2008 Press Releases
Winter Conferring Ceremonies at University College Cork (UCC) - December 11th 2008
11.12.2008
Winter conferring ceremonies continued today (December 11th 2008) at UCC with 444 undergraduate and postgraduate students graduating from the College of Business & Law and the College of Science, Engineering & Food Science.
11.12.2008
Winter conferring ceremonies continued today (December 11th 2008) at UCC with 444 undergraduate and postgraduate students graduating from the College of Business & Law and the College of Science, Engineering & Food Science.
An Honorary Master of Science degree was conferred on Pat Twomey, a technician in UCC's Physics Department for almost 50 years. Pat, a native of Carrigaline, Co. Cork, entered UCC as an apprentice Technician in 1959 on completion of his Group Cert at the Crawford Technical Institute. He completed a four-year evening Advanced Certificate in Mechanical Engineering and from 1979-83 studied for the evening BA degree at UCC in Mathematics and Mathematical Physics. According to Professor John McInerney, Head of UCC's Physics Department: "During Pat's 49 years of service, he has supported many generations of final year students and postgraduate researchers in their projects, accumulating much valuable expertise. It is widely believed in the Physics Department that under different circumstances Pat would have done a PhD and become a distinguished researcher in his own right."
The Conferring addresses were given by Mr Douglas Kelleher, Member of UCC's Governing Body and Mr Dick Lehane, former Senior Vice President, EMC (attached).
In his address, Mr Kelleher said that Commerce students graduating today are beginning their careers at a time when business is undergoing some of the most extraordinary changes ever experienced. He went on: "Seldom has such turbulence been experienced in financial, property and commodity markets, both in Ireland and across the world.
However, it is important to keep a perspective on these events. Cork in the mid-80's was a very grim and depressed city with the closure of such major employers as Fords, Dunlops, Verolme Cork Dockyard, and many others. However even then, the green shoots of recovery were starting to appear. For example the site of Fords/Dunlops was gradually converted into what is now the Marina Commercial Park with many small and thriving businesses. Thanks to IDA support we also saw the progressive introduction of multi national companies, particularly in the Pharma and Electronics sectors.
Today's graduates have benefited from an excellent education in UCC, where the application of research-led teaching has ensured that they are well equipped to take their place both in business and society in general They must be encouraged to search for the present-day version of the "green shoots" and even indeed consider planting some of their own, utilising the innovation and entrepreneurial skills that they have utilised while working for their degree."
_________________
Conferring Address by Mr Dick Lehane, former Senior Vice President, EMC, December 11th 2008
President, members of the governing body, distinguished guests, parents, friends, and especially you the graduates.
I am delighted to have the honor to speak to you here today, 40 years after my own graduation in 1968. Congratulations on what you have achieved to date, and I wish you the very best of luck wherever life takes you from here, possibly the road less traveled.
A special word to parents and partners who may have sacrificed to make this day possible; you can all justifiably feel very proud today.
In my research looking for some enlightenment, I came across some interesting observations on graduation speeches; they ranged from "what you say doesn't matter, nobody listens anyway to nobody expects to enjoy a conferring speech, it's just something to be endured"; my favourite however is, "graduation speeches were invented in the belief that college students should never be released into the world until they have been properly sedated."
However, my brief for today is to encourage and inspire you. Not sure about the inspiration part but I hope by offering you some down-to-earth, practical advice as you head out to face the big bad world out there, to encourage you to achieve your maximum potential.
The first consideration, of course, is where do you go from here; some of you may take time out, travel the world etc., a concept unheard-of in my time but quite fashionable nowadays, some of you may go further with your academic career, and I presume most of you will be heading out into gainful employment.
I have no way of knowing how many of you have already secured a position and how many are still looking but either way, we cannot ignore the fact that you are hitting the job market as the world economy hits an unprecedented low. The Chinese have a saying: "May you live in interesting times"; this is intended as a curse and it certainly covers the current situation. But we have had these boom and bust cycles before, the oil shocks of the 70's/80's and more recently the DotCom bubble, caused major dips but the world economy did recover. It may take a year / 2 years, but it will recover.
