer
he can't actually be here today because he's teaching but he did give me permission to tell this story
In a lecture which had been particularly heavy due to the amount of theory and debate that day
Doctor Farmer and provided ... and much needed relief
whilst trying to test and engage the class Doctor Farmer announced that he would be covering up the next slide to see how much
we'd understood from the previous slides but instead of covering the slide on the computer
Doctor Farmer tried to cover up the projected image on the wall which just continued to project onto Doctor Farmer himself
It took a few minutes for him to realise why the entire class was laughing hysterically as he posed serious questions to us
once he understood even Doctor Farmer himself could not refrain from laughing as much as and if not more than the rest of us
Of course this is only one of many examples that I could give to explain how much we've enjoyed our time at the university
For all the ups and downs, tensions and the late nights to complete assignments on time
there's no place that I would rather have studied
I hope as I hope you are too that we're proud to be Kingston University alumnus, thanks then Kingston University.
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