Asian University for Women 7th Commencement Ceremony Chattogram, Bangladesh Saturday, May 11, 2019 AUW 7th Commencement Ceremony, May 11, 2019 1 COMMENCEMENT PROTOCOL Please remain seated during the ceremony. Professional photographers will capture portraits of each graduate receiving her diploma from the Vice Chancellor. Photographs from the side and front areas of the stage are not permitted, as this interferes with the safe procession of the graduates. If you wish to take pictures from the perimeter of the ceremony site, please be considerate of those who are seated around you and comply with instructions from our ushers, volunteers, and security staff. Ceremony Traditions Today marks the commencement of AUW’s seventh graduating class. It is a day that reaffirms ancient and lasting academic traditions seen in the academic dress, procession, and awarding of degrees. Graduating students, faculty, the Chancellor and the Vice Chancellor, the Board of Trustees, and distinguished guests form a ceremonial procession which marks the opening and closing of the event. Please stand for the processions. Guide to Academic Dress and Regalia Dress: Graduates receiving their Bachelor’s degree wear simple black robes, caps, and tassels, along with a scarf in the AUW colors of red and yellow. AUW faculty wear black robes, accompanied by a hood with the colors of their home institution. Mace: The mace symbolizes the authority of the University. The mace used in the AUW Commencement Ceremony was designed by AUW alumna, Aniqua Suhala, a graduate of AUW’s inaugural class. The circular top of the mace displays the AUW logo, along with a map displaying the regions from which AUW’s first class hailed. Connecting the circular top of the mace shaft are the names of the seven residential houses. On the shaft of the mace are listed the countries from which AUW students come. 2 AUW 7th Commencement Ceremony, May 11, 2019 CONTENTS Commencement Program 4 Commencement Speakers and Honorary Degree Recipients 5 Andy Matsui Awards for Outstanding Academic Achievement 7 Message from the Vice Chancellor to the Class of 2019 8 Lisianthus Manifesto 9 Student Speakers 10 Message from the AUW Alumnae Association to the Class of 2019 11 Graduates 12 Governance 14 AUW 7th Commencement Ceremony, May 11, 2019 3 Commencement Program May 11, 2019 Academic Procession Anondoloke Mongolaloke, composed by Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Laureate in Literature, 1913 Graduating Students, Faculty, Stage Participants Ceremony Opening by Master of Ceremony University Registrar Dr. David Dowland Address by the Chancellor Cherie Blair, CBE QC Address by the Vice Chancellor Professor Nirmala Rao, OBE, FAcSS Conferral of Bachelor’s Degrees Andy Matsui Awards for Outstanding Academic Achievement Conferral of Honorary Degrees Professor Rezwana Choudhury Bannya The Honorable Dr. Mohammad Humayon Qayoumi Commencement Addresses Professor Rezwana Choudhury Bannya The Honorable Dr Mohammad Humayon Qayoumi Ceremony Closing and Recessional Aguner Poroshmoni, Composed by Rabindranath Tagore 4 AUW 7th Commencement Ceremony, May 11, 2019 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipient Dr. Mohammad Humayon Qayoumi Honorable Minister of Finance and Chief Advisor to the President of Afghanistan Doctorate of Laws, honoris causa Dr. Mohammad Humayon Qayoumi is the Minister of Finance of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and Chief Adviser to President Ghani in the areas of infrastructure, human capital, and technology. Prior to his appointment in the Government of Afghanistan, he served as the 28th President and Professor of Electrical Engineering at San José State University in the heart of Silicon Valley in California. Before that he was the President of California State University East Bay. He holds a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the American University of Beirut and four graduate degrees from the University of Cincinnati: a master’s in nuclear engineering, a master’s in electrical and computer engineering, an MBA in finance, and a doctorate in electrical engineering. He has also published eight books and more than 100 articles, as well as several chapters in various books. AUW 7th Commencement Ceremony, May 11, 2019 5 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipient Professor Rezwana Choudhury Bannya Doctorate of Arts, honoris causa Professor Rezwana Choudhury Bannya is a nationally recognized singer of Rabindra Sangeet (songs written and composed by Rabindranath Tagore) and Professor and Founding Chair of the Department of Dance at the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh. In 2016, Professor Bannya was awarded the Independence Day Award, the highest civilian award in Bangladesh. She was previously Associate Professor in the University of Dhaka Department of Music. She is the founder of Shurer Dhara, a music school in Dhaka. She studied under Sanjita Khatun and Atiqul Islam of the Chhayanat and Bulbul Academy of Fine Arts in Dhaka. She received a scholarship from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) to study at Santiniketan, a university that was founded by Tagore. It is there that she began her study of Rabindra Sangeet under the tutelage of Kanika Bandyopadhyay, Nilima Sen, Shoilajaranjan Mazumdar, Santidev Ghosh, Gora Sarbadhikary, Manju Bandyopadhyay, and Asesh Bandyopadhyay. 