As a consequence, either by accident or design, some of you may take up employment abroad; treat this as a major opportunity to round out your personality whilst gaining invaluable experience. I have done two separate 8 year stints abroad myself and benefited greatly from both.
Finding something that interests you may not be that easy starting out, you may not have choice but the concept still holds true. Find something within the job that you really enjoy or, once you're inside the door, search for better opportunities. Much easier on the inside. Have the courage to follow your own path and don't let the noise of other opinions drown out your instinct. Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs are probably bad examples of this for a graduating class, having all dropped out. Possibly Andy Grove of Intel, Dr. Wang of Wang Labs and Dick Egan of EMC might be better examples. All of these people swam against the tide of others opinions and founded very successful corporations.
Be a team player; this should not be difficult. First of all your college education is broad enough to enable you to handle any job related challenges, so you can be confident in your own abilities. Secondly being Irish, a rather small island nation, we are more conscious than most that not everyone in the world is exactly the same as ourselves and thus (we are) more open to diversity. Thirdly, due I believe to our high percentage of participation in team sports, we just fit in very well.
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of networking and mentors. Your lifelong friends will come from that pool of people you went to school with, played sports with and the friendships formed here in the college. The more adversarial relationships, such as marriage, tend to happen later. The fraternity system in US universities and the various branches of the military epitomize or formalize this lifelong networking concept. Fraternity members and military vets feel duty bound to assist their fellows when the need or opportunity arises. American alumni also, by the way, are so generous to their alma mater that some colleges such as Harvard and Wellesley have difficulty retaining their not-for-profit status. For the slower members of the audience that's a hint to get involved with the graduate association. In the work situation, network actively, form friendships or allies with people throughout the organization.
The success we had in EMC Cork in becoming the international base for numerous functions could not have been achieved if we had limited ourselves to just the manufacturing funnel. The friendships we had formed right across the organization were critical in the decision going for Cork.
Never be afraid to seek or accept advice from more senior or more experienced people. By allying yourself with these more senior folks and discussing work situations with them, you will not only avoid possibly embarrassing screw-ups, but accelerate your own development to senior status.
Much as I admire the broad academic program here in college, it is important to remember it is just the foundation; you have to continue to build on that foundation. You begin with a huge advantage; by taking the various courses here and passing the necessary exams, you demonstrate that you have learned how to learn and this will stand to you in the years to come. In your technical area, you can keep up-to-date through industry publications, books, seminars and obviously formal courses. But this generation has tools available to it unknown to your predecessors. Because of technological advances, instant communication, the ubiquitous web, new ideas, concepts, methods of doing things go world wide almost instantaneously. So on the plus side you have immediate access to an unprecedented store of knowledge, but then the pressure to stay current is ever more intense.
Bill Clinton and Tony Blair fall into that limited group of people who determine from a very early age what they want to be; some achieve their goal early, and some like Winston Churchill at quite an advanced age and of course many never quite make it. But for everybody, the actual path to their goal is not obvious, it's never straight, and can contain many pitfalls. So it will be for you, some will be lucky and achieve early success and for some it will be later. There will be pitfalls for many; sometimes life can hit you up the side of your head with a brick, i.e. plant closures, or redundancies.
We can never be certain how the future will work out. We analyze situations as best we can and make our decisions, hoping for the best. Even at the darkest hour, never lose faith because your big break may be just around the corner. Some of those clouds really do have silver lining.
Ladies and gentlemen, there are many other aspects of life that I have not elaborated on simply in the interest of time. Obviously, it is critical to treat everybody with respect as you journey through life irrespective of position or title. The most tangible way to demonstrate this is by listening to and valuing other people's opinions.
Develop of sense of social responsibility. As a graduate you will be in the upper salary echelons; try to give something back to society either financially or giving of your time, coaching local teams, or charity work. Ethics is a topic worthy of much more time than we could devote here, so I will simply pass on the Irish mother's advice to her graduate offspring "never do anything that you'd be embarrassed to tell me about". I think if you follow that and you won't go too far wrong.
