SeoulTech Hosts 2018 Commencement Ceremony
34 Doctorate Degrees, 173 Master’s Degrees and 651 Undergraduate Degrees Conferred

SeoulTech hosted its 2018 Commencement Ceremony at Centennial Hall on August 23rd. President Kim Jong Ho and approximately 1,000 other distinguished guests, students and graduates attended the ceremony where 34 doctorate degrees, 173 master’s degrees and 651 undergraduate degrees were conferred.  

President Kim said, “The secret to people who face great adversity and overcome it is the ability to stand up again after falling down. Neuroscientific research has revealed that our brains desire to stay on the most comfortable and easiest path, but I hope that you will take any hardship and adversity as an opportunity to succeed even further.”

Alumni Committee Chairman Na Ki Sun said, “We congratulate our graduates on their new journey ahead, and we thank all of their parents who helped them along the way.”

The conferring of the degrees after the speeches was given in the following order: doctorate degrees, master’s degrees, undergraduate degrees, Excellence in Graduate Thesis awards and Meritorious Service awards.

▦ President Kim Jong Ho’s Speech ▦

Cultivating Leaders Who Create Diverse Values

To all graduates, we sincerely congratulate you on your accomplishment. We also thank all the distinguished guests and family members who have joined us at this ceremony today.
Today, we confer 34 doctorate degrees, 173 master’s degrees and 651 undergraduate degrees and we congratulate all graduates on the hard work and passion they have shown to get here today. Also, we once again thank all family members of our graduates who have helped our graduates on their journey.
Graduates!

I would like to share the amazing development that SeoulTech has achieved so that you may leave with a sense of pride in your alma mater. Our school now celebrates 109 years since its establishment and it has the longest history among national universities with more than 100,000 graduates. We were ranked 19th in the JoongAng Daily’s University Review and are ranked within the top 800 schools internationally, which places us within the top 3% of the world’s universities. This accomplishment was achieved thanks to your contributions and I believe it is a token of the progress of the global competitiveness and excellence of our graduates. Thank you for contributing to the development of our school. We will continue to work harder to develop into a school of which you can be proud.
Graduates!

Today is a day in which you finish one of the most important stages of your lives, and you will take the first step to the next stage. I have a few words to share as you begin your journey to success in the future.
First, you must learn to adapt to the changes in industries that will affect your careers and your lives. You will all have heard of IoT, mobile, cloud computing, big data and AI. The acceleration of ICT technology innovation and the 4th Industrial Revolution are both continuing to develop. The scenes of science fiction movies where virtual reality and reality interact with one another are becoming realized. There are many who believe that an unpredictable VUCA reality is being created by the 4th Industrial Revolution. VUCA is a term that means volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. In this new age, how will we prepare for such change?

In an unpredictable world in which volatility and uncertainty rule, you must have strong basic skills, the ability to learn on your own and creative and critical thinking abilities. The age in which you can only rely on the skills you learned in school is over. This is due to the creation of new information and knowledge from the acceleration of ICT technology development. According to the American futurist Alvin Toffler, obsolete knowledge or “obsoledge” is swiftly being created. The knowledge that you know now has a high probability of being obsolete in the future. In a complex and unambiguous world, you must learn to approach problems from different viewpoints with your own logic. In such a world, people who are creative and critical are more likely to stand out. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said that creativity is simply the ability to connect the dots. However, people who are unable to see the big picture and connect the dots present simple solutions. I hope that you will not be confined by the information that you know today, but that you will continue to “connect the dots” and grow through additional learning as you move on into society. Moreover, I hope that you will learn to use your academic experiences to create new solutions to problems you encounter in your future. These solutions will provide you with the power to live successful lives in the 21st century.

I expect that you will all become leaders of whatever industry you will continue your journey on. And with this in mind, I would like to introduce a book to you. After joining Samsung Electronics as a researcher, Kwon Oh Hyeon went on to play a pivotal role in the company’s expeditious progress in the semiconductor industry. He would later become the company president and write an autobiography entitled Super Gap. “Super gap” is a term that describes the creation of a level that people cannot surpass. The book defines a leader as a person who creates differentiated values and prepares for the future. To create diverse and differentiated values, one must have strong internal values as well as external characteristics forged through practical experience and training. The internal values are honesty, modesty and willingness to share. The external characteristics are insight, decisiveness, execution and durability. I hope that all of you will learn to cultivate these characteristics and become great leaders of society.

Graduating is climbing beyond the fences of school and beginning the long journey that is life. All of you will not only witness smooth sailing but also harsh winds that go against you. I ask that you remember two things as your compass as you begin your journey. One is positive thinking, which will become the basis of a happy life. The second is a proactive and challenge-seeking attitude that will allow for success. We all desire to achieve success and aspire to accomplish goals that will enable us to live a happy life. In order to live a successful and happy life, I hope that you will all remember that the ability to recover from adversity is the secret power that will propel you forward. A person with a strong ability to recover from challenges by thinking positively and conveying meaning in one’s experiences will be able to overcome anything that he or she faces. Neuroscientific research has shown that our brains have a tendency to rely on walking the same path and think negatively about changes to that path. If you think negatively, you will continue to think negatively. Our brains change according to how we use our hearts and just as we train our muscles, we must continuously learn to train our souls. Success is not a state in which there is no difficulty or adversity. It is the state in which such obstacles are overcome. I hope that you remember this and use it to overcome hardships and achieve success by thinking positively.

I ask that you look back at your time in college. Many of you left your families to live in dormitories or temporary housing. Some students had families of their own, or jobs and other responsibilities as they studied. You have satisfied all the conditions that are necessary to graduate. You learned to communicate, debate, present and collaborate with others as you conducted research. You completed coursework and worked on your capstone projects and used your creativity to create excellent graduate projects and theses. You have also experienced deep relationships with your professors, friends and fellow graduates. All of these experiences will become the foundation for your success as you move on to the next stage of your lives.

You are all proud alumni of SeoulTech. I hope that every single moment that you spent on campus will remain as a beautiful memory. You will grow to become entrepreneurs, administrators, scholars and other professionals as you represent our country and contribute to the development of our society and nation. I hope that you will also continue to actively support and participate in the development of SeoulTech. We will not forget you and will always support you.

Wishing all of you success and happiness, I congratulate you on your graduation once again.
 
August 23rd, 2019
 

SeoulTech President Kim Jong Ho