Message to the Class of 2024

This is Dr. Leanne Foster's speech at the Class of 2024 Graduation.

A warm welcome to everyone – families and friends, UTS staff and most importantly, our esteemed and accomplished graduates, the Class of 2024. 

Before I address our graduates, I want to take a moment to thank our families here today whose behind-the-scenes support has been vital to the success we see represented on the stage. 

I also want to acknowledge the commitment of our donors who made gifts to UTS this year in honour of our graduating students, a longstanding UTS tradition.  

Since 2007, parents of graduating students have contributed to the Grad Class Bursary – a fund that has grown to more than $240,000. Each year, this fund provides more than $10,000 in financial support to students. 

This year, gifts from parents and grandparents of graduating students came to almost $30,000, in support of the most pressing needs at UTS.  

Your generosity truly makes a lasting impact in our community. Thank you, parents and grandparents of graduating students, for your steadfast support of UTS.

And now, a few words to the Class of 2024 – my first graduating class at UTS.

Artist, inventor and futurist in his day, Leonardo da Vinci said, “In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time.” 

You, dear graduates, sit here today like da Vinci’s water passing through time. This moment you share with us is the last of what has passed – a moment embodied with all the joys and the sorrows, and the highs and the lows of your remarkable years at UTS. At the same time, this moment is the first of that which comes – a future we know is bright. 

You are leaving us for a journey that, like water, will at times meander playfully like a babbling brook and at other times will rush you along with tsunami-like force. Strong currents, rough seas and roaring waterfalls are sure to be in your future. But like water – the elixir of life – remember that you are composed of elements that have the capacity to sustain you and also to sustain others. In short, dear graduates, you possess within you the ability to make a difference – to do good at a time when the world surely needs more good to be done.

Next September, when you sit in your lecture halls in cities and towns around the world, please remember that UTS is forever a part of you. The knowledge, the friendships, the experiences and the fortitude you have developed over the years here, is now an essential part of your journey – it is part of who you are and what you are destined to do.

On behalf of our entire staff, congratulations Class of 2024. We wish you the best, we will miss you next year, and we hope you will forever keep UTS in your hearts and minds.

Read more of Dr. Foster's Blog

#fosteringbrilliance