My final point today concerns the subject of life balance. Don't allow yourself to drift into an "all work no play" rut. Proactively continue your existing hobbies and develop new ones; in the work situation, ensure you derive real personal satisfaction from doing your job. If you cannot, it's time to move on.
I again offer my congratulations and wish you the very best of luck. Please enjoy not only the rest of the day, but the rest of your life.
Picture shows L-R: Professor Patrick Fitzpatrick, Head of College of Science, Engineering & Food Science; Pat Twomey, who received an Honorary MSc and Professor John McInerney, Head of Physics, UCC.
930MMcS
The Conferring addresses were given by Mr Douglas Kelleher, Member of UCC's Governing Body and Mr Dick Lehane, former Senior Vice President, EMC (attached).
In his address, Mr Kelleher said that Commerce students graduating today are beginning their careers at a time when business is undergoing some of the most extraordinary changes ever experienced. He went on: "Seldom has such turbulence been experienced in financial, property and commodity markets, both in Ireland and across the world.
However, it is important to keep a perspective on these events. Cork in the mid-80's was a very grim and depressed city with the closure of such major employers as Fords, Dunlops, Verolme Cork Dockyard, and many others. However even then, the green shoots of recovery were starting to appear. For example the site of Fords/Dunlops was gradually converted into what is now the Marina Commercial Park with many small and thriving businesses. Thanks to IDA support we also saw the progressive introduction of multi national companies, particularly in the Pharma and Electronics sectors.
Today's graduates have benefited from an excellent education in UCC, where the application of research-led teaching has ensured that they are well equipped to take their place both in business and society in general They must be encouraged to search for the present-day version of the "green shoots" and even indeed consider planting some of their own, utilising the innovation and entrepreneurial skills that they have utilised while working for their degree."
_________________
Conferring Address by Mr Dick Lehane, former Senior Vice President, EMC, December 11th 2008
President, members of the governing body, distinguished guests, parents, friends, and especially you the graduates.
I am delighted to have the honor to speak to you here today, 40 years after my own graduation in 1968. Congratulations on what you have achieved to date, and I wish you the very best of luck wherever life takes you from here, possibly the road less traveled.
A special word to parents and partners who may have sacrificed to make this day possible; you can all justifiably feel very proud today.
In my research looking for some enlightenment, I came across some interesting observations on graduation speeches; they ranged from "what you say doesn't matter, nobody listens anyway to nobody expects to enjoy a conferring speech, it's just something to be endured"; my favourite however is, "graduation speeches were invented in the belief that college students should never be released into the world until they have been properly sedated."
However, my brief for today is to encourage and inspire you. Not sure about the inspiration part but I hope by offering you some down-to-earth, practical advice as you head out to face the big bad world out there, to encourage you to achieve your maximum potential.
The first consideration, of course, is where do you go from here; some of you may take time out, travel the world etc., a concept unheard-of in my time but quite fashionable nowadays, some of you may go further with your academic career, and I presume most of you will be heading out into gainful employment.
I have no way of knowing how many of you have already secured a position and how many are still looking but either way, we cannot ignore the fact that you are hitting the job market as the world economy hits an unprecedented low. The Chinese have a saying: "May you live in interesting times"; this is intended as a curse and it certainly covers the current situation. But we have had these boom and bust cycles before, the oil shocks of the 70's/80's and more recently the DotCom bubble, caused major dips but the world economy did recover. It may take a year / 2 years, but it will recover.
As a consequence, either by accident or design, some of you may take up employment abroad; treat this as a major opportunity to round out your personality whilst gaining invaluable experience. I have done two separate 8 year stints abroad myself and benefited greatly from both.
Finding something that interests you may not be that easy starting out, you may not have choice but the concept still holds true. Find something within the job that you really enjoy or, once you're inside the door, search for better opportunities. Much easier on the inside. Have the courage to follow your own path and don't let the noise of other opinions drown out your instinct. Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs are probably bad examples of this for a graduating class, having all dropped out. Possibly Andy Grove of Intel, Dr. Wang of Wang Labs and Dick Egan of EMC might be better examples. All of these people swam against the tide of others opinions and founded very successful corporations.