6 AUW 7th Commencement Ceremony, May 11, 2019 Andy Matsui Award For Outstanding Academic Achievement The Andy Matsui Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement is granted to three graduating seniors who, through academic achievement as measured by their cumulative grade point average, exemplify Andy Matsui’s life and myriad achievements. Like Andy, the recipients of this award also demonstrate that just one courageous and hardworking individual can take charge of his or her fate and ultimately transform the lives of thousands of people, their families, and their communities. About Andy Matsui: Like many AUW students, Andy Matsui grew up in a rural village. He was not encouraged to pursue a university education. Instead, he was expected to remain on the family farm to care for his parents and siblings. However, Andy also fought to defy cultural conventions and succeed on his own terms. He sailed from Japan to America with $28 in his pocket in 1961, and eventually became the founder, owner, and president of Matsui Nursery, America’s largest orchid nursery. Through the Matsui Foundation, Andy donates millions to the children of immigrants so that they may pursue a university education. In January 2016, Andy made a $1 million gift to AUW’s endowment, so that more deserving women will be able to access the liberal arts and sciences education offered at AUW. AUW 7th Commencement Ceremony, May 11, 2019 7 A Message from the Vice Chancellor to the Class of 2019 Dear Class of 2019, It gives me great pleasure to welcome you into the company of scholars, a community of educated women and men that spans the globe and millennia. You have worked diligently to reach this point, and I am pleased to offer my personal congratulations to you on this memorable and special occasion. As you accept your diplomas and go on to innovate the political, social, and economic landscapes of your communities, I hope that you will take a moment to cherish the community that surrounds you today. No one graduates alone. All along the way there have been teachers, classmates, family members, friends, mentors, and other supporters who have worked tirelessly with you to help bring you to this point. They did it because they believe in you; they believe in your courage, your empathy for others, and your commitment to live and work in the service of something greater than yourselves. They believe that you, together with other cohorts of AUW graduates spanning industries and countries, will change the world for the better. I, too, am moved by all that you have accomplished and by all that you are on the cusp of achieving. It has been a pleasure witnessing you grow into the leaders you have and will continue to become. Wherever you go, all of us in the AUW community will follow your paths with interest, cheering for you every step of the way. Warmly, PROFESSOR NIRMALA RAO, OBE, FAcSS Vice Chancellor, Asian University for Women 8 AUW 7th Commencement Ceremony, May 11, 2019 Lisianthus Manifesto Each year, the graduating class selects a metaphor to represent their community. This year, the AUW Class of 2019 voted to call themselves Lisianthus, after a flower that requires specific conditions to first germinate, but then grows into a resilient and bloomful plant. The Lisianthus symbolizes perseverance, overcoming, gratitude, and enduring bonds. The Lisianthus Manifesto is a reflective, inspired, and public declaration of the beliefs and intentions of the Class of 2019. It reflects what students have learned and become as students of AUW. It expresses what they believe in and what they will achieve as graduates, both in terms of service to AUW and the world at large. Manifesto of the AUW Class of 2019 “In this life we prepare for things, for moments and events and We are Lisianthus—100 petals of a versatile flower, sown together situations… We worry about with the seed of unity, breaking the wall of stereotypes with our growth. wrongs, think about injustices, Though we may have different roots, when we emerge from the dirt, we read what Tolstoy or Ruskin… has rise above all towards the sun. to say… Then, all of a sudden, the We are shards of a fragment, hues of a colour, an assembly of the issue is not whether we agree with languages, dress, food and representations of our cultures. Different, what we have heard and read and yet so similar. One heart in different bodies; open hearts and fresh studied… The issue is us, and what minds. We are sisters and daughters of the forgotten souls of an unjust we have become.” world. Rising above all towards a new beginning like a wind that knows no border.