Be a team player; this should not be difficult. First of all your college education is broad enough to enable you to handle any job related challenges, so you can be confident in your own abilities. Secondly being Irish, a rather small island nation, we are more conscious than most that not everyone in the world is exactly the same as ourselves and thus (we are) more open to diversity. Thirdly, due I believe to our high percentage of participation in team sports, we just fit in very well.
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of networking and mentors. Your lifelong friends will come from that pool of people you went to school with, played sports with and the friendships formed here in the college. The more adversarial relationships, such as marriage, tend to happen later. The fraternity system in US universities and the various branches of the military epitomize or formalize this lifelong networking concept. Fraternity members and military vets feel duty bound to assist their fellows when the need or opportunity arises. American alumni also, by the way, are so generous to their alma mater that some colleges such as Harvard and Wellesley have difficulty retaining their not-for-profit status. For the slower members of the audience that's a hint to get involved with the graduate association. In the work situation, network actively, form friendships or allies with people throughout the organization.
The success we had in EMC Cork in becoming the international base for numerous functions could not have been achieved if we had limited ourselves to just the manufacturing funnel. The friendships we had formed right across the organization were critical in the decision going for Cork.
Never be afraid to seek or accept advice from more senior or more experienced people. By allying yourself with these more senior folks and discussing work situations with them, you will not only avoid possibly embarrassing screw-ups, but accelerate your own development to senior status.
Much as I admire the broad academic program here in college, it is important to remember it is just the foundation; you have to continue to build on that foundation. You begin with a huge advantage; by taking the various courses here and passing the necessary exams, you demonstrate that you have learned how to learn and this will stand to you in the years to come. In your technical area, you can keep up-to-date through industry publications, books, seminars and obviously formal courses. But this generation has tools available to it unknown to your predecessors. Because of technological advances, instant communication, the ubiquitous web, new ideas, concepts, methods of doing things go world wide almost instantaneously. So on the plus side you have immediate access to an unprecedented store of knowledge, but then the pressure to stay current is ever more intense.
Bill Clinton and Tony Blair fall into that limited group of people who determine from a very early age what they want to be; some achieve their goal early, and some like Winston Churchill at quite an advanced age and of course many never quite make it. But for everybody, the actual path to their goal is not obvious, it's never straight, and can contain many pitfalls. So it will be for you, some will be lucky and achieve early success and for some it will be later. There will be pitfalls for many; sometimes life can hit you up the side of your head with a brick, i.e. plant closures, or redundancies.
We can never be certain how the future will work out. We analyze situations as best we can and make our decisions, hoping for the best. Even at the darkest hour, never lose faith because your big break may be just around the corner. Some of those clouds really do have silver lining.
Ladies and gentlemen, there are many other aspects of life that I have not elaborated on simply in the interest of time. Obviously, it is critical to treat everybody with respect as you journey through life irrespective of position or title. The most tangible way to demonstrate this is by listening to and valuing other people's opinions.
Develop of sense of social responsibility. As a graduate you will be in the upper salary echelons; try to give something back to society either financially or giving of your time, coaching local teams, or charity work. Ethics is a topic worthy of much more time than we could devote here, so I will simply pass on the Irish mother's advice to her graduate offspring "never do anything that you'd be embarrassed to tell me about". I think if you follow that and you won't go too far wrong.
My final point today concerns the subject of life balance. Don't allow yourself to drift into an "all work no play" rut. Proactively continue your existing hobbies and develop new ones; in the work situation, ensure you derive real personal satisfaction from doing your job. If you cannot, it's time to move on.
I again offer my congratulations and wish you the very best of luck. Please enjoy not only the rest of the day, but the rest of your life.
Picture shows L-R: Professor Patrick Fitzpatrick, Head of College of Science, Engineering & Food Science; Pat Twomey, who received an Honorary MSc and Professor John McInerney, Head of Physics, UCC.
930MMcS